Palpating the Acupoints and Meridians

August 24, 2004

Talking of palpating, this is not only confined to Tuina. I was

talking to a leading acupuncturist in Beijing and he was writing a

book on palpating the acupoints and feeling for differences, i.e.

tenderness, nodules, etc. This he said has been lost from

acupuncture. He quoted from the Neijing and said that the left hand

is often more important than the right (acupuncture giving hand).

This is because the left hand feels the points, meridians and

therefore understands the disease, whilst the right hand inserts the

needles into the points. I therefore believe that palpating is a part

of acupuncture and should be used all the time before and sometimes

after a treatment.

Attilio

" Rich " <rfinkelstein@a...> wrote:

> Hi Mike:

>

> > I am a big fan of using tui-na also and resonate with whatever

Rich

> > has been sharing but I find acupuncture to be far easier to do

with

> > less effort.

>

> Thanks for resonating. -)

>

> I am pretty convinced that " bodywork " preceeded acupunture and

herbal

> treatments. From a practical point of view, a " barefoot doctor "

> probably had to develop a practical repertoire of modalities that

> could be used to service many patients at one time as he " traveled

> around " . Clearly, the way acupuncture is used in China, it is

designed

> so that a given practitioner to treat hundreds of patients in a

given

> day. This, in my view, is practical from a time and money making

> viewpoint. However, it does not speak to the issue of which modality

> provides the best results.

>

> In my view, tuina/qigong provides superior results because:

>

> 1) The practitioner does a " hands on " diagnosis _as_ he treats.

> 2) The client/patient is fully engaged with the practitioner. I

> personally talk to people all through the session which lasts from 1

> to 1.5 hours (sometimes more).

> 3) It treats all of the possible obstructions that may exist in the

> body - muscles, skeleton, sinews, viscera (the physical

manifestation

> of the Shen) - including the primary areas of obstruction, the spins

> and joints.

> 4) It treats all of the energetic channels via qigong and indirectly

> via touch.

> 5) With this approach the Shen is released and no longer is

stagnated

> which addresses, what I believe to be, the primary source of chronic

> illnesses - i.e. stagnation of the Shen.

>

> (A prior reference:

> http://www.isdac.com/newpage12.htm#Review%20of%20The%20Seven%

20Emotions

> )

>

> In time, I hope, more people will be exposed to tuina/qigong so that

> they can make their own judgements. I personally would pay more for

> treatment that is rapid and permanent whether or not it was paid for

> by insurance.

>

> Regards,

> Rich

August 24, 2004

Hi Atillio,

Thanks for this further information. Robert Hayden's site discusses

the Japanese approach to palpation. Are you in a position to say how

common palpation is among Chinese acupuncture practitioners? Is it

being taught in classes or is this something practitioners pick up

after graduating - e.g. on their own or through apprenticeship? Are

there special classes and techniques that are taught? It sounds, from

your brief description, very similar to how I am being trained to

palpate in tuina - i.e. tenderness, pain, hardness, nodules,

stickiness, etc.. No surprise. :-) At the end, it must be all the same

- I think. :-)

And while I have the chance, I want to thank you for all of your

efforts on behalf of this forum.

Regards,

Rich

Chinese Medicine , " Attilio

DAlberto " <attiliodalberto> wrote:

> Talking of palpating, this is not only confined to Tuina. I was

> talking to a leading acupuncturist in Beijing and he was writing a

> book on palpating the acupoints and feeling for differences, i.e.

> tenderness, nodules, etc. This he said has been lost from

> acupuncture. He quoted from the Neijing and said that the left hand

> is often more important than the right (acupuncture giving hand).

> This is because the left hand feels the points, meridians and

> therefore understands the disease, whilst the right hand inserts the

> needles into the points. I therefore believe that palpating is a part

> of acupuncture and should be used all the time before and sometimes

> after a treatment.

>

> Attilio

>

August 25, 2004

I really don't think palpating is a common practice with acupuncture in

China nowadays. Hence my friend's wish to write a book on it and further

expand this mode of diagnosis and treatment, which he feels has been lost

since the introduction of bare foot doctors, which he also heavily

criticises as having no real education, training or insight into TCM.

I am unaware of any special classes being taught in China, although I

believe that if you seek it you will surely find it. I think all forms of

Chinese treatment, whether acupuncture, internal medicine, Tuina, Qi Gong,

etc, all have overlapping theories, influences and treatment techniques.

This is normal in a country with a strong cultural background that had few

outside influences and rather developed it's own internal healing

techniques.

It's a shame that within this forum we choose to breakdown the different

healing arts into certain well established entities and refuse to discuss

each of them. All of them are from the whole, whether you want to call is

the ancient healing arts, the Dao, Chinese humankind, etc, we need to find

the essence in each and project that into the all, then we can apply our art

to whatever we wish, whether personally, finically and of course in healing.

Kind regards

Attilio

www.attiliodalberto.com <http://www.attiliodalberto.com/>

Rich [rfinkelstein]

24 August 2004 18:43

Chinese Medicine

Re: Palpating the Acupoints and Meridians