Arianna Bacon Butcher, Bing Yang 楊冰
(New England School of Acupuncture Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences University)
Abstract: In the ancient texts of The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, the author debates the importance of not overindulging in the five emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, worry, or fright, indicating they cause disease in the body. Studies done in psychology and Western medicine in modern day have reflected that overindulgence in emotion is heavily correlated with various diseases, particularly in relation to the heart. In modern day, it is seen now that both over-emoting in any specific emotion as well as having a lack of joy may lead to disease in the body. This paper reflects the ideas both in the ancient texts and modern-day studies that indicate the human experience has not drastically shifted with regards to emotions and disease, but also uncovers that a lack of joy may be just as indicative of disease in the present day.
Keywords: Traditional Chinese Medicine, psychology, acupuncture, emotions
In the span of a human’s lifetime, one should, and will, experience the five main emotions of Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory. These emotions include happiness, anger, sadness, worry or fear, and fright. In a what Traditional Chinese Medicine would deem a healthy human, these emotions should be free flowing, none of them should overpower any of the other emotions, and a person should be able to return to a neutral state after a period of experiencing any of these emotions. If a person experiences too much of one emotion, they are subject to disease and misfortune due to over-emoting. According to The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary, Huang Di states “Overindulgence in the five emotions – happiness, anger, sadness, worry or fear, and fright – can create imbalances.” (Ni, 1995; 20). While not overindulging in emotions is the ideal way to live according to the ancient texts, it is rather unreasonable and unrealistic for modern day people to live a life of neutrality, the unvarying accessibility to world events and ceaseless comparisons to other people make overindulgence in emotions a commonplace experience in the modern world.
In psychology, there are often studies done to understand the impact that overindulgence in emotions has on people. According to an article published by Gary Bousman (1995) in the Vibrant Life psychology magazine, anger can present itself in the body as a poison, both for mental health as well as physical health. In this article, Bousman interviews Dr. Redford
Williams, a psychiatry professor at Duke University Medical Center, who states that anger tends to raise the doses of adrenaline and cortisol in the body. This can lead to increased blood pressure and forces the heart to work in overdrive. According to this professor, he claims that although many people get angry on occasion and it is normal for one to express this emotion, the danger with regard to anger and our health often occurs when anger becomes recurring and frequent. Similar to how Huang Di Nei Jing spoke about overindulgence in anger, professor Williams also notes that anger is a natural feeling, but over time, if overindulged, it may cause distress and long-lasting health issues in the body. In TCM, anger is often associated with Liver Yang Rising which can cause tension in the head, blood pressure to rise, and eye problems. Both TCM and Western medical views on anger seem to align, both alluding to anger having a strong effect on the heart, which in TCM is the source of all emotions.
With regards to rumination or worry, or what in modern times is referred to as anxiety, a researcher for Mind, Mood & Memory spoke about how a long-term research study of 900 adults showed that those who had anxiety were twice as likely to die than those who did not have anxiety (Mind, Mood & Memory, 2013). It was found that worry had a high correlation with cardiovascular issues, lack of self-care, insomnia, and obesity due to eating habits shifting, all of which give rise as comorbidities in health issues leading to earlier death. Similarly, Huang Di states, “excessive worry will deplete spleen qi… Dampness can damage flesh and muscles, but wind can dry the damp. Too much sweet taste can injure the flesh by creating fat…” (Ni, 1995; 21). As is noted both the Yellow Emperor’s Classic as well as the article on anxiety and health, it is noticeable that the outcomes of overindulging in anxiety or worry can create both heart and spleen issues. Both in Western medicine and TCM, injuries to the heart and spleen can create long lasting health disturbances and lead to worsening disease over time.
Grief, although a normal process of life and death, also has an impact on a person’s life and potentially one’s health if overindulged. According to Mind, Mood & Memory (2010), excessive grief for long periods of time can lead to “suicide… depression, chronic sleep disturbance, cancer, cardiac disease, and hypertension.” Yellow Emperor’s Classic speaks more about changes in skin, hair, and lungs. This is different from what happens in what someone would deem as modern-day grief, but, similar to TCM, all emotions are related to the heart and cardiac disease displays this well. Oftentimes the lungs in TCM also can relate to feelings of depression, inability to let go, and sleep disturbances due to low energetic tendencies. These align heavily with what ultimately could lead to more disturbances down the line as indicated by Western medicine.
