Qi Knows

Last week I was treating a 37 y.o. female for chronic neck and shoulder pain and tension. She has had this tension for a couple of years and working as a food server for a living does not help it…

This was the second treatment I have given her; the first one helped a lot and she has not had the ‘tingling’ sensation running down her arms since then.

I was inserting the needles into the neck and shoulder area as part of a treatment protocol I picked up and modified earlier this year. When I put the needles into the area where most of her tension is located she asked me if I had put a needle in the outside of her left ankle area. I said “no, not yet. Why do you ask?” She told me that the area jut below her left anklebone, on the outside of her foot was itching like crazy. I gave one of my usual replies; “hmmm.” I rubbed that point on her foot as I was thinking to myself “now that is interesting.”

One of the theories of treatment in acupuncture is ‘local/distal.’ In this model the acupuncturist will insert needles into the local area to release the tension, or blocked qi; then they will insert needles as far away from the local area as that meridian travels to give the qi a place to “go.”

The point I was going to needle for the distal point was exactly where her ankle started itching. When I did needle it she commented that the itching stopped. H,mmm go figure.

The qi knows where I was going to direct it even before I got the needle in.

A Different Pulse

Last week while I was giving a treatment to one of my elder patients I spent a fair amount of time feeling his pulses, in particular I was feeling for any abnormality in the “Heart” pulse.

This gentleman has a ‘heart-murmur’ that is caused by mitral-valve prolapse. The mitral valve is what keeps the blood in one chamber of the heart before it gets pumped into a different chamber. When the valve “prolapses” it allows the blood to back-flush from the higher pressure chamber into the lower pressure chamber. When a allopathic doctor listens to your heart this is one of the key things they can pick up on. The heart will not have the infamous “Lub-Dub” sound of the valve opening and closing completely. They say there is a “whoosh” noise that gets into the sound; maybe something like “Lub-Whoosh-Dub.” I am sure that a cardiologist could explain and define the sounds much better than I just did, but you possibly can get the idea.

So I am feeling this gentleman’s pulses and in particular ‘listening’ (through my fingers) for anything abnormal.

I felt a strong, wide, slippery pulse; but what surprised me was I felt something “backing up” to the Liver position. In TCM we feel the pulses on the radial artery of each arm just above the wrist. The left side shows the Heart, Liver, Kidney pulses and the right side shows the Lungs, Spleen, Kidney pulses.

What I felt “backing up” to the Liver position remains in question. Sure I could tell you that I was able to feel the mitral valve prolapse, but can I honestly say that as a fact? No, not as a statement of fact. I can say that I felt something ‘different’ and that it is something I have not felt on other pulses. Now I just need to be able to feel a thousand other individuals that have MVP and see if it is in fact an indicator.

In the mean time I will just keep contemplating what I felt and see if I can make any sense out of it.

Till the next time.
Michael