Is it true that getting angry can damage your liver?

People often say that bad emotions hurt the liver. Is this true? In traditional Chinese medicine theory, the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water correspond to the five internal organs of the human body, namely the liver, heart, spleen, lung, and kidney. The "seven emotions" of joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, and shock are normal psychological activities of human beings, but if they are not controlled, they may cause diseases.

Joy belongs to the heart among the five internal organs; anger belongs to the liver among the five internal organs; worry and sadness belong to the lungs among the five internal organs; thinking belongs to the spleen among the five internal organs; fear and shock belong to the kidneys among the five internal organs. Therefore, Chinese medicine has the saying that "great joy hurts the heart", "too much worry hurts the lungs", "great anger hurts the liver", "too much thinking hurts the spleen", and "too much fear hurts the kidneys".

Among them, "anger hurts the liver" means that people who are often angry are prone to liver qi stagnation and liver yang hyperactivity, which in turn causes a series of disease symptoms. Especially for people who already have liver disease, long-term bad mood is more likely to aggravate the condition, which will become a vicious cycle in the long run. At the same time, the thinking and sadness of liver disease patients also damage the spleen and lungs. In this way, three of the five internal organs will be damaged, which shows the impact of negative emotions on the liver.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, negative emotions are closely related to the occurrence of liver diseases. When people are depressed, their immunity will decline, and diseases will take advantage of this opportunity to enter. Depression can cause blood flow stagnation, and can also affect the regeneration of liver cells and the liver's compensatory ability, which is not conducive to the recovery of liver disease. Therefore, being less angry, not getting angry, maintaining a good mood and an optimistic attitude are beneficial to the body. At the same time, people should maintain a normal mind and not put pressure on themselves beyond their tolerance.