Chinese Medicine notes 04-07
From DmesWiki
TCM04-07 Notes
We have been trying to find areas of reactivity. It is more common to find tightness and tenderness than sink holes. We're going to cover tender spots and where else we are likely to find them. The Japanese term for these areas of local tenderness is kori. Kori is that process that results in tight stiff areas, either locally or broadly, depending on how long it has been there and to what extent.
The main cause is poor diet. Do you eat the right spice quality for your body type or the season. Another cause is stress – physical, emotional, mental, etc. It could be an overuse injury or emotional or mental stress. Have you changed your marital status, etc. Emotional stress from life changes. Mental stress from difficult life situations. Posture stress puts strain on the body that translates into physical stress. Incorrect exercises for your body type.
All of the above stresses create a clog in the energy, which translates into actual tissue swelling that restricts the ability of the blood to get to that area. That affects the biochemistry: toxicity builds up, causing muscles to tighten. The tight muscle can't constrict or relax and that puts stress on the attached areas such as tendons, bones, or ligaments (where bones come together).
Anything that we can do to help the energy flow will bring blood to the area and help that area feel better and function better. These areas of tenderness are like an error message from out body to tell us that the energy is not flowing properly. We can help the energy move better either by treating it locally on that spot, or if the person won’t let you then you can find acupuncture points above and below that will do the releasing work for you.
There are 365 acupuncture points on each side of the body – this is a shorter list of points of major points of blockage
1. Around GV-20 (top of the head) You may find looseness there – if you can wiggle the scalp, it shows a lack there. If there is pain then there is stagnation or stuck chi. 2. Occipital area Bl-10 – GB-20: back of the head at the upper insertion point of the trapezius muscle, either side of the knob. 3. Around GV-14 (C-7), where all the yang meridians meet. 4. Around GB-21 (high point of the shoulder). 5. Sternocleidomastoids (scm) at the sides of the neck that holds your head. The vagus nerve goes underneath. It tends to get tense in people who grind teeth, etc. If you have left side tenderness then you have an imbalance of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. That's a clue to using extra meridians. Use left TE-5 and GB-41. If it's both sides, it's more complicated. 6. ST-11 (just outside where the scm meets the clavicle, outside the head of the clavicle) and ST-12 (lateral to that – 4 cun from midline). These are commonly very tender. 7. SI-11 (mid scapula on the back of the body). Ladies with fibrocystic breasts will be tender there. 8. Bl-43 (this is the outside bladder meridian. It is 3 cun lateral to the spine at the level of T4-5). This is at the edge of the scapula, just at the bottom. If you give someone a back massage, there is usually tightness there, and sometimes the massage therapist will lift up the scapula to loosen that tissue. 9. TE-15 on the back, in the middle of the shoulder. If you find a sore spot in that area, see if it's TE-15. 10. Lu-1 (Front of shoulder) is commonly tender. 11. Bladder meridian at the thoracic and lumbar areas all the way to the sacrum. 12. PSIS areas (Posterior superior iliac spine) where the back of the hipbone curves above the buttock and below the waist. 13. Where the hip bone meets the sacrum – sacro-iliac, which is like a butterfly joint – has the ileac nerve there. Go along the corner of the sacrum looking for tenderness. 14. Mid Buttock GB-30 (If you are standing up and you put your heel to your buttock it is where it meets the buttock.) It's fairly deep, so you might have to push hard to find tenderness. 15. Subcostals (under the ribcage). 16. Along the rectus abdominus and the CV line (we've already mapped this in the abdominal palpation.) 17. Along the CV on abdomen (done with abdominal evaluation) 18. ASIS (anterior superior iliac spine – front hip bones) (done with abdominal evaluation) 19. Superior border of pubic bone (done with abdominal evaluation – #10) 20. Inguinal areas (upper thigh and groin) – don’t do this area as it is too personal. You can ask them to check themselves for soreness there. 21. LI-10 (11 is at the crease of the elbow, so follow the meridian to look for a sore spot.) 22. LI-4 (web between thumb and index finger) is commonly tender. 23. LU-5 (inside elbow on the distal side). 24. G-31 (If you are standing it is where your index finger meets the lateral thigh.) 25. Liv-9 (About 5 cun above Liv-8, so it goes up the inner thigh above the knee – look for a tender spot.) 26. BL-40 and Bl-39 (below the knee eye, 3 cun lateral to GV, level with T-5 and T-6) 27. Inside of the knee eyes. 28. ST-36, ST-37 (2 or 3 cun below lateral knee eye). 30. Gastrocnemius (calf) muscle. It will not be a specific area: just anywhere along the muscle. Find the sore spot and then locate which meridian it is near. 31. Achilles tendon near ankle.
Generally looking for areas of kori. We use this information along with what we have already been doing in the four assessments along with what we find in the abdomen – releasing tension by using the 6-point technique. You can do the same thing with other areas in the body, using the breath to count six as you push. Stretch the affected muscle out afterwards. It is helpful to know the yoga stretches for this.
One way to use this information is to go right into the painful area to release that built-up energy. Go for the most sore point or the ones that radiate to where their pain is. Tenderness that radiates to another area is telling us to work on that area first, so work on that before you even go to the painful area.
Once we use an educated guess to find a point that releases the most tender kori point in the belly, or one that refers to the area of complaint. Then we re-palpate that point to see if the tenderness releases. From the point that releases the tenderness, the task is to build your circuitry out of points that are related to that point.
So for example if you find that Sp-6 released a CV-9 tenderness, then think what does spleen meridian go with that could be blocked that's being revealed as tenderness at CV-9. Spleen and stomach go together, so maybe there is a stomach point that would release CV-9. Spleen and lung go together, so maybe there's a lung point. If a stomach point releases it, then along with stomach goes large intestine, so maybe you need a large intestine point to complete the circuitry. A circuitry usually takes three meridians. To move chi out of an area or into an area it usually takes three meridians.
We need to learn how to choose the point to release and how to build the circuitry. You need a clue on how to start with that – things we already know. First you need the master points of the extraordinary meridian couples (know these): Yin wei mai: P-6 (2 cun up from the wrist crease) – Chong mai: Sp-4 (inner foot 2 cun up from Sp-3) Yin qiao mai: K-6 (1/2 cun below tip of ankle bone) – Ren Mai: Lu-7 Yang wei mai TE-5 – Dai Mai GB-41 (betw. 4th and 5th toe where tendons come together) Yang qiao mai: Bl-62 (tip of lateral maleolus) – Du Mai SI-3
We'll go more into these next term.
Other ways the meridians connect together: Yin and yang pairs: Lung (yin)– LI (yang) Pericardium – TE Heart – SI Kidney – bladder Spleen – stomach Liver – gallbladder Ren CV– du GV So if you find kori on lung meridian, you think what will be on large intestine that might release it more.
Above and below channels connections (channels with different levels of yin and yang that connect to each other): LI –St: Most superficial yang – sunlight yang TE-GB: Middle yang – shao yang SI-Bl: Least yang Lu-Sp: Least yin Pk-Li: Middle yin Ht-Kid: Most deep yin (ie most yin)
Must learn all of this above stuff really well, because these circuitries are what we draw on for practice.
[note: I left some things out here because it was in chart form. I will try to upload later. Elly]
tenderness in upper abdoment try P6 or Sp4
Kidney problem, anything you know 3, 7, 10, 16, 27
