San Jiao is Energized by Sunshine to Produce Wei Qi

 How is San Jiao Energized by Sunshine to Produce Wei Qi?

In TCM Defensive Wei Qi Fights Infections at Superficial Skin Level

TCM teaches Wei Qi (Defensive Qi) is produced from food essence derived by the spleen and stomach, and has its root in the Lower Burner (Kidneys), via the San Jiao Energy and Fluid Production Cycle. Thus an ample production of defensive Wei Qi is dependent on the optimal performance of the San Jiao Energy and Fluid Production Cycle.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) teaches that the outer realm of the immune system is composed of Protective Qi (Wei Qi), which courses through the superficial skin layer during daytime. The function of Wei Qi is to prevent pathogens including viruses, bacteria, and toxins (known as antigens in Western Medicine) from penetrating into the superficial layer of the body, and if such penetration does occur, to try to overwhelm it and prevent deeper penetration. When the vitality of defensive Wei Qi is depleted, pathogens can penetrate and initially move to the outermost layers of the body where they can initiate a cold or flu. If the external pathogen is not properly dealt with and expelled, it can penetrate more deeply to the organs where more damaging chronic disease patterns can reside and progress. To maintain an appropriate amount of Wei Qi, there must be an abundance of Qi. How does this agree with modern western immunology?

Recent Research Reveals Sunlight Is a Natural Immune Booster

In the 2017 article titled ‘How Sun Exposure Improves Your Immune Function’ Dr Joseph Mercola (1) discusses how mounting research confirms that human exposure to sunshine is critical for large number of health benefits, way beyond vitamin D production thanks to cholesterol sulphate present in our skin. Mercola notes that while various forms of artificial light may be partially beneficial, humans ‘appear to have a lot in common with plants in this regard — we both need direct sun exposure in order to optimally thrive’.

Mercola reports that researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center published a report showing that when cells in petri dishes where exposed to blue and ultraviolet (UV) light T cell activity was increased. T-cells are white blood cells that are involved in immune function and fighting infections. Mercola notes this is believed to be “the first study showing an impact of light on this particular type of immune cell”, but he notes, ‘However, there’s plenty of evidence in the medical literature confirming that sunlight has immune-boosting properties”.

Note that TCM teaches defensive Wei Qi “courses through the superficial skin layer” “to prevent pathogens including viruses, bacteria, and toxins from penetrating into the superficial layer of the body.” Note that ancient TCM practitioners were not aware of “viruses, bacteria, and toxins”, but instead called such entities “evil qi”. In other articles I have published – here, here and here, I have established that the San Jiao is energized by sunshine.

However, the San Jiao Organ is surrounded by mystery and confusion, and even to this day, many TCM practitioners relegate the San Jiao to the virtual consolidation of biological and physiological functions to accommodate the TCM 12 organ paradigm, because the other 11 TCM organs are morphologically defined and subsequently accepted by western medicine. To many, San Jiao has become a formless leper, because in Difficult Issue 38 of the Nan Ching, it stated the Triple Burner aka San Jiao “has a name but no form”.

To confirm the existence of the San Jiao ORGAN (aka Sanjiao, Triple Warmer, Triple Heater or Triple Energizer), and prove it is a literal tangible organ and does possess a unique morphology, I have written a comprehensive book dedicated to confirming the existence of the San Jiao in the body. The book titled The ‘Mystical’ TCM Triple Energizer. Its Elusive Location and Morphology Defined (2) is full of absorbing information that endorses the fact that ancient TCM practitioners recognized the San Jiao was a literal organ that was given the extremely important role of producing and distributing different forms of energy and fluids throughout the entire human body. A major form of energy San Jiao produces is defensive and protective Wei Qi to prevent diverse external pathogens from entering the body and reaping havoc and disease.

This enlightening easy-reading book is perfect for anyone wanting to know more about the actual morphology and location of the San Jiao, and the complexities of the Qi-regulating function of the “mysterious” TCM organ metasystem. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has nominated to term San Jiao the “Triple Energizer”. Because of its extreme importance and complexity, I prefer to call San Jiao the “Triple Energizer Metasystem”. This enlightening book can be securely purchased by clicking the ‘BUY NOW’ button at the bottom of this page.

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Sunlight Is a Natural Immune Booster

Mercola (1) noted the study showed that as little as five to 10 minutes of sun exposure was found to stimulate the production of hydrogen peroxide, which boosted the activity of the T lymphocytes. Mercola further observed that one news report stated: 

Given the large surface area of human skin, all of the T cells present in skin could potentially benefit from this phenomenon through exposure to blue light, the researchers suggest. 

