Taking a Cue from an Ancient Tradition

By Wendy Gordon

Americans would do well to take a page from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), not so much in its specifics, but in its overarching philosophy.

Like most other countries these days, the Chinese compare well to the Americans in health, with an average life span of 71 years. While this is not as long as the average American life span, considering the desperate poverty and terrible pollution in much of China, it is a creditable achievement. While the Chinese do not reject all aspects of Western medicine, they continue to base significant aspects of their medical practice on 2500 year old traditional philosophy. This philosophy runs definitively counter to the "magic bullet" fixation in the West.

TCM holds that our bodies are not separate and static entities, but instead are intimately interrelated with the constantly changing universe. Bring the body down to the microcosmic level of quantum physics, and you can see that this belief is unassailable fact. While the Western model subdivides the body anatomically, TCM is more concerned with qi (variously defined as "breath", "life force" or "spiritual energy"). When you break down the body's chemical reactions (say, the breakdown of glucose or the release of neurotransmitters) to a subatomic level, that is exactly what is happening: the transfer of electrons, the shifting of energy. We are not a solid mass. The atomic elements that comprise us are the same ones that comprise the stars.

Chinese philosophy holds that in the midst of constant change, the world is constantly trying to balance itself. Again, the truth of this is borne out by modern physics. Energy is never lost, only transferred. Similarly, each individual body strives to maintain homeostasis. You can see this in many ways: the way the body regulates salt and water to maintain a constant blood pressure; the way the body regulates glucose concentration the blood; the way it regulates body temperature and pH. When these balances are altered, illness results.

By maintaining a balanced diet (see where that term comes from!) we help keep the body in homeostasis. Flooding the body with too much of one nutrient, as happens when we overdose on supplements or limit ourselves to a few kinds of food, throws off the balance.

Zinc metabolism makes an excellent example. Zinc is the second most abundant trace element, present in all body tissues and a constituent of over 300 enzymes. As might be expected from this wide distribution, zinc affects a multitude of functions: appetite, weight maintenance, sexual maturation and function; immune function; skin health; wound healing; and vision. Most zinc stays in cells. The plasma level remains low and steady, clearly under strict homeostatic regulation, though the precise mechanisms remain unclear. People's need for zinc varies, with more required at times of rapid cell division and growth, such as pregnancy, babyhood and adolescence.

Various dietary factors affect zinc absorption. Zinc absorption is inhibited by phytates, substances found in grains and legumes and to a lesser degree in other vegetables. However, the level of phytate varies in different grains, and its zinc blocking action is moderated by the proportion animal proteins and calcium one eats. Overly high levels of zinc in the diet suppress copper absorption, which leads to its own cascade of effects. Copper is another widely distributed mineral that affects energy production, connective tissue formation, neurotransmitter synthesis and metabolism, myelin formation, antioxidant action, gene expression and iron metabolism. And, of course, iron deficiency or excess leads to its own set of problems.

You get the idea! What happens in our magic bullet culture, however, is that a study comes out showing, say, that zinc improves vision in rats. The next thing you know, people are popping mega-zinc supplements and eating zinc-enriched potato chips. This heavy-handed single shot approach pays no respect to the delicate balancing act that is the human body.

TCM predates modern knowledge of germs, so it does not deal with antibiotics, which are about as close to a "magic bullet" as Western medicine gets. Yet too often, antibiotics are used as a prophylactic solution rather than as a last resort, which is why many of them are losing their effectiveness- from over use. Germs are always around us; the key is to defend the body against them. TCM stresses the need to keep the body strong, so that infectious agents cannot find a weak point and attack.

Nutrition has always been a focal point of TCM in recognition of the importance of food in maintaining bodily homeostasis. I am unsure how much faith to place in TCM's yin/yang theory and specific food recommendations, as they have evolved based purely on observational evidence, not controlled studies, and deal only with foods commonly eaten in China. However, Chinese food theory is right on target, emphasizing individual variations in nutrient metabolism and stressing that we should pay attention to our bodies' unique responses to different foods and food combinations. Yin/Yang's emphasis on balance rather than on a few "superfoods" or "food villains" is also a point well worth taking.

As long as we keep denying the wondrous complexity of the human organism, reducing our search for truth to simplistic (and illusory) solutions, we will fail in our quest for health.

Wendy Gordon is a writer and restaurant reviewer who lives in Portland, Oregon. She has a Masters Degree in Clinical Nutrition from the University of Chicago, and is on the Board of Directors of Food Front Grocery, a co-op in Portland.