Acupuncture: Categories of points
The category's name tells you what it is for. 6 activities, about 14 minutes.
Three hundred and sixty points, twelve categories
Nobody chooses between three hundred and sixty candidates. You choose between categories: once the pattern is clear, the category says what kind of point is needed and the channel says which one.
- Pattern first
- what fails and where
- Category next
- what kind of point corrects it
- Channel last
- which specific point
Common mistake: Learning lists of «points for insomnia». They work as long as the patient resembles the one in the book.
The five transport points
They run from the fingers to the elbow or knee and describe the channel's qi as a watercourse growing. The image is not decorative: each stretch has a different use.
- Jing-well
- at the nail: emergencies, unblocking, acute heat
- Ying-spring
- clears heat from the channel
- Shu-stream
- joint pain and damp
- Jing-river
- voice, throat, chest pictures
- He-sea
- at elbow or knee: organ pathology
Common mistake: Using the well point out of routine. They are intense, very painful points, kept for acute situations.
The categories used most
Besides the transport points there are four families that settle most day-to-day decisions, and each has a very concrete indication.
- Source point
- regulates the organ; first choice in deficiency
- Connecting point
- links to the coupled channel
- Cleft point
- acute pain and bleeding on the channel
- Front-collecting and back-transport points
- diagnose and treat their organ
Common mistake: Choosing the cleft point for a chronic picture. It is a crisis point, not a maintenance one.
Which category of point does each situation call for?
- Chronic deficiency of an organ, no acute pain
- A picture affecting the organ and its coupled hollow one at once
- An acute pain crisis along a channel's route
- Diagnosis by palpating the back with a reaction in one segment
- Background fatigue with no excess signs
- An intense colic that started this morning
Match each influential point with the tissue it governs.
What does palpating the front-collecting and back-transport points add before deciding treatment?
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Study content. The exercises describe concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine; they are not medical advice.
