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To the Heart of the Matter
3. The Heart
~ holistic perspectives in biomedical science and western
herbal medicine
The heart has played a central role in many systems of traditional medicine, where its function is
often described in terms, which transcend the activities ascribed to it by biomedical physiology.
Culpeper, writing in the English Physition, published in 1652, said that: “The vital spirits proceed
from the heart and cause in man mirth, joy, hope, trust, humanity, mildness, courage… and their
opposite: viz. sadness, fear, care, sorrow, despair, envy, hatred, stubbornness, revenge…”
(Culpeper 1995, p. 305). Similarly, the teachings of Avicenna 15 say that the heart is a repository of
divine potentialities, which is greatly effected by the emotions (Chishti 1988).
Modern language still reflects this traditional understanding of the concept of the heart. Tobyn
(1997, p. 83) writes: “The English language is full of examples of how we locate emotions in the
heart. There are ‘heartaches’, ‘heart warming’ moments and ‘heart rendering’ events. It has been
said of some people that ‘they die of a broken heart’ and the expression ‘a heaviness of the heart’
denotes a depression of spirits”.
Physiomedicalism has more recently, described disturbances of the heart and vascular system in a
vitalistic context utilising physiological understanding. The state of the CV system is seen to be a
reflection of autonomic nervous system (ANS) balance, mediated by the vasomotor system. This is
in turn understood as a reflection of how the vital energy expresses itself within the constitutional
limitations of the individual (Ellingwood 1911); (Priest & Priest 1983).
Modern neurophysiology describes how the ANS is in part, mediated by emotion via the
limbic/hypothalamus pathways (Nixon & King 1997). This approach correlates with the eclectic
description found WHM, and infers a holistic understanding relating emotion to physiological
activity.
Contemporary biomedical research, under the aegis of PNE, is beginning to except that the
reductionist ‘organ specific’ approach to the CV system is an inappropriate model for defining
treatment strategies. Nixon & King (1997) argue this point by presenting the following postulates:
That there is no close relationship between the anatomy of the coronary arteries and CV illness
15 Avicenna (Hakim Ibn Sina), Arab Physician & teacher (980-1037 C.E.).
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