Phenomenon of Yin/Yang in human body

Tiejun Tang

Yin &Yang is the most important conception in the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine. The theory Yin-Yang holds that every object or phenomena in the universe consists of two opposite aspects, which are in conflict and in interdependence. The relation between Yin & Yang is the universal law of the world. In side the human body everything has yin & yang. Normally yin/yang should keep balance, if yin/yang lost balance the disease will occur. The treatment principle is trying to make the yin/yang rebalance.

In modern physiology and pathology there are many phenomenon have the characteristic of yin/ yang. In Chinese medicine we balance the yin/yang by herbs and acupuncture, actually we are regulating the function of many systems. The table below shows some examples of yin/yang phenomenon in human body.

	Yang	Yin
Autonomic nervous system	Sympathetic nerve	Parasympathetic nerve
Receptor	α-adrenoceptor	β-adrenoceptor
Thyroid function	Thyroxine	Parathormone
Pancreas	Pancreatic Glucagon	Insulin
Immune system	TH cell	TS cell
Cancer pathology	Oncogene	anti-Oncogene
Cell apoptosis	Apoptosis gene	anti-Apoptosis
Molecular biology	cAPM Cyclic adenosine  monophosphate	cGPM  Cyclic guanosine  monophosphate

What is essence of yin & yang?  An American biochemists (Goldberg;1975) had put forward a cAMP/cGMP hypothesis.  A report from Columbia University (Shrivastava;1994) had found a gene of multifunctional transcriptional regulator which can regulate the balance of cAMP/cGMP. He named this gene as yin yang-1. In my opinion yin yang-1 probably is the first messenger of yin/yang, cAMP/cGMP is the second messenger of yin/yang in molecular signal transduction. They can activate many different protein kinases and produce different biologic functions (Tiejun Tang,2004). In pace with the development of modern science, more and more yin/yang phenomenon will be discovered.

Reference:

1.     ND Goldberg, MK Haddox, SE Nicol, DB Glass, CH Sanford.  Biological regulation through opposing influences of a cGMP and cAMP. The yin yang Hypothesis. Advances in Cyclic Nucleotide Research, 1975; 5: 307-30.

2.     Shrivastava,-A; Calame,-K. An analysis of genes regulated by the multi-functional transcriptional regulator Yin Yang-1.  Nucleic-Acids-Res. 1994 ; 22(24): 5151-5.

3.     Tiejun Tang. The nuclear factor yin-yang 1 and the yin/yang theory of TCM  Shaanxi Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine. 2004；25（3）: 239-242.

The truth about TCM

Tiejun Tang

If there is a yin, there is a yang,
If yin and yang keep balanced, you will be in good health;

If there is a blockage inside body, it will cause a pain,
If the obstruction is removed, the pain will be released;
If there is a qi stagnation, the blood stasis will following,
If there is a qi deficiency, the blood deficiency will following;

If the qi stagnation in the liver meridian, the depression will occurs,
If the qi stagnation in the stomach and intestine, the distension will emerge,
If the liver yang excess, there will be dizziness or hypertension,
If the kidney yin deficiency, hot flash and night sweat will arise,
If there is a disharmony between kidney and heart, insomnia will occurs,
If there is a disharmony between liver and spleen, it will lead to a IBS,
If there is damp-heat in bladder, there is UTI;

If you have too much dampness, the obese will arise,
If you drinking too much alcohol, the damp-heat produce,
If you smoking too much, the heat toxin will damage your lung;

If you want be healthy, you should take care yourselves,
If there is heat, cool it,
If there is cold, warm it,
If there is dryness, moisten it,
If there is dampness, dry it,
If there is deficiency, supplement it, and
If there is excess, drain it;

If you like to try, I will make you fine,
If you want to know more, I  would like to tell you why.