Hi Elio, I am reading a book on channel internal pathways mentioning the spleen-pancreas. As far as I remember the pancreas has never been mentioned during lectures. Please illuminate for me,
In western physiology the pancreas is a glandular organ which takes and important part in digestive and endocrine processes:
- as an endocrine gland it produces important hormones such as insulin, glucagon and somatostatin;
- as a digestive organ it secrets enzymes that assist absorption of nutrients in the small intestine helping to further break down carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids in the chyme.
The spleen is an organ similar in structure to a large lymph node which plays an important roles in regard to erythrocytes (it removes old red blood cells and holds a reserve of blood) and the immune system.
Since in Chinese Medicine the functions of Pi – 脾 – (usually translated simply as Spleen) are related both to digestion, hematopoiesis and immunity, french translators, differently from English authors, equated Pi to Spleen/Pancreas which, in my opinion, is closer to the CM idea of the Zang associated with the Earth phase.