Ecological Homeostasis and Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Systems-Based Framework for Integrative Parkinson's Disease Research

AbstractParkinson's disease (PD) is increasingly recognised as a multisystem disorder involving immunedysregulation, iron dyshomeostasis, oscillatory circuit disruption, and peripheral pathology, yet currentexplanatory frameworks remain largely domain-specific. The Ecological Homeostasis (EH) framework,formalised through Early Latent Bistability theory, reconceptualises PD as a progressive failure ofmulti-scale coherence — a narrowing of the system's viable operating envelope characterised bymeasurable parameters of Geometry (Δ), Resilience (α/β), and Capacity (E[τ]). Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), with its holistic philosophy and multi-component, multi-targetinterventions, has accumulated extensive clinical experience in PD management, increasingly supportedby modern systems biology methodologies. This paper introduces an integrated framework that mapsTCM concepts onto EH formalisms, demonstrating how network pharmacology, metabolomics, andtranscriptomics reveal that TCM formulas simultaneously modulate multiple nodes within theinflammatory–iron–oxidative cascade that EH identifies as critical to disease progression.We propose that TCM interventions function as 'broad-spectrum coherence stabilisers', expanding theviability envelope through mechanisms that align with — and can be quantified by — EH metrics. Thissynthesis offers a rigorous common language for East-West collaborative research, provides testablepredictions for clinical studies, and establishes a foundation for precision integrative medicine in PD.