Lung channel
What most people see in acupuncture clinics is picture 1, a more accurate picture is picture 2, picture 2 is how the lung channel are connected, it started from the esophagus Goes down to the large intestine from the large intestine accents up and disperse in the lung. From lung it goes across the collarbone descents down the arm on the radius side of the arm ends on the thumb.
Because of how the lung channel runs on our body anywhere it comes across it can cause discomfort if the channel becomes unbalanced. Most noticeable discomfort is pain, and when comes to lungs the first thing that pops up in our minds are cough, but in Chinese medicine cough is differential in the five types of coughs, lung channel, heart channel, liver channel, spleen channel, and the kidney channels they all have a specific type of cough. And if the cough on those channels does not get relief it will transfer to its pair channel.
As you can see on picture 2 and 3 you might can guess that the lung channel and the large intestine are very closely connected. Because of this connection lung channel probably can cause problems with constipations. In Chinese medicine, lung is in charge of the rhythm of the body, anything from beating of the hearts to regulating of the menstrual cycle are closely linked to the lung. When the lung channel gets weakened by coldness it can cause urination problems such as can not hold the urine, must go right away, worse on the days that are cold.
picture credit
https://www.sinewchannels.com/2016/08/li-15-jianyu-and-channel-relationships.html
https://slideplayer.com/slide/4312848/
https://quizlet.com/676088182/lung-channel-pts-questions-flash-cards/
Large intestine channel
When talking about the large intestine channel, most people that come into contact with is LI 4, the points that has been popular with most acupressure classes, this point “suppose” to be able to do everything, from headache, neck pain, shoulder pain, to calm your anxiety and nausea.
The reason others claimed it that do so much it is how it the channel is distributed on our body. But in reality it’s function is very conditional, sometimes other points on the channel might have better therapeutic effect.
LI 4 is a yuan source point, it is where the channels energy comes out, in theory it works better if the channel is weak, if the condition is cause by overactive of the channel which most people are because of over consumption of deep fried, grill, roasted, or baked food.
For clearing heat in the channel, LI2 is a better choice, for pain Li3 is a much better choice, in our clinic, Li4 is not a point that is use often, incorrect use of Li4 and Liv3 or opening the four gates, can cause the pain to be more sever. In our practice, it is only use when the patient complaint of pain all over the body and can’t pin point where the pain are, we can open the four gates and ask the pain to pay attention to where the pain ae and comeback the next day to the care of the problem.
photo credit:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/473581717040121200/
https://mendacupuncture.com/li4-our-great-eliminator/
https://www.sinewchannels.com/2015/11/the-masseter-and-pterygoids-and-their.html
Stomach channel
The stomach channel it is quite long it starts from the side of the nose down to the lip and wrap around the jaw line to the forehead, and other line goes down the neck pass the breast and enter the stomach and spleen organ and continue down the leg to our middle 3 toes.
From the primary channel pathway, you can see that jaw problems, sinus problem, neck problem, breast issue, knee problem and toes problem are highly likely to be stomach channel related. However, that is just scratching the surface, if er dig deeper and under standing more from the divergent channel it connects the heart, so when stomach energy are overactive, it can cause anxiety and people can feel palpitation or irregular heart beats. From the sinew channel that we can see part of the channel goes to the hip and lower sacrum area.
The most famous st 36 point just like the LI4 it is very over used. There are better points along the channel for different conditions, and due to are lifestyle of over consumption of the deep fried, baked, roasted, grill food, our stomach is more than likely it is overactive rather than being too weak, st 36 only suitable for weak conditions
photo credit
https://lieske.com/channels/5e-stomach.htm
https://nicholassieben.com/the-healing-detox-process-transforming-perception-with-acupuncture/
https://www.sinewchannels.com/2015/12/the-diaphragm-and-spleen-channel.html
Spleen channel
While western medicine sees spleen is an organ that has not much important, in Chinese medicine it serve a very important role in absorbing nutrients in the food and transport it to the lung and let the lung distributing it to the entire body.
Spleen also controls the blood in the vessels, so if someone is easily getting bruised spleen is the likely suspect. Females that is spontaneous spotting, or period that is not able to stop, spleen playing an important role in it also, due to the function to controls the bloods.