Note that vitamin D is only produced in the body via exposure to UVB rays, which can be harmful in cases of prolonged sun exposure. 

If blue light from the sun’s rays is capable of energizing infection-fighting T cells, it could be a potential means of treatment for boosting immunity in many patients, the researchers conclude. 

Mercola Cautioned about the Danger of Using Blue Light Alone

Mercola cautioned that while the researchers are hopeful that blue light alone might be a valuable immune-boosting treatment, the biological effects of different frequencies of light is very complex, so “it’s important to get it right”, he stressed. He noted that a world class expert on photobiology, Dr Alexander Wunsch, has shown that “excessive exposure to blue light — such as that from LED lighting, which is primarily blue and devoid of near-infrared found in sunlight and incandescent lighting — can be quite harmful, and may be a significant risk factor for age-related macular degeneration.”

Mercola stressed, “The healthiest blue light is from the sun, as it is balanced by near-infrared radiation, which has many important biological functions. Importantly, near-infrared radiation will activate cytochrome C oxidase in your mitochondria and help to optimize ATP production”.

T Cells Are Intrinsically Photosensitive

For a long time, it was incorrectly believed that mammals only had photosensitive cells in the eye. However, photosensitive cells are being discovered in many other regions of the human body. The authors of this study noted that their research demonstrates that “T lymphocytes possess intrinsic photosensitivity and this property may enhance their motility on skin.” This information shows that T cells sense and positively respond to light.

Mercola notes, ‘Blue light specifically triggers the production of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) in T cells, which triggers a chemical cascade that results in increased T cell motility. The increased motility or activity, in turn, allows the immune cells to function better’. Regarding the spectral sensitivity for optimising the performance of T cells, Mercola stated:

Interestingly, once the T cells are activated they also alter their antioxidant capacity — an effect that appears to allow for greater H₂O₂ production in response to light. The spectral sensitivity of T cells peaked at both ~350 nanometers (nm), which is in the ultraviolet A (UVA) range, and ~470 nm, which is in the blue spectrum. The latter (470 nm light) has previously been shown to kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in vitro.

The lead author, Gerard Ahern, an associate professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology in Georgetown, suggests “some of the immunity benefits that are typically attributed to vitamin D, may actually be due to this new-found mechanism”. Mercola expanded on this suggestion, and stated:

While there may be some truth to that, previous research has teased out a number of different mechanisms for vitamin D’s activity, including its bactericidal and immune-boosting effects.

For example, researchers have found vitamin D acts directly on the beta defensin 2 gene (which encodes an antimicrobial peptide) and the NOD2 gene (which alerts cells to the presence of invading microbes). Vitamin D is also involved in the production of over 200 antimicrobial peptides that help fight all sorts of infections.

8 Other Health Benefits of Sunlight Unrelated to Vitamin D

Numerous other biological mechanisms have been determined that prove that human exposure to sunlight has biological effects that are very important for good health and optimal well-being. Other health benefits of sun exposure include the following. In the following information I have cited Mercola directly. I have however, removed the references. For further information and to inspect the references in the original article, please see the link to the article below.

1 – Raising your vitamin D level

This is probably the most well-known benefit of sun exposure, and there’s a robust body of scientific research confirming the many benefits of optimal vitamin D levels.

Importantly, the evidence now clearly shows that once you reach a serum vitamin D level of 40 ng/ml, your risk for cancer plunges by 67 percent, compared to having a level of 20 ng/ml or less.

Even the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine, IOM) has reported an association between vitamin D and overall mortality risk from all causes, including cancer.

Vitamin D also increases your chances of surviving cancer if you do get it, and this includes melanoma patients. Vitamin D is also important for your bone health, cognitive function, immune function, and healthy pregnancy and infant development.

The overall health benefits of vitamin D are so significant, a Swedish research team recently warned that “avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking.”

2 – Anchoring your circadian rhythm

Spending time in bright mid-day sun helps anchor your circadian rhythm, which is important for optimal sleep. The vitamin D you get from sun exposure can also play a role in your sleep.

Surprising as it sounds, scientists have found vitamin D deficiency raises your risk of obstructive sleep apnea. In one study, 98 percent of patients with sleep apnea had vitamin D deficiency, and the more severe the sleep apnea, the more severe the deficiency.

