Heart, Spleen, Gall Bladder…Is Something Wrong With My Organs?

Within the context of Chinese Medicine, we use words like heart, spleen, gall bladder, etc. but not in the same way as Western Medical practitioners. There are several channels that run throughout the body in which energy flows and many of these channels are named after an organ: small intestine, bladder, kidney, liver, gall bladder, lung, large intestine, spleen and stomach. Some other channel names you may hear are pericardium, san jiao/triple heater, CV/Ren, and GV/Du. So, when an acupuncturist is talking about an organ, for example, the heart channel, it’s not specificalaly in reference to the internal organ itself, rather the energetics flowing through the “heart” channel in your body.