Yes, I'm a Living System

I know I’m a living system because…

Surely a non-living system would not have to pay as much as I do for health insurance! Technically I am capable of reproducing myself (or perpetuating my species, at any rate), though I prefer to spend my time in the company of cats.

Probably the best criteria supporting the argument that I am a living system are that I respond to my environment (always bringing a jacket with me here in the Bay Area, even in July), and I modify my microenvironment to support my alive-ness (I can turn on a heater in my apartment, so I am no longer experiencing quite so much coldness on a foggy July morning).

Biophysics and Traditional Chinese Medicine

Biophysics is the science of the application of the laws of physics to biological phenomena. It is a lens (though not the only one) through which we can understand how TCM “works.” For instance, Einstein’s description of the relationship between energy and mass is one way we can understand how qi works in the body—we take in food and air (mass) which are then transformed into qi (energy).

Many of the concepts we’ve discussed so far this term have an application to living things and humans in particular, making the Venn diagram space of overlap between biophysics and TCM pretty big. Just one example is the biophysical phenomenon of fractals.

Microsystems are an example of fractalization as described by TCM that acupuncture students and patients are well familiar with. In auriculotherapy, we view the ear as a microsystem of the body that can treat and even diagnose diseases of the whole body through their related ear points. Hand therapy, face reading, foot reflexology, and iridology also all have their place in Oriental medicine.