Channel Palpation & Diagnosis 101

One of the most mysterious aspects of Chinese medicine is the acupuncture points and the acupuncture channels. I mean what are they actually, right? You have the two groups of people that believe one they are mysterious energy conduits and you have people who are maybe more aligned with chiropractors or physical therapists and they think it's just fascia or something muscular. But the reality, the truth, is that it is somewhere in between. Now in this video I thought I would demonstrate channel palpation 101 as well as some common channel findings that you can find just by going through your own channels from a physical standpoint. Hey guys I'm Dr. Alex Hine, author of the health book Master the Day and doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. So before we jump into this video there are two very important links right below the video. The first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine. You can reach out to my private practice and clinic right below. And the second is to download a free guide which is four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. So those are both right below this video. So let's first start with a recap of two of the chapters from our medical classics. So one of our most important medical books is called the Huangdi Neijing and it describes in two essential parts of the book, simple questions and what's called the spiritual pivot. It describes effectively the basic foundations of Chinese medicine and the foundations of acupuncture theory and acupuncture treatments as well. Now there are two chapters in particular that are very diagnostic. The first is chapter 28 and the second is chapter 62. Now in chapter 62 in particular this is basically called the discourse on the regulation of the channels. Now it describes not only what the channels are to some degree but symptoms of what are considered excess or deficiency in those channels themselves. And even throughout this book the Neijing it describes how seasonal changes or pathological changes can create illness or channel changes themselves. So it's clear that the people that came up with Chinese medicine obviously thought that number one there was a clear relationship between both internal and external phenomena and changes in the channels of the body that then predisposed or led someone to disease, number one. So not only could the weather cause channel changes, your diet or your emotions can cause changes in those same channels that predispose you to disease or cause disease. But number two, those channel findings themselves are indicative and are diagnostic of what is going on in the body and can lead us to have some clues diagnostically about what we can treat to make the person feel better, to treat that pathology or disease. So let's start again with the spleen channel here. The spleen channel starts here. I'm just going to trace it here so you can see the change in color on my foot. All right so you can see there's areas around the medial malleolus as well but the main points that are most commonly needled, spleen three, four, six, some of the she clefts or channel findings here and spleen nine up in here. But in general the first thing is just tension or laxity. All right this is yin and yang in daily practice. So very commonly whether we're describing the spleen channel or we're describing abdominal findings because very often I palpate the abdomen as a major diagnostic zone. But the first thing you notice in the medial portion of the foot is does this feel tight or does it feel mushy soft? Right so tension by itself can indicate what we call excess or deficiency in the channel in Chinese medicine. And for many men and women in the same vein you know in the low abdomen when we're feeling channel findings but also abdominal findings. If there's a mushy low abdomen that indicates certain patterns and certain organ deficiencies like for example kidney deficiency and it even dictates what formulas that I write you know which prescriptions I'm writing. Now at the same time when we talk about a very tight or tense zone right if there's a lot of tension in the channel or tension in the low abdomen what this very often indicates is something very different. For example women that have a very tight low abdomen often indicates an issue with blood circulation. So they very commonly have painful menses or abdominal cramping and certainly some kind of hormonal issue very often. And men will often have urinary issues. So tension by itself is important. The second thing is temperature. So as we go through just trace very light pressure and pay attention to the temperature. For example my foot here is cold even though I just exercised. So my foot is cold a little bit clammy in the medial aspect but as we get up here it's a lot warmer. So temperature changes can be indicative as well of something like for example cold low abdomen or REN12 which is sort of the epigastric area above the belly button. When it's cold there it can indicate digestive problems. Sometimes people who are getting indigestion or bloating or have spleen qi deficiency as we say have cold areas in the abdomen that are these key diagnostic zones. And then finally we want to look for specific channel findings. So in the spleen channel I would say the two most common that I find at least on the lower leg where I'm showing you this area of the spleen channel. One would be spleen three and four. Is it tight? Is it mushy? Is it soft? Is it hard? Those will be two key points. And from there if we go up towards spleen nine area looking for a lot of changes in texture in particular nodules are very very commonly found here in the spleen channel as we get up towards spleen nine area up here. So just tracing with your thumb first light pressure then medium pressure and then heavier pressure. But really when I trace with medium to light pressure is where I can really feel some of these nodules in my spleen channel here. So nodules are one of the common findings in this spleen channel area that's very very common and sometimes can be indicative of something going on underneath. So really when we talk about these channel findings you know sometimes it just starts by scanning the channel whether it is the spleen channel or the abdomen or somewhere on the back and you just look for changes in texture, temperature, color and look at the color changes. Of course I've been poking myself but you can see changes in color. The white is where my foot is very cold so that can be diagnostic. And then quality so lumps or nodules in the upper part of the the medial part of the calf here getting towards spleen nine as well as changes in temperature or specific channel findings. So these can all be used diagnostically and often skilled acupuncturists are using these already as part of their diagnosis. So I hope that helped illustrate not only what the channels are to some degree but a very very basic overview of just very common objective channel findings that don't require a spiritual guru to determine but someone with a little bit of training and even just you going through the channels yourself can observe muscular changes that are potentially indicative of something going on deeper inside. So again before you guys go don't forget to check out those two links right below this video if you'd like to become a patient of mine in Los Angeles or virtually or to download that free guide for daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. So check those out and the related videos right there and I'll see you soon.