Sonny,
Thank you so much for your heart felt post, and your willingness to share of yourself. I will do my best to answer all of your questions, and after reading your post to Carrie (my wife, and fellow acupuncturist and partner in this company), she will probably be adding in her own response as well.
I hope you understand that by law, I can not directly talk about your body in terms of making public health claims, but I can share with you the theory of Chinese Medicine as it relates to your questions. Still, there is much wisdom in this system of medicine that you may be able to directly relate to your own experience. So,...
...,my eyes are never quite white, and the brown in my eyes never quite sparkles.
So I'm wondering a few things, which hopefully you can help me with....
How big an effect does the liver have on the whiteness of the eyes?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the eyes are the outward expression of two things. The liver manifests in the whites of the eyes and the spirit manifests in the iris and pupil.
I should stop here to say that the "Liver" should have never been given this name when the word was translated from Chinese. The original word was "Gan" which was in reference to a grouping of symptoms / functions. For example, the Gan rules the rhythm of the menstrual flow in women, it controls the smooth flow of Qi in the body, it nourishes the sinews, governs the smooth flow of emotions, and is responsible for all functions that you associate with the western Liver organ as well. The associated season is the springtime. To read more about the spring time and the element of "wood" which is associated with this system, you can read an article that we posted on another website at:
The Essence of SpringSo, getting back to the eyes, whiteness and sparkle,. . . The liver expresses through the whites of the eyes. Now, this is your "Gan" system. Not necessarily your liver organ. Associated with the "Gan" is also a quality of spirit, referred to as the Hun. The translation of this into English is usually "Etherial soul" or "transcendental soul." It is one aspect of spirit. When referring to the entire collection of qualities of spirit, Chinese medicine calls it "Shen". What is seen in the eyes is a combination of pure Shen and especially Hun.
What makes a Shen sparkle? This is a hard one as it is so specific for each individual. The decision to sparkle? Could be. Usually we might say: will, love, compassion, wisdom, emotion, passion, just to name a few. The only real way that the "Gan" can affect the eyes to the degree of removing the sparkle is if the emotions no longer flow (resulting in either no emotions, or depression). If the emotions are flowing and you can cry, you can laugh, you can have compassion, then during all of these times the eyes sparkle whether you can see them or not. Just reading your post I can tell you that your eyes sparkle. It was very heart felt.
As to the whiteness, well that I cannot see. But yes, the "Gan" does affect the eyes. When it is out of balance the eyes might not be quite white. They can be jaundice yellow. They can be blood shot red. In either case, or any variation there of, Chinese Medicine traditionally would point someone towards
dietary changes to support the liver system (see article).
From what I've read, it seems like *maybe* I have a weak and/or congested liver, though the cleansing fasts should have cleared that condition (and I'm fairly young still too).
I can't say if your liver system is congested or weak or not, but I'm not a huge fan of the master cleanse. The "Gan" can remain stagnant throughout it, as I have witnessed with some people. Other people love it and respond very quickly. Each body is different, and what is good for some is not good for all body types. I usually take on a more long term, balanced approach as linked in the article above. I have also worked through gall bladder flushes, which are sometimes done with the master cleanse. This can really remove some heat from the liver system, but should definitely be supervised by a local health care physician.
I also read that traditional Chinese medicine associates emotionally sensitive personality types with weak livers. That might be a clue for me, since I *do* have that personality type. Do you think there's any truth to this?
It depends what you mean by emotionally sensitive. In Chinese Medicine, the following emotions relate to the related organ:
Liver: stress, anger ..... calmness, gentleness
Heart: hate, over joy ..... compassion
Spleen: over-thinking, ..... clarity of thought
Lungs: sadness, grief ..... wisdom
Kidneys: fear ..... courage, will
The "Gan" specifically can stop all emotions from flowing which results in "boredom" and "depression." If the most commonly expressed emotion is one of the other emotions listed above, than that would be the organ of imbalance. It is a little more complicated than this, but this is the basics. So, someone who is always sad, we would look at the lungs. Always thinking, and we would look at the spleen. Again, these are not necessarily the organ associated with western medicine, but actual groupings of symptoms and functions in the body. For example, in TCM, the spleen is in charge of our body's ability to absorb energy from the food we eat, but the actual physical spleen in western medicine has NOTHING to do with this function and NO Oriental Medical Physician when discussing the spleen in this way is ever referring to the physical spleen of our physical anatomy. This is just one clear example of bad translation.
I'm just lost right now and would really appreciate your guidance to help me to get back on track.
I hope this information helps and is not too overwhelming. I would look closely at your diet and can offer the link above as a direction I usually send my patients. It is based off of suggestions from Paul Pitchford’s book “Healing With Whole Foods”, which is linked at the end of the article. Finally, on the healing path if you ever think that you are lost, you are not. Even if you don’t know where you are, you are right where you are supposed to be. It sounds cliché, but it is true. When it comes to finding your path through personal healing, healers can give you direction, but your body is the ultimate teacher.
I have also have chronic skin problems. I had severe acne on my face, neck, shoulders, chest, and back in my teenage years, and while I've reduced that by 95% by changing my diet, reducing stress, and internal cleansing, it persists to a small extent. This is my other clue that something is still amiss with my liver.
95% better. That is great work! Carrie had eczema all over her body for many years to the point that no human should have to suffer, and she was able to reduce it by 100% over the course of 5 years. The skin can either be very easy or very difficult, but the "Gan" system being healthy makes the skin that much more healthy. Acne can be caused from many reasons, but starting with the liver and diet is the best place to start in my experience. Best of luck on your journey and let us know if we can help in any other way.
