Insufficiency of body fluid usually causes dryness syndrome. If the body is attacked by pathogenic dryness and heat, external dryness syndrome will be caused. Internal dryness syndrome is usually caused by transformation of abnormal changes of emotions into fire, or by fever, profuse sweating, excessive vomiting and diarrhea and hemorrhage. Dryness syndrome is often marked by insufficiency of body fluid, insufficient moisture in the skin, the orifices and the viscera which lead to dryness of the skin, dry mouth and throat, dry eyes, scanty urine and dry feces. Severe deficiency of body fluid eventually leads to yin-deficiency syndrome.

Disturbance of body fluid refers to internal retention of water and dampness due to disturbance of the metabolism of body fluid, leading to phlegm, rheum and edema, etc. The disturbance of body fluid results from dysfunction of the spleen, the lung and the kidney which leads to failure of the spleen to transport and transform water and dampness, or failure of the lung to regulate water passage, or failure of the kidney to control water metabolism.

     

Disorder of qi, disorder of blood and disorder of body fluid usually affect each other. For example, deficiency of qi causes deficiency of blood and vice versa; stagnation of qi causes blood stasis and vice versa; stagnation of qi causes metabolic disturbance of body fluid; insufficiency of blood causes insufficiency of body fluid, etc. Such pathological changes caused by abnormal changes of the relationships between qi, blood and body fluid are described in detail in the fourth section of the third chapter entitled "Relationships Between Qi, Blood and Body Fluid".