The Triple Burner: Organic Reality or Chinese Fantasy? (Part 2)
Discovery of a new Organ: the Interstitium In the first part of this article , we explored what Chinese medicine had taught us about the mysterious Triple Burner (or San Jiao). In this second part, we consider the possible relation between the TB and the recently discovered Interstitium. Officialised in 2018, the interstitium is a brand new scientific and medical discovery. Its identification was made by accident and made possible only by the development of new technologies that allowed live visualisation of tissues. Before that, tissues had to be drained of their fluid in order to be observed on the slide of a microscope. Thus the interstitium, which is defined by it fluid holding and circulating function, could not be seen. According the the scientists themselves : « There is no picture of the interstitium and of possible illustration of its structure. It's just there. » This is strangely reminiscent of the Chinese definition of the Triple Burner : « an immaterial entrai...