Today we will talk about two acupressure points that benefit various Large Intestine pathologies.
Acupressure is a pure, harmless yet very powerful and very effective treatment method and can be done practically everywhere and at anytime – while watching TV, while sitting in the bus on the way back from work, on your favorite bench in the park, in the coffee shop while enjoying your morning drink. There are only two things we need to know about acupressure – the location of the point we need to press and … that the more often we press the point the faster and better the results.
Acupuncture points run throughout the whole body and are grouped together based on their functions or relationships. One group of points is called “the five transporting points” and consists of the (Jing) Well points, the (Ying) Spring points, the (Shu) Stream points, the (Jing) River points, and the (He) Sea points. The five transporting points parallel the flow (the movement, the transport) of Qi with how water flows in the mountain – emerging from a well, seeping out from a spring, then gradually forming a stream with a current, confined within a bed and banks (in the case of Qi - channels/meridians), then growing in size and depth to become a river that will finally merge in the sea.
One of our points today belongs to the (He) Sea group of points. The (He) Sea points are points where the Qi enters a deeper level to communicate with the organ they correspond to (diving in the deep sea as taken from the above analogy). They are major points that treat diseases of the organs. The (He) Sea points correspond to the solid body organs such as the Heart, the Lung, the Liver, the Spleen, the Kidney. The so called Lower (He) Sea points correspond to the hollow body organs such as the Small and Large Intestines, the Stomach, the Gall Bladder and the Urinary Bladder. The Lower (He) Sea point that corresponds to the Large Intestine, thus treats various Large Intestine pathologies, is the point Stomach 37 (it is called Stomach, not Large Intestine, because it is on the Stomach channel)
Stomach 37 is used for dampness or damp-heat in the Large Intestine leading to symptoms such as diarrhea, dysentery, abdominal distention and pain, bloating, constipation, enteritis (inflammation of the intestine). If you have such symptoms it is very beneficial to regularly press/massage this point.
To locate Stomach 37 we need to measure six cun down from the lower outer depression of the knee.
3 cun is the width of the knuckles of the index, middle, ring, and little fingers all put together.
So we start by placing our hand on the lower part of the depression of the knee and measure three cun down.
We mark with our finger and place our hand at the mark to measure 3 more cun down.
Stomach 37 is located at that length one finger breadth out/ away from the shinbone, also called tibia.
The other point for today is one of the “extra points” (points that do not belong to a meridian/channel as the regular points do). This specific point - two of them actually, called Er Bai (Two Whites), are the points to treat hemorrhoids.
Er Bai are located on the medial part of your hand, 4 cun from the medial crease of the wrist. To measure 4 cun we need to measure three cun first and add one more cun, which is the width of the thumb.
To start we place our hand at the crease of the wrist and measure 3 cun up.
We mark the length and add one more cun by placing our thumb (the length of one cun) at the mark.
Er Bai are on both sides of the tendon that runs between the wrist and the elbow (tendon of flexor carpi radialis).
Don't worry if you find it difficult to locate the points! Just pressing on/massaging the areas where the points are located is very beneficial as well. Also look for the most tender and sore spot in that area. This is the best indication that you have either located the point or you have located another point in that area that needs to be worked on.
