Spleen Functions

Jonathan Clogstoun-Willmott

August 13, 2022

Your Spleen function in Chinese medicine is very different from its function in Western medicine
It is much more like a ‘housekeeper’ for your body
It supplies the building blocks for Blood, which renews and repairs your body
When it fails, systems stop working properly, with the build-up of debri

When your Spleen function goes wrong, you’ll know, because your body will get behind with its housekeeping jobs. As you’ll see, these start with your digestion but go on to include your Blood and your muscles, your ability to think and your energy.

Since your energy is involved, that means your immune system too.

So, in Chinese medicine, your Spleen function is in its own way as important as that of your Liver .

Main Spleen Functions

For the time being, please just forget everything you know about the spleen organ which lies under your lower left ribs at the front.

In Western medicine its function is to purify your blood by filtering out old or damaged red blood cells and microbes, and to produce the white blood cells that act as guardians of your system.

Chinese medicine is based on a completely different attitude to health and disease.

Still largely based on ideas probably 3000 years old, its diagnoses seem a million miles from modern medicine.

Nevertheless, these concepts are in regular practical use worldwide in major hospitals and by practitioners of Chinese medicine including acupuncturists.

1. Spleen Transforms and Transports

Traditionally it is said to ‘transform and transport’. It takes what comes from the Stomach, turns (transforms) it into Blood, fluids and Energy (‘Qi‘), and moves (transports) these round the body.

So its functions include what your intestines do in Western medicine: absorbing nutrients from the food passing through and turning them into the basic building blocks for blood.

Once the blood has picked up Qi from the Lungs and life from the Heart it becomes Blood (capital B). This is now the stuff that the Spleen uses to maintain health throughout the body, feeding and nourishing, sorting and clearing.

It also has the job of removing unwanted matter from wherever it finds it and transforming it back into usable Blood or passing it to the Kidneys to excrete.

When this function fails you see:

poor digestion
lack of energy
loose stools
weak blood, leading to what Western medicine recognises as symptoms of anaemia
inability to lose weight
inability to gain weight
old matter not moving on. Specifically this occurs more as you grow old, when your skin heals itself more slowly and leaves behind scars that a younger Spleen might have cleared.
the build up of what in Chinese medicine is called Damp
accumulation of catarrh
the accumulation of Phlegm (although on its own a weak Spleen does not produce Phlegm).

2. Spleen Houses the Intellect

This means how we process information and think things through – working with its partner, the Stomach.

It is not how we decide what we do with our lives, or how we reach decisions and assert ourselves; it is not our memory.

Over-thinking is a problem for it, and can make it malfunction.

Many students and office-workers, counsellors, philosophers, academics and homoeopaths – and others whose job involves mainly the intellect – suffer from over-thinking.

3. Spleen Controls Blood, Muscles and Limbs

With a healthy Spleen function and good Blood you have:

good mental powers of thought
well-nourished skin
excellent eyesight
strong nails
good powers of recuperation
attractive musculature
strong limbs
a heartbeat that is well regulated
skin that heals fast
good colour

Consequently, you recover from shock quickly and you sleep well and feel great in the morning.

Conversely, if it fails to control Blood, you get bleeding which can occur from deficiency, as in menstrual bleeding that goes on and on, or wounds that don’t heal, or when combined with Heat, heavy bleeding.

4. Manages or controls the raising or ascending of Qi.

Mainly this means being able to send clear Qi up to the head so that you can think clearly and quickly, can absorb information and be able to think things through properly.

However, being able to raise or ascend Qi also means that things don’t fall out of place. Where this function fails you see:

varicose veins
protruding or prolapsing organs
distension and bloating
poor muscle tone
inner organs that fall down, out of place
a fullness or lump-like sensation, where – for instance in the throat – you may feel as if it is closing
a possible cause of miscarriage – click this link for more

5. Opens into the Mouth

Here, it controls saliva, and manifests on the lips. Full, healthy lips suggest it is healthy. People who chew or pick at their lips often betray the beginnings of Spleen Qi stagnation.

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Syndromes of Spleen Disease

Syndromes are the names given to patterns of illness as recognised in Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine if practised the traditional way doesn’t treat diseases as explained in Western medicine.

DIY Disaster — Photo by Andre Maritz -Dreamstime

Instead, it diagnoses them in terms of, for example:

the interplay of Yin and Yang
the relationship between Qi and Blood
the actions or deficiencies of the 12 Zangfu organs
the 5 Elements
Blood and Fluids
Pathogenic factors which covers more than just the bugs that make you sick
the flow of Qi along the channels of acupuncture
the Eight Conditions
the depth to which a pathogenic level has penetrated
… and that’s by no means all.

All this can seem overwhelming to someone demanding which acupuncture points to use for obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart attack, as I was asked yesterday (March 2014.) But I explained how under all his Western-defined problems there was just one main syndrome. For this there were definite recommended points. So he calmed down a bit.

Factors Affecting Spleen Function

Do not think of a pink elephant: over-thinking damages your Spleen function — Copyright Acupuncture-points.org

Factors include:

Over-thinking, pensiveness, worry, anxiety: obsession: that includes not being able to stop thinking about something like the pink elephant in the picture!
Diet, including the wrong foods and eating them wrongly
External causes of disease such as Damp
The state of the Liver energy, particularly Qi Stagnation

What about Spleen Function pathology?

This depends on whether the condition is full or empty and to a lesser extent on the factors causing it. In general, it includes:

Low energy
Poor digestion
Distension, often of part or the whole of the abdomen
Obesity
Poor complexion: dull-yellow
Low spirits, often depressed, though not necessarily because of anything very obvious

More specifically, see the pages for each of the its syndromes.