I am a big proponant of palpation. All acupuncturists should know how to do pulse taking the Chinese way. That is one form of palpation you should already be familiar with and already use. But there is another way of palpating the body that is also very useful. As you should have already read, classical acupuncture points are connected to a part of the body or a function of the body through the nervous system. When that part or function is disturbed in some way, a stress response is sent through the sympathetic nervous system to the sympathetic innervation at the point. The point will react to this stimulus. The sympathetic nerves under the skin at the point become more active. This does two things. First, it makes the point easier to find with a point locator. Second, the point will become more tender on palpation. Therefore, palpation can reveal which points might be related to the problem you are trying to treat. Therefore, once you have made a tentative diagnosis, palpating the points you think might help, will tell you whether your diagnosis is correct or your treatment is correct. Even if the point is not tender, needling it will still produce the traditional effects. But it might not be the best point to treat the problem. Besides, doing this will surprise the patient that you knew those points would be tender. When I first got out of school and started treating people, I was very frustrated with how poorly the things I was taught worked for Menopausal symptoms. Even the herb formulas did not work that well either. So I decided to palpate for points that might work better. And I found three points that were tender. Two of them were in most of the point formulas that I had tried. They were KI3 and SP6. But one point was not in any of the point formulas. It was SP4. Now SP4 is the control point for the Chong channel which is involved with the female reproductive system. So, it made sense that it would be tender. And when I needle just those three points, I got great results. For most women that is all you need to do. But for some women who have a particular emotion strongly out of balance, you might have to add point(s) to treat that more. I expect your diagnostic skills are pretty good, so if the point you want to use is not tender look for other points on the same channel. For example, we are taught to use HT7 for Heart excess. But it is often not tender. HT6, 5 or 4 will be (HT5 usually). Nearby points often have similar functions, so that makes sense to me. So, in conclusion palpation is very useful. You will not only tell you where the damage or irritation is but you can also confirm your diagnosis and find the right points to treat with.
Now palpation has also allowed me to find new points as well that aren’t in any book. The most useful one I call GB29a or Jin Wan (Tight Passage). I use it to treat sciatica with butt pain. Basicaly what is going on is that the pain in the low back causes the upper band of the gluteal muscle to get tight. Then the attachments of that band of muscle get pulled on causing them to get inflamed and tender. This process takes a while so you will see the but pain starts later, but is quite common. So you will want to treat the attachments at the sacrum and at the great trochanter. In addition, you will also find a tender point in the belly of that band of muscle. It is on the level of UB32 and directly above GB30. Any time you needle the belly of a muscle it will tend to relax it. So needling GB29a will relax the band of muscle that is tight, easing the pull on the attachments. Thus helping the healing process.
Now you must also realize that some points are always tender, like SP9, Some points are often but not always tender like LV3, LU1, and GB21, so you have to take that into account when palpating. LU1 didn’t used to be that way. That changed around the turn of the century. That correlates with the increase in lung complaints like allergies and asthma. Now it is tender in almost everyone.
Now there is some arguments over whether you can use the electrical properties of a point to diagnose. The Germans have the most advanced techniques evolved from Voll. They even put homeopathic remedies in the circuit to ask “Is there a problem related to this remedy?”. It’s similar to muscle testing using technology to ask the question. That is what they do using VEGA testing. I couldn’t learn it well enough to get consistent readings. I was better with Therapeutic Touch. At least then I could tell if I was feeling something or not. Now the Japanese have Ryodoraku. Here they are measuring the current when 12 volt was aplied to a point. Like German diagnostic techniques, they use specific points to represent each channel. But they do not use the same points. The Germans don’t even use an acupuncture point. In Vega Testing they use the area on the side of the nail. At least the Japanese use actual acupuncture points. They measure the current of those points and compare them to “Normal ” value. If it is higher, that would be considered an excess condition and if below the “Normal” value, considered deficient. The diagnosis arrived at is supposed to correspond well to traditional diagnosis. The Japanese system makes sense to me. The electrical energy varies with the diurnal cycle of the autonomic nervous system. And we should know by now that acupuncture works in part through the autonomic nervous system. I have no experience with Ryodoraku yet. I’ll have to build myself a machine first. That is on my list of things to do. I have therapeutic machines to build first. Besides, if you are good enough with your traditional diagnostic skills, you don’t need a machine to tell you the same thing, but it may help clarify things in difficult cases. Having other ways to gain information can be useful at times. If you are already good at muscle testing, you may find Vega Testing interesting an may want to get the test sets. You should be able to do the same thing letting the patient hold the nosode (homeopathic remedy). Basically you are asking “Is there a resonance to this?”. As with all types of this kind of way to gain information, some things have similar resonance an can make you draw the wrong conclusion. They did run into this in Vega testing, I just can’t remember what substances were involved. I’ll get more into this when I get around to designing and building my own point locator.
Now that I am measuring resistance between two points on the same channel, I’m thinking that may be a better way to get information since you are measuring the actual channel. We shall see. So far I see how it could be used as an objective means to tell if there is a blockage in a channel or not.
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