Energía latente Fu Qi: importancia en la práctica clínica de la medicina tradicional china

The theory of latent pathogenic fu qi energy is little known and understood by Western scholars of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Many patients are affected by the reactivation of this harmful energy that remains latent and when Fu qi is expressed may be responsible for many pathologies, among which are autoimmune diseases, certain viral diseases, cancer, and others. The fu qi takes relevance during the Ming dynasty when studying the science that studies the development of febrile epidemic diseases (wen bing xue). This fundamental specialty of TCM considers that the febrile pathogenic energy has an evolutionary process in four stages: wei, qi, ying, and xue. The energy remains latent or crouched-hidden in the deepest layer, the xue. When the latent energy reappears, it does so from the inside, evolving, and expressing itself towards the outside. While remaining inside it can be practically inactive, or with low intensity activity, causing or facilitating some deficiencies, such as yin and related to the generation of fire. A historical and bibliographical review is presented on this pathogenic energy, including a discussion on the causes and effects that can be triggered, the general scheme for its diagnosis, as well as the prevention and possible control and treatment.

The basic theory of TCM does not consider the inheritance of diseases. It is thought that the tendency to inherit the development of certain diseases is transmitted through the latent energy (that energy that our ancestors acquired and that predisposes us to certain diseases).Thus, the fu qi must be located in the deepest layer, the shaoyin, so that it can be inherited.

At the same time, it is mentioned that psychic trauma can also be considered as an “emotional energy”, since it has a physiopathological behaviour similar to the biological one. This approach allows a better understanding of the psycho-biological alterations, which occur after child abuse, and which facilitate the development of many diseases such as psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunological dysfunctions where biological fu qi and emotional fu qi can be combined (depression, autoimmune diseases, etc.). Since the latent energy is located in the shaoyin layer, the control, the prevention of the diseases that result from the expression of fu qi, will mainly depend on the optimal state of the yin and yang of the kidney.