Meet Your Metabolic Team

The following descriptions are not meant to be exhaustive – they are the most related to your metabolism and what you can influence through your habits. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, every organ has related emotions and attributes associated with it, which you will see recommendations for below – for instance, it is well accepted in many cultures that prolonged fear damages the kidneys.

THE TEAM

LungsStomach Spleen Small Intestines Liver Pancreas

Large Intestines Kidneys Adrenal Glands Thyroid Hypothalamus Pituitary Gland

Lungs

Job Description

• Elimination
• “Regulator of the waterways” – via diffusion and distributing fluids throughout the body, sweating, etc. (our skin is considered the third lung)
• Controllers of receiving pure energy from the universe
• Control respiratory functions, which affect all the rhythms of the bodymind, including blood flow
• Breathing is one of the main ways we replenish our energy
• Combine external energy (air) with internal energy stored in the kidney to produce our overall qi

How to take Care of your Lungs

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Stomach

Job Description

• Governs nutritional/energy intake
• Digestion and breaks down foods to prepare them for absorption into the body
• Controller/sorter of “rotting and ripening”
• Grounds us to earth
• Receives nourishment, integrates it and brings it to fruition
• Passes on food energy to be distributed by the spleen via the blood

How to take Care of your Stomach

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Spleen

Job Description

• The constant provider (similar role as mother nature)
• Governs transportation and transformation of nourishment/blood/energy to the entire body
• Greatly influences immune system
• Receives food energy from stomach and small intestines and spreads to rest of body
• Produces and manages the blood, while supplying the nourishment that sustains our body
• The source of life for other organs
• Regulates metabolism by adjusting quantity of energy that is utilized from digestion and released into circulation
• Distributes moisture

How to take Care of your Spleen

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Small Intestines

Job Description

• The separator of pure from impure
• Receives and assimilates the bulk of food
• Assists in transforming gross material into usable energy
• Separates fluid waste and sends it to the kidneys, and solid waste to the large intestines

How to take Care of your Small Intestine

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Liver

Job Description

• Moves energy/qi to all parts of the body, i.e. regulates our energy and keeps things running smoothly
• Center of metabolism
• Stores and regulates the distribution of blood in the body
• Governs the eyes, nails, tendons and muscles
• Helps to regulate blood sugar by either releasing glucose or storing it as glycogen; the former depends on glucagon and the latter on insulin, both come from the pancreas

How to take Care of your Liver

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Pancreas

Job Description

• Works in both the digestion and endocrine systems
• Produces several hormones including insulin, glucagon and somatostatin; somatostatin regulates the production of insulin and glucagon
• Secretes digestive enzymes into small intestine that further break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins; all of which are essential for nutrient assimilation
• Storage depot for digestive enzymes
• Increases blood sugar (glucose) by secreting glucagon, which causes glycogen to be broken down into glucose in the liver
• Decreases blood sugar (glucose) by secreting insulin, which causes glycogen to be broken down FROM glucose and stored in the liver

How to take Care of your Pancreas

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Large Intestines

Job Description

• Transforms and conveys waste
• Stores and eliminates waste
• Collects and releases what digestion and metabolism reject
• Defines and molds that which we don’t want and that which is not us

How to take Care of your Large Intestine

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Kidneys

Job Description

• Governs the absorption of energy/qi
• Ensures proper absorption of energy through the lungs
• Stores the essential qi/energy
• Governs storage (especially fluids)
• Responsible for growth, development and reproduction via its storage of qi
• Governs water and bone
• Warms, nourishes and moistens other organs
• Governs hearing

How to take Care of your Kidneys

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Adrenal Glands

Job Description

• Releases the steroid hormone, cortisol
• Increases blood sugar and speeds up metabolism in response to stress
• In an acute response to stress, controls inflammation and boosts immunity via cortisol release. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol have an opposite and harmful effect, such as suppressed immune system and increased inflammation and fatigue; prolonged exposure to cortisol therefore encourages exhaustion, disease, arthritis, asthma, poor healing, allergies, lupus and more
• Helps regulate blood pressure, body temperature and exhaustion
• Mobilizes energy reserves and increases glucose by releasing fatty acids and glycogen stores from the liver into the blood stream
• Helps to wake us up and feel alert in morning via timely release of cortisol (almost opposite cycle of melatonin, which helps put you to sleep)

How to take Care of your Adrenal Glands

• Learn how in the E-Book!

 

Thyroid

Job Description

• One of the largest endocrine glands
• Produces thyroid hormones, principal ones being T3 and T4, which regulate the rate of metabolism
• Controls how quickly or slowly the body uses energy, and therefore is directly related to body temperature
• Increases protein production and stimulates mitochondria (energy production centers of cells)
• Produces calcitonin, which helps in calcium homeostasis
• Influences growth and development throughout the body
• Hypothyroidism can increase cholesterol in the blood, which therefore makes high cholesterol a symptom, not a cause

How to take Care of your Thyroid

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Hypothalamus

Job Description

• Regulates the thyroid gland via the pituitary gland
• Regulates hunger, body temperature, thirst, fatigue, sleep and circadian cycles

How to take Care of your Hypothalamus

• Learn how in the E-Book!

Pituitary Gland

Job Description

• Stimulates the thyroid via its thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)

 

How to take Care of your Pituitary Gland

• Learn how in the E-Book!