Yin and Yang for Better, Balanced HealthWhen I say yin and yang, what's the first thing you think of?
 If
you thought of this symbol, you're on the right track, but there’s much
more to it. This symbol represents a Chinese Daoist (sometimes spell
Taoist) theory that dates back thousands of years. Originally the
theory of yin and yang represented how opposites interacted with each
other. It could be used to describe day (yang) and night (yin), male
(yang) and female (yin), hot (yang) and cold (yin) and so on. Chinese medicine adopted this theory to describe the human body. For example, when body temperature increases, its yang increases, which can lead to a decrease in yin. Western medicine calls this a fever, and doctors give patients fever medicine like Tylenol or Motrin. A Chinese medicine doctor will consider the yin yang of the patient and correct the imbalance, which will in turn remove the fever symptoms. There are any number of methods for correcting the imbalance, like acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal remedies, qigong and taichi, and tuina massage. Although all the methods are different, they can all correct the imbalance between yin and yang. An easy way to remember the yin yang theory is to look at a body builder lifting weights.
This is true for yin yang as well. It is ideal if they are equal, but there is a small range where they can be slightly different. If yin or yang increases or decreases too much, the imbalance will be too great, and symptoms of disease will arise. It is the doctor's job to make sure that the weights in the body builder’s hands are as equal as possible. For a more in-depth look at yin yang theory, continue reading. To learn about other aspects of Chinese medicine, choose from the following: Five Elements Qi Blood Fluids Qi, Blood, and Fluids Essence Channels/Meridians Viscera Diseases and Their Causes Four examinations Syndrome Differentiation (Pattern Identification) Table of Contents: Origin of Yin Yang Characteristics and Interactions
Yin yang theory states that the yin yang quality of objects changes when their opposite changes. It's all relative. For example, in the early morning, the day becomes lighter. The yang quality of the day starts to increase and the yin quality decreases. You cannot have an increase in light without a decrease in darkness. Yin yang theory also states that yin yang can be broken down an infinite amount of times. As we saw above, yang is attributed to when there is light and yin is attributed to when there is darkness. However, night time can be broken down into yin and yang as well. Around 10:30pm, there is little light and the later it gets, the less light there is. This is the yin inside the yin. On the other hand, around 2:00am, although there is very little light, the sun is coming up, so it is the yang inside yin. Each moment can be broken down into relative opposites, and this can go on into infinity.
As you can see, the balance is constantly changing, and each side is always melding and moving into the other side. That's why it's best to think of the black and white yin yang symbol as a snapshot of something in motion. The wheel is always turning, sides are always changing, and the symbol is just a representation of all of this. Yin yang can also be applied to your body. The upper half, back and outside surface (skin) are considered yang, whereas the lower half, chest/front, and internal organs are considered yin. There are five visceral organs (zang organs-heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys) and six bowel organs (fu organs-gallbladder, stomach, small and large intestine, urinary bladder and the triple energizer). The zang are solid and generally store substances (qi, blood, jing) and therefore are classified as yin. The fu are hollow and move substances (your digestive tract is basically a long tube), so they're classified as yang. Even within each zang there is yin yang, e.g. heart yin, heart yang. There are four main ways yin and yang can interact with each other: 1. Yin and yang are opposing and restraining [对立制约 dui4li4zhi4yue4]: As we said above, yin and yang are opposites, male and female, up and down. They also restrain each other. If yang is getting too strong, yin can restrain it. For instance, if your body temperature starts to rise because of outside conditions, your body will physiologically react to control this change. 2. Yin and yang are intertwined and mutually supportive [互根互用hu4gen1hu4yong4]: Intertwined means there is always yin inside yang and yang inside yin as we saw in the above example--when it is early afternoon, there is yin inside yang. An example of mutually supportive can be seen when you work very hard all day (strong yang), you will sleep very well at night (strong yin). Strong yang will bring about strong yin. 3. Yin and yang can counterbalance each other [消长平衡xiao1zhang3ping2heng2]: If yin strengthens, yang will weaken an equal amount. One cannot increase without the other decreasing. 4. Yin and yang can convert into each other [相互转化xiang1hu4zhuan3hua4]: If yin increases to an extreme level, it can eventually turn into yang and vice versa. This can be seen with the change of the seasons. Only at the very high point of winter (yin) will it begin to become warm and head toward summer (yang). Health and Disease
Here are some bar graphs to describe the relationship between yin and yang with respect to illness. 
If you remember the analogy to a man lifting weights, there was a small
range where, if the weights were slightly different, he could still
lift the weights without difficulty. In the bar chart above, the
"normal range" is how much yin and yang can fluctuate without taking a
toll on body function. Consider that the healthy range. If either yin or yang goes above or below that range, we refer to it as excess [实 shi2] or deficient [虚 xu1], respectively. Regardless of the details of which is excess and which is deficient, as long as the white bar is relatively higher than the black bar, the symptoms that appear will have to do with yang/heat, like fever. Treatment for each of these fevers, however, is different, because the underlying cause is not the same. The same goes for when yin is relatively dominant. An
extreme case is when there is basically only one and none of the other.
This circumstance of maximum imbalance may have been caused by external
injury, grave illness, etc. At that point, yin and yang will separate,
and the patient will no longer have any life inside. That's why it's
important to maintain balance on a regular basis and prevent extreme
circumstances.
Five Elements Qi Blood Fluids Qi, Blood, and Fluids Essence Channels/Meridians Viscera Diseases and Their Causes Four examinations Syndrome Differentiation (Pattern Identification) Return from Yin and Yang to Chinese Medicine
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It is easiest for the body builder when the amount of weight in each
hand is equal. If he decreases the weight in one hand a little, he can
still lift both weights relatively easily. There is a small range where
the weights can be different but he can still lift the weights.
However, if the weight on one side is much greater or lower than the
other, he won’t be able to keep his balance and lift the weight. 