The fright or shock is both experienced and spoken about widely in ancient Traditional Chinese Medical texts as well as Western medicine. In a study done by Steptoe and colleagues (1995), the researchers focused on stage fright in student actors and the impact on their health. What they found was that students who suffered from stage fright had an increase of “difficulty eating properly, increased irritability, and more frequent skin rashes.” This is very interesting because although there were no examples of sudden fright which the Yellow Emperor’s Classic speaks about, it shows that there may be an impact of spleen (difficulty eating), liver (increased irritability), and lung (frequent skin rashes) on fright and what would be the kidney. This makes sense according to TCM because the spleen controls the kidney, the kidney feeds the liver, and the lung feeds the kidney. The interdependencies on the organs in TCM is a complex concept not fully spoken about in Western medicine, however, it does allow for the idea that sudden fright or shock has an impact on several Western organs in the body as well relating to more of the Mind-Body theories of emotions and internal organs.
According to the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine “too much joy can cause a depletion of heart qi.” (Ni, 1995; 21). While this may be true in the ancient times, joy is arguably one of the hardest emotions to attain in modern day. According to an article by Mind, Mood & Memory (2010), laughter and joy can activate blood glucose levels, decrease amounts of blood chemical in kidney disease and diabetes, can lower blood pressure, increase circulation, boost the immune system, and relax muscles. Although some may argue that an excess of happiness or joy may translate more to mania, as in bipolar disorder in modern day, it is also important to note the lack of joy in modern day in comparison to other emotions. It could be argued that most people on average do not experience enough joy and it makes it difficult to attain “too much joy” in modern day.
For the most part, it seems that the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine may still be pertinent today with regards to emotions. Even in modern day, it is important to keep one’s emotions in check no matter which emotion. One could argue with the incessant lack of joy that people experience, that joy is actually the medicine for counteracting the negative emotions of anger, sadness, worry and fear. As we see in all of the cases, both modern and ancient, that have discussed emotions, it seems as though they all have an impact on the heart. As is taught in Traditional Chinese Medical theory, the Mind, or Heart, or Shen all have an impact on every emotion. Interestingly, the effect of joy influences diseases associated with each of the elements. With kidney disease and diabetes, joy has shown to lower glucose levels. The liver is related to anger and high blood pressure or liver yang rising; studies show that joy and laughter show a decrease in blood pressure. Laughter and joy boost the immune system, something heavily related to the lung in Chinese Medicine. Muscle relaxation is related to the spleen, and laughter and joy can help with this as well.
In modern day, the general modern public is always on their phones, connected to social media, constantly having a stream of news and misfortune that occurs throughout the world. While in ancient times there were of course several instances of high negative emotions such as dealing with the weather, death and life, and illness, it was more about emotional impact of local issues, all of which were handled through community and dealt with. Now, humans have so much widespread fear, anger, sadness, and worry that it is very difficult to access joy. This is likely why the modern world experiences so much disease. People are so often subjected to excess or overindulgence in worry, anger, sadness and fright and is likely why so many people experience disease such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and autoimmune disorders.
One way for humans to be able to counteract the effect of overindulgence in emotion on human health, is to meditate. Meditation, yoga, and qi gong practices each have a mindset of experiencing every emotion, recognizing it, and letting it go. This is likely important to create the neutral emotional state that is spoken about in the classics. Often times in modern day, those who have the ability to experience emotion and let it go, do not end up having chronic disease or emotion related diseases in their futures. Moving forward, it is important for practitioners to prescribe mediation, qi gong, and yoga therapy to their patients to help reduce the overindulgence in emotion and thus potentially decrease future disease.
References
Bousman, G. (1995, July-August). Anger: it can be like slow-acting poison, robbing you of mental and physical health. Vibrant Life, 11(4), 18+.
Ferrara, E., & Yang, Z. (2015). Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media. PLoS ONE, 10(11).
http://dx.doi.org.ezproxymcp.flo.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0142390
Grief can become a health concern: acute grief that lasts six months or more may meet the criteria for a condition that can be successfully treated. (2010, March). Mind, Mood & Memory, 6(3), 3.
Laughter–a powerful medicine: laughing helps reduce stress and dispel anger, anxiety and other negative emotions, among other benefits. (2010, February). Mind, Mood & Memory, 6(2), 3.
Ni, M. (1995). The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary. Shambhala Publications.
Steptoe, A., Malik, F., Pay, C., Pearson, P., Price, C., & Win, Z. (1995). The impact of stage fright on student actors. British Journal of Psychology, 86(1), 27+.
Author information:
Arianna Butcher combines her background in psychology with her passion for holistic healing as an emerging acupuncturist. After earning her Psychology degree from Gettysburg College (2019), she pursued a Master’s in Acupuncture at the New England School of Acupuncture (2025).
Bing Yang is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist in Massachusetts. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine in the 1990s and her Doctoral degree from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS). Currently, she is the associate professor and Director of Chinese Herbal Programs of New England School of Acupuncture, MCPHS and also maintains a private practice in Boston.
