Chinese Pathways

My charming friend here to the left is an acupuncture model displaying all the points on the left side of his body. And of course, as I have mentioned before, everything in Chinese medicine is either yin or yang. Yang pertains to that part of the body facing the sun which means the back and sides of the body since China was an agrarian society and farmers’ backs and sides were what were exposed to the sun. Yin, of course, was the opposite; all the pathways not facing the sun.

Twelve of the pathways are named after the organs in the body and points on these pathways do affect the organs that they are named after. Of these twelve pathways, there are six yang pathways: three begin on the hands and ascend up the arms to the head and three begin on the head and descend to the feet. There are also six yin pathways: three begin on the body and descend down the arm and three begin on the feet and ascend up the body.

The three yang meridian pathways that begin on the head are the Stomach, Urinary Bladder and Gall Bladder. All three of these pathways descend and end at the feet. Their yin partners are the three pathways that begin on the feet and end on the body. The Kidney yin meridian pairs with Urinary Bladder: Liver pairs with Gall Bladder, and Spleen pairs with stomach.

The three yang meridians that begin on the hands and end at the head are the Large Intestine, Triple Heater (in charge of metabolism) and the Small Intestine. Their yin partners begin on the body and end on the hands. The yin Lung pathway pairs with Large Intestine; Heart pairs with Small Intestine; and, Pericardium pairs with Triple Heater.

The most powerful points are those from the elbows and knees down to the hands and feet. The majority of the points I use in my practice are on the lower arms and legs because of their effectiveness. For example, for a toothache, I may use a point on the stomach meridian close to the second toe because the stomach meridian actually runs down the side of the mouth and out the middle toe. The points closest to the second toe are so powerful; a toothache can be stopped very quickly, within seconds. That explains why many points used in acupuncture treatments may be completely opposite of where the problem lies and hopefully explains to you why they are selected. Its all in the power of the points!!