3 – Lowering high blood pressure and reducing risk for heart disease and cancer

Research has shown that when sunlight strikes your skin, nitric oxide (NO) is released into your bloodstream. NO is a powerful blood pressure lowering compound that helps protect your cardiovascular system, cutting your risk for both heart attacks and stroke.

UVB light lowers blood pressure by dilating blood vessels specifically the capillaries in your skin. This directs about 60 percent of your blood flow there. This then allows the sun’s rays to easily penetrate into your blood.

Sunlight has UV rays known to be germicidal and can help kill infections in your blood. This aspect of sunlight was used to treat tuberculosis in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, even awarding a Nobel prize to Finson in 1903 for this work.

According to one 2013 study, for every single skin cancer death, 60 to 100 people die from stroke or heart disease related to hypertension. So your risk of dying from heart disease or stroke is on average 80 times greater than your risk of dying from skin cancer.

While higher vitamin D levels correlate with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, oral vitamin D supplements do not appear to benefit blood pressure, and the fact that supplements do not increase nitric oxide may be the reason for this.

4 – Modulating genetic expression related to your inflammatory response

Sunlight also appears to alter genetic expression. Cambridge University scientists recently showed that the expression of 28 percent of the human genetic make-up varies from season to season. Some of those genetic changes affect your inflammatory responses.

During winter months, inflammatory immune-system genes are activated, which helps combat infectious microbes, and during the summer the activity of anti-inflammatory gene activity increases.

In essence, during the summer your body begins to combat the damage incurred by the inflammation produced when your immune system is on red alert. But for that, you need sun exposure.

5 – Preventing infectious diseases

Both UV light itself and the vitamin D produced when your skin is exposed to it have potent antimicrobial effects.

While vitamin D increases production of naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides that destroy the cell walls of viruses and bacteria, UV light also increases blood levels of infection destroying lymphocytes (white blood cells).

Besides boosting rates of cardiovascular disease, widespread sun avoidance may also be responsible for the re-emergence of tuberculosis (TB), which now kills about 4,100 people every single day.

In 2014, there were 1.5 million TB-related deaths worldwide, making it the No. 1 infectious disease out there. Compare that to the 55,100 who die from melanoma each year (worldwide).

UV light, especially blue light, also acts as a potent disinfectant of your environment. Research has found UV light can reduce the spread of tuberculosis in hospital wards and waiting rooms by 70 percent, and helps kill 90 percent of drug-resistant bacteria in hospital rooms.

Data suggests UV light at 254 nm can kill drug-resistant strains of S. aureus and E. faecalis in as little as 5 seconds.

6 – Boosting brain serotonin, thereby improving mood and mental health

Sun exposure boosts the feel-good brain chemical serotonin, which is in part why you feel better after spending some time in the sun.

Light therapy has long been the go-to treatment for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and more recent research suggests it can be useful in the treatment of major depression as well.

Schizophrenia has also been linked to maternal lack of sun exposure during pregnancy.

Importantly, you also have serotonin in your gut, and here, vitamin D has been shown to combat inflammation caused by excessive gut serotonin.

In other words, sunlight and vitamin D both play intricate roles in the gut-brain axis, raising levels in the brain while lowering levels in your gut, thereby improving mood on the one hand, while reducing gut inflammation on the other.

To learn more about this, please see “New Discoveries May Unlock the Link Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Autism.”

7 – Boosting testosterone and protecting male fertility

Sunlight helps boost men’s libido by affecting testosterone. Australian research reveals that men’s testosterone levels rise and fall with the seasons, peaking during August, and hitting their lowest levels in March.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have also linked low vitamin D levels with an increased risk for erectile dysfunction (ED).

8 – Boosting dopamine, thereby protecting against myopia

Australian researchers have found that kids who spend most of their days indoors have significantly higher rates of high degree myopia (short-sightedness).

As reported by The Daily Mail: “The researchers believe that the neurotransmitter dopamine is responsible. It is known to inhibit the excessive eyeball growth that causes myopia. Sunshine causes the retina to release more dopamine.”

TCM Wei Qi is Equivalent to Western Medicine’s Immune System

In TCM Wei Qi is more Yang than Nutritive Qi, and is fast-moving, “slippery” and easily motivated. It mainly flows in the superficial layers of the body, and especially within the Tendino-Muscular meridian system. Regarding the detailed description of “Wei Qi”, in the book titled ‘Chinese Acupuncture’, George Soulié de Morant (3) stated:

The ideogram wei represents the guard who keeps watch outside the doors of palaces.

