A Study on the Integrative Medicine Theory of Blood Circulation in Metabolism

In this paper, we attempted to link the theories of korean medicine and medicine on ‘Heart controls the blood vessels (心主血脈)’, ‘Spleen controls the blood (脾統血)’ and ‘Liver possesses the blood (肝藏血)’ related to blood circulation for the new possibility of theorizing integrative medicine. ‘Heart controls the blood vessels (心主血脈)’, which is explained as the function of blood that nourishes the five viscera and six bowels under the control of the heart, can be interpreted as the vascular system of the dynamics of blood movement through the cardiovascular system and the function of blood flow dispersing to tissues. ‘Spleen controls the blood (脾統血)’, which enables the normal production and movement of blood, can be interpreted as the function of vascular endothelial cells such as the role of permeability barrier between plasma and interstitial fluid, regulation of the amount of other substances, mediation of angiogenesis, production of damage response factors, and secretion of substances that regulate coagulation and anticoagulation. The ‘Liver possesses the blood (肝藏血)’, which regulates blood flow according to metabolic volume, can be interpreted as the function of arterioles that distribute the flow to various organs and tissues and efficiently transfer blood flow to the metabolic needs of individual tissues. The process of theorizing integrated medicine is necessary because it can provide opportunities for the use of multidisciplinary approaches and cooperation, and because it can develop a curriculum that can balance the universality of health care education based on biomedical science and the professionalism of korean medicine doctors.