The 'Terrain'
- Sylvia
- Apr 23
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 28
The late great Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor Ni Hai Sha once told a story in his lecture: "Mosquitoes proliferate in the summertime, but when winter comes, the mosquitoes all disappear. It is the same analogy as cancer; it doesn't matter where the cancer is found, when the internal environment changes, it simply cannot survive."
A cancerous state means the terrain, the body's tissue status, or the internal body environment becomes cold and weak, it becomes highly conducive to cancer growth.
According to Dr Ni, the small intestines require heat to ignite the digestive fire, the yang energy. If the small intestines do not generate enough heat, the body's internal environment becomes cold, and food cannot be digested properly, leading to stagnation, dampness, and fermentation, resulting in an acidic 'terrain'.
It's like giving cancer cells air conditioning in summer time, and good food for their growth. They are very comfortable 'thriving' in a cold, damp, acidic environment.
According to Dr Ni, when warm-hot herbal medicine, teas, or nutrients from foods enter the intestines, the internal environment changes—the heat, together with the nutrients, cuts off the cancer's food chain and its affinity for coldness. Once the internal environment improves (warmth, yang energy), it doesn't matter where the cancer cells are located; the improved 'terrain' makes it unsuitable for cancer to survive.
This aligns with the concept of naturopathy, where the body's tissue status (the terrain) upon which pathogens fall, is more important than the nature of the pathogen itself.
Hippocrates, the father of Naturopathy, and the father of Medicine, described that "all disease begins in the gut". Endotoxins causes gut dysbiosis and increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut), are linked to chronic inflammation, metabolic disorders, immune system dysfunction, mental health issues and cancer.
Dr Ray Peat mentioned that endotoxins are a significant, chronic stressor that damage cells by inhibiting mitochondrial (our energy powerhouse) respiration, increasing lactic acid and nitric oxide, and triggering the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
Endotoxin creates chronic inflammatory stress by fostering intestinal permeability and stimulating the release of stored unstable fats. The low oxygen, nutrient deprived, toxic intracellular environment cause the cells to lose the ability to manage ions properly, leading to efflux of lactic acid into the extracellular space. This accumulated lactic acid causes the surrounding tissue environment to become acidic.
Moreover, cancer cells secrete lactic acid into the surrounding tumor microenvironment, which further creates an acidic, inflammatory, and low-oxygen (hypoxic) environment that favors tumor growth, angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels), and metastasis.
Our small intestines need warmth (37°C/98.6°F). Digestive enzymes function optimally at 37°C, matching regular human body temperature to efficiently break down food, assimilate and absorb the nutirents.
Once the warm nutritional foods, nutrients or therapeutic teas come in contact with the mucous membrane of the digestive tract, our body tissues 'fused' with the therapeutic qualities of these nutrients. Essentially, our health is largely determined by the nutrients that our living tissues (our terrain) are bathed in, where small intestines play a critical role.
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