The wei energy is the superficial energy. It governs the exterior. It is the life of liquids and food. It does not enter into the vessels, but stays in the epidermis, the dermis, the muscles and the mucus membranes. It spreads over the chest and abdomen. When the wei is irritated, illness results.

Wei represents the branches and leaves, the rong being the root.

What circulates at the exterior of the vessels, the yang energy, is wei.

When puncturing at 1/10 of a cun, one arrives at the wei (at 2/10, it is the rong).

Notice that the “rong” or jing is the root, being deeper in the body. In the quotation above Soulié de Morant clearly explains that “wei” is the “superficial energy” that “governs the exterior”. It resides in the many superficial body layers including the “epidermis, the dermis, the muscles and the mucus membranes. It spreads over the chest and abdomen”. Subsequently, if the superficial defensive Wei Qi is depleted or weakened, exogenous pathogens including bacteria, viruses, moulds and yeasts, allergens etc. can take up residence and cause superficial bacterial and viral infections and diseases. If deficient Wei Qi “spreads over the chest and abdomen” then respiratory viral and bacterial infections and gut infections respectively may result. In Western Medicine this is referred to an exogenous infection due to a compromised immune system. Obviously, the Chinese physicians equated the “Wei Qi” to what is now understood to be the immune system that defends the superficial tissues and structures of the body.

Wei Qi Circulation is Controlled by the Lungs

In the article titled ‘Forms of Qi (Life Force) – Vital Substances in TCM’, the Sacred Lotus author (4) states, ‘In TCM, Wei Qi is controlled by the Lungs, which regulates its circulation to the skin. Lungs also disseminate fluids to moisten the skin and muscles. These fluids mix with Wei Qi. (Perspiration function depends on the Lungs ability to circulate Wei Qi and fluids to the exterior).’ From the TCM perspective, it makes sense that the Lungs control the circulation of Wei Qi, as the Lungs are the only organ that have intimate contact with the external environment, whereby viruses, bacteria, mould spores and allergens (pollen, animal dander e.g.) can penetrate with every inhalation.

That immunologically-active defensive cells of the immune system, namely T cells, have the capacity to sense light and positively respond to light, shows that the immune system is activated by exposure of our skin to sunlight. It is incredible that ancient TCM physicians recognized and taught that Wei Qi was located in the superficial body layers, and attributed the same properties to protective Wei Qi that modern medical research recognizes as our superficial immune system. As noted above, the origin of defensive Wei Qi is the San Jiao Energy and Fluid Production Cycle, which happens to be the body’s hydroelectric system powered by the sun. I have discussed the San Jiao’s hydroelectric mechanism here and here.

In my book I explain how EZ Water is the hydroelectric energy source for every cell and function throughout the body. EZ Water is the brain-child of Professor Gerald Pollack (5), pictured above. Pollack’s revolutionary thinking and scientific findings inspired my book. I discuss his work further here and here on my website.

To learn more about the undervalued and underappreciated Mysterious San Jiao Organ (Triple Energizer Metasystem) please purchase the scintillating book by clicking the link below.

REFERENCES:

(1) Mercola, J., ‘How Sun Exposure Improves Your Immune Function’. (Jan 2017). Available from <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/01/23/how-sun-exposure-improves-immune-function.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20170123Z3&et_cid=DM131789&et_rid=1854029665>

(2) Gordon, L., The ‘Mystical’ TCM Triple Energizer. Its Elusive Location and Morphology Defined. Xlibris Press, Australia. 2016.

(3) Soulié de Morant, G., ‘Chinese Acupuncture’. Paradigm Publications, Brookline, 1994. Edited by Paul Zmiewski.

(4) Anon., ‘Forms of Qi (Life Force) – Vital Substances in TCM’. Available from <https://www.sacredlotus.com/go/foundations-chinese-medicine/get/forms-of-qi-life-force>

(5) Pollack, G., The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor (Kindle edition, Seattle: Ebner and Sons Publishers, 2014).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

I wish to sincerely thank Dr Paul U. Unschuld for the selfless and tireless work he has committed to make many ancient Chinese medical classics available in English for study and research. My book is based predominantly around his scholarly work ‘Nan-Ching: The Classic of Difficult Issues’. I also wish to sincerely thank Professor Unschuld for permission to use citations of his translation in my book. His translation of ‘Nan-Ching: The Classic of Difficult Issues’ can be purchased from the following link: https://www.amazon.com/Nan-ching_The-Classic-Difficult-Comparative-Studies/dp/0520053729

To Securely Purchase the Book, Click the ‘BUY NOW’ Button!