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This book should be in the shelf of any serious internal practitioner. A must-read. Memorise it until it becomes second nature: The Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach: A Translation of the Pi Wei Lun http://www.chineseherbacademy.org/articles/yinfire.shtml http://www.fareastsummit.com/market/TREATISE-on-the-SPLEEN-and-STOMACH-A-Translation-of-the-Pi-Wei-Lun-NEW-EDITION_moreinfo.html Li underscores the importance of diet and emotional factors as causes of disease. Since Zhang Zhong-jing, Chinese doctors had emphasized cold injury as the main etiological factor. But it was Li Dong-yuan who emphasized diet and emotions' effect on the original qi. *In addition, Li discusses in this book the relationship of the cause and treatment of disease to Chinese biorhythms. Known as wu yun liu qi, the five circuits and six qi, this has been considered by many of the greatest Chinese doctors of the last 400 years as the pinnacle of TCM theory. Using the stems and branches, one can not only clarify disease processes at work but also modify prescriptions so as to take into account both weather and astrological influences. Do not mess up with the "cooking pot" (spleen) and "the fire" (stomach) or you'll suffer severe consequences. The spleen and stomach are the root of source qi, and are therefore the root of health. Any sustained damage to the spleen and stomach will result in the exhaustion of source qi, resulting in illness. Li emphasized that stomach qi is the root of health and damage to the spleen and stomach can be the root cause of all disease. *Factors leading to deficiency of the spleen and stomach can be summed up as improper diet, over-exhaustion and emotional stress. If the spleen and stomach are damaged, impaired ascent and descent will result in two scenarios. The first is excessive descent with insufficient ascent. This is tantamount to prolonged autumn and winter without spring and summer, whence hundreds of diseases emanate. The second is prolonged ascent without descent which is also a cause of disease. https://pearlschinesemedicine.com/articles/treatment-of-gastrointestinal-disease-hypertension-and-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/ *I wish this level of expertise was commonplace in today's medical practice though! *Let me add: eating fast, not chewing food well (digestion starts in the mouth making sure one is salivating well and being mindful of the act of chewing and eating); doing other things while eating (including watching TV) breaks the rule of mindfulness. Buddhism is not alien to eating well and mindfully: Giving thanks for our food https://www.thoughtco.com/giving-thanks-for-our-food-449751