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eCAM Advance Access published online on April 23, 2007
eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nem026
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© 2007 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Entropy-Based Model for Interpreting Life Systems in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Guo-lian Kang1,*, Shao Li2 and Ji-feng Zhang1

1Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 1000802Bioinformatics Division, TNLIST and Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treats qi as the core of the human life systems. Starting with a hypothetical correlation between TCM qi and the entropy theory, we address in this article a holistic model for evaluating and unveiling the rule of TCM life systems. Several new concepts such as acquired life entropy (ALE), acquired life entropy flow (ALEF) and acquired life entropy production (ALEP) are propounded to interpret TCM life systems. Using the entropy theory, mathematical models are established for ALE, ALEF and ALEP, which reflect the evolution of life systems. Some criteria are given on physiological activities and pathological changes of the body in different stages of life. Moreover, a real data-based simulation shows life entropies of the human body with different ages, Cold and Hot constitutions and in different seasons in North China are coincided with the manifestations of qi as well as the life evolution in TCM descriptions. Especially, based on the comparative and quantitative analysis, the entropy-based model can nicely describe the evolution of life entropies in Cold and Hot individuals thereby fitting the Yin–Yang theory in TCM. Thus, this work establishes a novel approach to interpret the fundamental principles in TCM, and provides an alternative understanding for the complex life systems.

Keywords: Cold and Hot – Entropy – life systems – qi – traditional Chinese medicine – Yin and Yang

For reprints and all correspondence: Dr Shao Li, Bioinformatics Division, TNLIST/Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China. Tel: +86-10-6279-7035; Fax: +86-10-6278-6911; E-mail: shaoli{at}mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

*Present address: Department of Statistics and Probability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.

Received September 7, 2006; accepted February 13, 2007


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