Picture of Health

(written 1985)

During my last stay in San Francisco, I often walked the streets becoming aware of what the AIDS diseases have done for gay people. Not the negative things like panic and fear, but the positive things like hugging and visible affection. Not friends who pass beyond our awareness, but the glow of health on the faces of those gotten their health trip together.

One of the primary features of health diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine (hereinafter TCM) is the face. The colors and lines of the face are a direct consequence of the health of the body. I spend half my diagnostic interview noticing the colors, lines, textures, musculature and movements on the faces of my clients.

Most of the signs of good health are well known even though not well understood. Pink cheeks are a good example. When the Chi energy is well balanced, the cheeks have a nice reddish-pink glow right where the rouge goes for those fake it. Not a large blotch of red, but a glow of pink. Too much red shows an excess of chi and a likelihood of oral herpes or acne from Chi out of control (sometimes called Yang Rushing). On the other hand, pale cheeks show a basic lack of the Chi energy and little git-up-and-go.

Behind the pink cheeks should be a peaches and cream complexion like alabaster - but this is so rarely seen that most readers could not believe it. All five colors of thee body are present on a very healthy person - white, blue, green, red and yellow, intermixed and fused like the colors of a fire opal. All the colors are balanced and the skin is smooth like a baby's. Too much white is a metal element imbalance. Too much red is a fire element imbalance. Too much brown (not suntan) is a bad water element (kidney and bladder). Too much yellow indicates an imbalanced spleen, pancreas, stomach and earth element. A greenish hue ( a little green under the gills) comes from a distressed liver and gallbladder. Too much of one color usually denotes and excess imbalance while too little of a color suggests a deficiency imbalance.

Coilor around the eyes is due to a poor liver in combination with whatever other element shows its colors there. Why people wear dark eye shadow to look unhealthily beautiful is beyond my understanding. Eye shadow turns me off - it looks like hepatitis or a tired worn out kidney or too many chemicals for the liver and spleen to process out of the body or too much alcohol.

Lines across the forehead show a disturbed liver also. Usually from too much mental activity like worry and anger.

Vertical lines between the eyebrows reflect spleen, pancreas and stomach problems in combination with the liver problem shown on the forehead.

Lines that go from the side of the nose down around he mouth indicate problems with the large intestine like colitis, diarrhea, constipation, parasites or just poor digestion. Lines at the corner of the mouth that look like parentheses show stomach problems of some sort.

Lips like cherries remind me of Robert Burns' love poems. Also they show a healthy stomach, spleen and pancreas resulting in a healthy, well-fed, vigorous blood. Pale lips show a weak stomach or spleen , poor digestion, poor diet and a resultant lack of energy. A sixteen year old man I knew had beautiful cherry lips until one weekend when he went away and did some drug or another. When he came back his lips were pale and sickly looking for a week.

And the tories that eyes tell! Speak to me of love and healthiness: bright eyes of a healthy body, sparkling with energy - sexual, balanced and vigorous. Eyes with clear whites of a healthy metal element - no AIDS! Yellowing indicates a weak large intestine or lymph, cloudiness a weak lung.

Lines that run out from the outer corners of the eyes (crows feet) show a weak Triple Warmer and a poor distribution of the Fire energies of the body. No lines is a sign of health. Those lines that turn up show difficulties in the organs of the head chest, heart and diaphragm (the Upper Warmer). Lines that stretch straight out show problems somewhere between the chest and belly button, in the stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver and/or gall bladder (the Middle Warmer). Lines that turn down show weakness in the bowels, kidney, bladder and gonads (the Lower Warmer); sexual energy depletion is reflected here very quickly.

Pinkish ears are are a good sign. When they get red, the fire energies are in excess like during a fever. Pale ears are from a weakness of Chi energy.

Then there is the hair. What a joy to run the fingers through healthy hair! Soft, shiny, lightly oily, resilient and springy. all these are good signs of a healthy kidney and gonads. Dry brittle hair or greasy hair are signs of an unhealthy body. No shampoo can ever correct this: only a healthy diet can make hair look healthy.

The cosmetics industry is a health related business. All the cosmetics I have ever heard off are for the purpose of making someone who is sick appear healthy. Rouge, lipstick, face powder, eye drops, flavored and bleaching toothpastes - all these temporarily restore that healthy look. But all the president's cosmetologists and all the politicians powder puffs can't put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

I don't use soap or any other Madison Avenue emollients. Instead I bathe in clear water, eat well, do some exercises and get a good nights sleep. These are now and always have been the best beauty aids known. And it shows right up front where everyone can see it.

While all these lines and colors are indications of health, don't panic or leave your lover because of a blemish or two. A person in perfect health is a real rarity. Maybe one in ten thousand or a hundred thousand enjoy perfect health. Keep as healthy as you like, but don't expect perfection. Feeling good is enough for most of us.

This essay topic is of the facial characteristics of a healthy body: those features we all recognize as the "glow of health". The purpose for writing it is to help us recognize the ailments before they become serious illnesses and to encourage us to eat well and get a good nights sleep.