Causes of Hypertension Resulting from Obesity
Imbalances in the body's yin-yang equilibrium, coupled with functional disorders in the zang-fu organs, meridians, and qi, lead to hypertension primarily manifested as dizziness and headaches. The primary pathogenesis is as follows.
1. Liver Yang Rising Excessively In individuals with a constitutional excess of yang and deficiency of yin, the yin-yang equilibrium becomes disrupted. Yin deficiency manifests below, while yang excess manifests above. Prolonged mental tension, worry, or suppressed anger disrupts the liver's smooth flow, leading to liver qi stagnation. Stagnant qi transforms into fire, injuring yin. As liver yin becomes depleted, wind-yang becomes more active, disturbing the head and eyes, resulting in dizziness and headaches.
2. Liver-Kidney Yin Deficiency The liver stores blood, while the kidneys store essence. Kidney yin deficiency often leads to liver yin deficiency, and conversely, liver yin deficiency can cause kidney yin deficiency. When both liver and kidney yin are deficient, they fail to contain and restrain yang energy. This allows yang energy to surge upward, resulting in dizziness and headaches.
3. Phlegm-Dampness Obstructing the Middle Burner: Improper diet, excessive consumption of rich and greasy foods, or spleen damage from worry and fatigue can impair spleen function, leading to dampness accumulation and phlegm production. Alternatively, liver qi stagnation may cause phlegm formation due to qi stagnation and dampness retention. Phlegm-dampness obstruction, possibly compounded by internally generated wind-fire, manifests as headache, epigastric fullness, dizziness, and near-fainting.
4. Blood Stasis Obstructing Collaterals Traditional Chinese Medicine holds that "initial disease affects the meridians, prolonged disease affects the collaterals," "initial disease affects qi, prolonged disease affects blood," and "disease of qi impairs blood, disease of blood impairs qi."As hypertension progresses over time, the condition further develops, affecting the blood system, impairing blood circulation, and ultimately leading to blood stasis obstructing the collaterals. 5. Yin-Yang Deficiency This often results from prolonged illness causing both yin and yang deficiency. Among hypertensive patients, yin deficiency often precedes yang deficiency, ultimately leading to dual yin-yang deficiency.