Qi as the Foundation of Life and Health

I was introduced to Chinese herbal philosophy while working to develop a training program for Nature’s Sunshine Products (NSP). During this time, I spent three weeks in mainland China, traveling with two members of NSP’s science team, Subhuti Dharmananda and his wife, and another medical doctor. We toured Chinese herb farms, factories where traditional Chinese formulas were made, hospitals practicing traditional medicine, and a college devoted to training practitioners.

Let’s just say that I fell in love with TCM and immediately started using it to help people with their health issues, including using them with myself and my family. But I didn’t just adopt TCM as an independent philosophy; I integrated it with principles of traditional Western herbalism and my own experience.

So today, let me share with you the first key idea from TCM that has been helpful to me. The first is the concept of chi or qi. However you spell or pronounce it, the principle it points to is critical. Western medicine tends to think of health as primarily a function of biochemical processes, and this has bled over into the way we approach herbs in the West. We think of herbs as collections of chemicals that affect health.

But in traditional systems of herbalism, energy, not matter, is the foundation of healing. I think this is important because life appears to be an energetic process, not just a chemical one. As I have often pointed out, the difference between a live body and a dead body is not its chemical composition; it’s a loss of something we don’t fully understand, a life energy sometimes called the vital force or spirit in Western thinking. The live body has it, the dead body does not, even though the chemicals associated with life are still present.

Qi as the Foundation of Health

Energy is what makes things move. A higher level of energy creates more activity, and health is associated with vitality, a high energy level. This is a foundational concept of Chinese medicine; everything is composed of qi. Energy, not matter, is the foundation.

A lower level of energy will create less activity. From this perspective, disease is a loss of this vital life energy and a movement from life and health towards deterioration and death. Health is dependent on energy in the body.

Every process of the body requires energy. In Western science, this energy is chemical. There is an energy production cycle that creates a molecule called ATP, known as the Krebs or citric acid cycle, which takes place inside the mitochondria. ATP fuels the biochemical reactions in the body. But according to TCM, there is also a life energy that we are only beginning to understand in the West.

This life energy, or qi, flows through channels in the body called meridians. People who have studied this say that there is actually a low-voltage flow through the sheaths around our muscles that is distributing electrical energy throughout the body.

Dr. Jerry Tennant discusses this in his book, Healing is Voltage, and I’ve adapted the pH table he uses to illustrate the relationship between electrical energy and pH. The table shows how the body increases electrical energy, making the pH more alkaline, to stimulate healing in the inflammatory reaction, and that as the body's energy reduces, the pH becomes more acidic.

Applying the Principle of Qi to Healing

The idea that healing, first and foremost, is about energy has led me to several practical considerations. The first is that nothing heals without energy, and we should think about things that contribute to a higher life energy if we want to heal. For example, I believe that the fresh vegetables I pick and eat from my own garden (or that are grown locally) are going to have more life energy than processed, devitalized commercial food. I also think that herbs, as living beings, have a life energy that isolated chemical compounds (including isolated vitamins and minerals) don’t have.

I also sleep on a grounding sheet, because I understand that we absorb electrical energy from the earth. My personal experience has been that sleeping on a grounding sheet has helped me have more energy, less pain, and a better mood. I have also used electrical devices and lasers to aid healing. I also find that getting out in nature, walking barefoot in grass or sand, swimming in a local lake, and other activities that connect me with nature provide me with more qi or life energy.

So, don’t get stuck with the idea that health comes just from chemicals, even if we’re talking about natural phytochemicals found in foods and herbs, such as vitamins, minerals, essential oils, polyphenols, and so forth. Processing foods and herbs and isolating nutrients or active constituents denatures and devitalizes them. Those terms suggest a loss of vital energy or qi.

And remember the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspect of this. Cultivating a relationship with the spiritual and natural world, connecting to the energy of others, and having a spirit of love and peace in our hearts is also part of the vital energy that keeps us healthy.

This is just the first of a series of articles on principles I've learned from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In my next article, I’ll focus on another valuable concept I learned from TCM. That’s the law of opposites (and balance) expressed in the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang.

If you're interested in learning more about traditional Chinese medicine, take look at my course on Traditional Chinese Medicine for Western Herbalists.