Balance is a word we hear a lot. We’re encouraged to find balance between our work and our life; between what we eat, drink, and do; within the realms of our relationships, emotions and even our physical bodies. Chinese medicine also emphasizes the importance of balance, but what does the term actually mean, and how can we make it a useful concept in our lives? There are two main realms where we can examine the idea of balance: the microcosm and the macrocosm.

The Microcosm

At the cellular and even the molecular level there are many systems within the body where balance is important. Blood sugar, for example, needs to be maintained between 80 to 140 Mg/DL. If blood sugar levels fall too low one will begin to feel tired and hungry as the body calls out for more energy. You might also feel shaky or experience spontaneous sweating. But if blood sugar levels rise too high this is also dangerous since excess sugar can bind to and denature proteins in the blood. Uncontrolled hyperglycemia can cause blurred vision, headaches, and, in severe cases, even coma and death. This example is likely familiar to many people, but it represents just one of many variables that need to be balanced within certain limits in order for the body to function well. Other examples include the pH level (acidity) of the blood, the blood pressure and the levels of minerals such as calcium, potassium and sodium.

Zooming out to the level of the organs, we can see that each organ needs to be functioning at the correct level to do its job within the body, but at the same time not over-working itself. For example, when the stomach receives food it needs to release stomach acid and perform what are called mixing movements and peristaltic movements to combine the food with the stomach acid and move it on into the small intestine. If these functions are impaired then there will be slow gastric emptying which can lead to acid reflux and indigestion. Once the food has been passed on, however, the stomach muscles need to relax and the secretion of stomach acid needs to stop. If the stomach is overproducing acid and does not take the time to rest and heal then ulcers and other gastric disorders could result. Chinese Medicine would consider the first example Stomach Qi Xu. Xu means deficiency or lack and Qi means energy—so the stomach does not have enough energy to do its job properly. The second example would be diagnosed at Stomach Heat or Stomach Fire—the engine is running too hot and damaging itself in the process!

The Macrocosm

Zooming out again, we reach the scale of the human body as a whole. This is the realm where we have the most direct control. After all, we cannot consciously alter our blood pH or our blood sugar levels, but we can direct what we do with our bodies throughout the day. The Huang Di Nei Jing (Medical Classic of the Yellow Emperor) is one of the foundational texts of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It was written somewhere between 475 BC and 220 AD and much of the text is devoted to how one attains and maintains good health. On the topic of daily activities, it notes that too much sitting damages the bones, too much standing damages the muscles, too much walking damages the tendons and too much lying down damages the lungs. The key words here are, “too much”. None of these activities are harmful in and of themselves, but these days many of us sit in a car to go to work, sit in front of a computer for seven or eight hours at our jobs, sit in the car on the way home, and then sit on the couch again watching television in the evening. Conversely, I see many patients who work jobs where they are constantly walking and standing and, just as the Huang Di Nei Jing observes, they present with muscle pain or tendonitis. In both of these cases, you do not have to be a medical expert to see that there is not a good balance between different activities.

Sadly, our culture tends to promote excess and so even people who have been walking or standing all day feel like they must go for a walk or a run or push their bodies even more at a gym if they want to be “healthy”. The question people often ask themselves is, “What do I need MORE of in order to be healthy?” I find that a much more useful question is: “What have I been doing recently, and what can I do NOW to balance that out?” If I’ve been working hard or engaging in a lot of exercise, I might need to balance that out with some extra rest. If I’ve been going out to eat with friends and having heavier meals, my body would probably enjoy some lighter fare for a couple days. Framing the question in this way keeps the focus on what our bodies are feeling and what they actually need rather than just mindlessly checking off boxes on a “be healthy checklist” that we’ve constructed.

The Harmony

The wonderful thing about giving your body a balance of different foods and different activities is that this will promote balance at every level of your body down to your very cells and molecules. As I said, you cannot consciously control many of the physiological functions that your body performs, but with your actions and decisions throughout each day you can make it much easier for your body to maintain those systems in balance. I often tell my patients to imagine standing on the middle of a teeter totter. With such an unstable footing, you have to spend a lot of energy and focus just to keep your balance. But, if you start to make that pivot point wider and wider it gets easier and easier to keep your balance and before long you barely have to spend any extra energy at all to stay upright.

This is very much how it works with our bodies. If what we do each day is not in balance, our bodies will compensate for that, but it will take much more energy than it should. As we give our bodies more balance at the macro level, which we can control, then it will become easier and easier for the body to keep that balance, that homeostasis, that it wants at the micro level. And the beautiful thing is that this is not a one-way street. If our bodies are in a state where they can easily maintain balance then we will feel more energetic, we will get sick less often and recover from injuries more quickly.