Will the Dan Tien be next? New new human organ noted

[Steve James]

Researchers have classified a brand-new organ inside our bodies, one that has been hiding in plain sight in our digestive system this whole time.

Though we now know about the structure of this new organ, its function is still poorly understood, and studying it could be the key to better understanding and treatment of abdominal and digestive disease.

Known as the mesentery, the new organ is found in our digestive systems, and it was long thought to be made up of fragmented, separate structures. But recent research has shown that it's actually one continuous organ.

The evidence for the organ's reclassification is now published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

"In the paper, which has been peer reviewed and assessed, we are now saying we have an organ in the body which hasn't been acknowledged as such to date," said J Calvin Coffey, a researcher from the University Hospital Limerick in Ireland who first discovered that the mesentery was an organ.

"The anatomic description that had been laid down over 100 years of anatomy was incorrect. This organ is far from fragmented and complex. It is simply one continuous structure."

Thanks to the new research, as of last year, medical students started being taught that the mesentery is a distinct organ.

The world's best-known series of medical textbooks, Gray's Anatomy, has even been updated to include the new definition.

So what is the mesentery? It's a double fold of peritoneum — the lining of the abdominal cavity — that attaches our intestine to the wall of our abdomen, and keeps everything locked in place.

One of the earliest descriptions of the mesentery was made by Leonardo da Vinci, and for centuries it was generally ignored as a type of insignificant attachment. Over the past century, doctors who studied the mesentery assumed it was a fragmented structure made of separate sections, which made it pretty unimportant.

But in 2012, Coffey and his colleagues showed through detailed microscopic examinations that the mesentery is actually a continuous structure.

Over the past four years, they've gathered further evidence that the mesentery should actually be classified as its own distinct organ, and the latest paper makes it official.

You can see the new organ illustrated below:

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[KEND]

From what I gather it was known as an attachment but is now classified as an organ since it has the attributes of an organ. The Tab Tiens are more like fields created by the presence of the organs, bounded by membranes. Since the are active components and subject to changes arising in the organs I guess the field/membrane combination is an entity in itself, not sure that its an organ though.

[windwalker]

what attributes would lead one to conclude that when someone was talking about "dan tien" this would be it.

[yeniseri]

Highly unlikely!

According to western anatomy and physiology, to be an organ, there must be a physical objective identifiable reality that is easily touched, can be photographed and is attached to some appendage, whether bone or some part of the living organism. That was tuff

[Michael]

Is this gonna be like Pluto and get demoted next year?

[Overlord]

三焦: 中焦/下焦

Also check 易經筋：膜論


醫林改錯：氣府

[Steve James]

From what I gather it was known as an attachment but is now classified as an organ since it has the attributes of an organ. The Tab Tiens are more like fields created by the presence of the organs, bounded by membranes. Since the are active components and subject to changes arising in the organs I guess the field/membrane combination is an entity in itself, not sure that its an organ though.

Yes, Ken, I understand that the tan tien are conceived as "fields" --of course when translated into English. A "field of cinnabar" has no material counterpart or "organ" that could be located in Gray's Anatomy. But, when I put dan tien in the thread title, I was being a bit facetious. I was thinking more in terms of the fact that anatomists were finding new ways to define an "organ." The facetious aspect was that this newly categorized structure just happened to be located near one of those cinnabar fields . The seriously interesting part is that there are probably a lot more things to find.

[yeniseri]

Allopathic providers are beginning to use acupuncture within the frame work of anatomy and physiology meaning that there MUST be a reframing of what acupuncture schools are teaching to match an outcome with direct knowledge and information. Mentioning to an acupuncturist the term cinnebar location/field, etc will come up with 3 - 5 location (dan tian is the first choice) but mention the same to an allopathic physician and there will be a WTF dumfounded expression.

Felix Mann encountered the same process but he and others like him had to reframe the teaching and experience to a knowledge within that Western framework keeping in mind that present TCM is a "blended mixed technology" despite the cries of the "purists"