Furthermore, if we look at the spleen primary channel that ends at root of the tongue, and the divergent channel goes up to the tongue, stroke patients that have a slurring of speech is very closely related to the spleen channel. From the sinew channel we can see it goes to the lower abdomen and travel to the back, so one of the characteristics of the spleen channel is back pain that goes from the front to the back, cough that causing the cause pain on the right side of the rib area , and menstrual cramping we can use the spleen channel to help relieve those symptoms.
photo credit
https://quizlet.com/126118331/spleen-channels-flash-cards/
https://acupuncturehobart.com/acupuncture-google-maps-for-the-body-part-2
https://www.sinewchannels.com/2015/12/the-diaphragm-and-spleen-channel.html
Heart channel
Classically heart channel does not have many symptoms, because it is regarded as the emperor of the body, so it is protected by the pericardium, so most of the physical symptoms such as palpitations, are listed under pericardium channel. But by looking at the sinew channel, you can see why people with heart attacks, would feel numbness on their pinky fingers, and people with pain above their belly button should keep their heart health in mind. Patient sometime have ticking on the bottom of the eyes that can be related to the heart channel.
photo credit
https://slideplayer.com/slide/4312848/
https://calandraacupuncture.com/2023/06/heart-small-intestines-traditional-chinese-medicine/
Small intestine channel
In Chinese Medicine, most of the function of western medicine for small intestines such as absorbing nutrition are assigned to the spleen channel. In Chinese medicine small intestine are paired with the heart channel, so when too much heat from the heart channel it can transfer to the small intestine, when that happens, we can feel warm when the urine passes through the urethra. Because the channel pathway goes through the ears, too much heat can cause itchiness in the ear, or ear infections can be seen as related to the small intestines. Because small intestines channel belongs to the tai yang group so it is very sensitive to cold, coldness can cause stiff neck, headache or feeling aches on the bridge of the nose.
photo credit
https://quizlet.com/nl/423414905/sinew-channels-flash-cards/
https://quizlet.com/833208583/acupuncture-points-of-the-small-intestine-meridian-flash-cards/
Urinary bladder
Urinary bladder channel is the longest channel in the body and just like the small intestine channel belongs to the tai yang group, so it is very sensitive to cold, when coldness attacks the body, the first group is the tai yang, coldness can make muscles tighten up on this channel. Urinary bladder channel runs from the top of our head all along the back to the pinky toe, so any one of those area can cause pain. However from the sinew channel we can see that knee pain and chest pain radiating from the armpits up to the face can be caused by this channel. From the divergent channel we see this channel connects with the heart so we can safely assume that if this channel gets too overactive it can cause some heart discomfort also.
photo credit
https://www.sinewchannels.com/2016/08/kunlun-bl-60-urinary-bladder-sinew.html
http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/principles/bladdermeridian.html
https://quizlet.com/131386840/urinary-bladder-channels-flash-cards/
Kidney channel
Kidney channel most people that have lower back pain and when to see a TCM doctor, they probably given an answer as kidney deficiency. Back pain is not exclusively a kidney channel symptom. Symptoms such as coughing right before bedtime, difficulty of speaking after stroke, and classical symptoms like hunger but don’t want to eat belong to kidney channel.
photo credit
https://quizlet.com/491112035/sinew-channels-flash-cards/
https://quizlet.com/58058706/points-2kidney-channel-pathways-flash-cards/
Pericardium channel
pericardium channel serve as the protector of the heart n Chinese medicine, so many of the heart symptom such a palpitation, shortness f breathe, and anxiety can manifested on this channel, but in clinic, most patients comes in complaining of back pain between the scapula, numbness of the hand at night while sleeping, and walking up with stiffness of the middle fingers are cause by weakness of the pericardium channel.
Photo credit
https://quizlet.com/139915272/pericardium-channel-flash-cards/
San Jiao channel
the San jiao channel in charge of the whole body’s fluids movement, and it is the pathway how our energy in the entire system to get around, that is why when our lung energy are weak we use San jiao 8 to strengthen it. Also because of the fluid function, we can use the San jiao channel to clear the heat when we have burning sensation in our urine. Besides small intestine channel and gallbladder channel, San jiao channel also runs on the back of the ear, so pain on the back of the ear and side of the neck can treat by the channel.
photo credit
https://calandraacupuncture.com/2023/09/the-san-jiao-in-traditional-chinese-medicine-tcm/
The Gall Bladder Channel
The gall bladder channel are run very closely with the urinary channel and the stomach channel, a lot of area such as the lower back, neck, knee, ankle and chest, those areas we have to ask specific questions like turning of the neck cause pain, lifting the neck up and down causing the pain, turning the back, or walking down the stairs causing pain on the knee or back, and pulse to help differentiate. Too much heat on the gall bladder channel can cause dizziness or vomiting.
photo credit
https://quizlet.com/140135139/gall-bladder-channel-flash-cards/
The Liver Channel
Most people when come to think of the liver channel high blood pressure, high cholesterol are very closely linked with the liver channel, constipation that character very hard stool in the beginning and soft at the end are cause by liver qi stagnation. But actually, it can be one of the channel that causes headache top of the head, beside our gums, liver channel can cause carbuncles on the mouth, the liver channel also connect to the sphenoid process so when people feeling have something on their throat, or having nasal drippings can be very much related to liver channel.
Photo credit
http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/principles/livermeridian.html
https://slideplayer.com/slide/6508309/
https://www.sinewchannels.com/2015/12/the-diaphragm-and-liver-sinew-channel.html
