Acupuncture Points Everyone Should Know

     "Would you like some help?"  I ask the woman who came wheezing up the stairs from the beach croaking "I can't breath, I can't breath". She and her adult son nodded, terrified, as she desperately gasp for breath. 

     I explained I was a Licensed Acupuncturist and that I could use Tui Na, the Chinese medicinal massage, to help her breathing. Despite the situation, they didn't want to call 911. "Why don't you go and get your car, so you can take your mother to the hospital?" I suggested to her son, "I'll see what I can do." 

     As she stood on the sidewalk, I started massaging Lung 1, the first point on the lung channel, which can resolve respiratory distress, faster than an inhaler, even faster than most people can find their inhaler. By this time the poor woman was hyper ventilating, so I added some calming ear points. 

     As her breathing improved she told me that she had smoked for years and had finally quit.  Unless they are organic, there are chemicals in cigarettes that ventilate the lungs. The purpose is to make the tobacco and additional chemicals even more addictive. As a result, many people develop emphysema after they quit smoking, and are no longer ingesting the drugs on a regular basis. 

     Wind had blown smoke in her face, from a bonfire they passed on the beach, near the foot of the stairs. It had triggered her reaction. By the time her son arrived with the car, she was fine.       

     The Lung Channel starts on the chest and runs down the inside of both arms, to the thumb. Lung 1, the point that assists breathing so quickly, is below the clavicle (collar bone), beside the space that is between the 1st and 2nd rib, towards the arm. Points are bilateral (on both sides of the body). Usually, Lung 1 is the most tender point in that area, so not too difficult to find.  

     Teaching patients with asthma, or other respiratory problems this point, while working on resolving the issues that cause the problem, has prevented many emergency room visits. 

                                                                              Health & Happiness,

                                                                                          Nancy Burton, L.Ac.