Category Archives: Eye problems

WIND

The other morning, I was woken at 5 am by a strong gusting wind swirling round the corners of the house, probing and rattling the eaves. I had gone to bed thinking about writing this blog about wind, so it felt as if I’d summoned it up, like some ghost or jinn. Indeed, wind is a curious creature, mysterious and intangible. We see the effects of the wind, rather than the wind itself. Yet we also feel its effects in the body as a disturbance in our field. Some people find this exciting, others troubling, while some are so distressed by it that they cannot leave the house.

These effects of wind are more common in the spring when the Wood Element, of which wind is a resonance, is in its ascendency. Any imbalance in this Element is more likely to be revealed in springtime when the Wood ‘tide’ is at its highest. Last month in South Australia we had 4 or 5 consecutive days of very strong, gusty winds, and I had numerous clients who felt very disturbed in themselves, couldn’t settle, and felt unusually agitated and irritable.

The Chinese character for wind is Feng (sounds like tongue).  The outer part of the character represents breath while inside is an insect. Ancient China was an agrarian economy, and damaging insects were abundant in spring when gusty winds were prevalent.

Feng suggests movement or motion, and wind conditions include those that produce shaking or jerking movements. According to the Ling Shu, its adverse influence is so great that “the sages avoided the winds like avoiding arrows and stones.” The Chinese practice of Fengshui (literally wind and water), recommends not living in a place where winds are strong as they are considered a malevolent force.

Pathogenic wind conditions are among the most numerous of diagnoses in Chinese medicine. This is largely because wind can act as a spearhead for other external climatic factors to penetrate the body. Thus, there are wind-cold, wind-heat, wind-damp and wind-dryness patterns. Of these, wind with cold is the most common. A person can be thus afflicted by being exposed to cold winds and rain, sleeping in a draught, or sitting in the flow of air conditioning.

Symptoms of wind-cold invasion include pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders, headache, running nose, cough, sneezing and fever, and an aversion to cold. The upper part of the Gall Bladder channel is particularly affected, as well as Bladder and Small Intestine channels where they pass through the neck and shoulders.

To complicate matters, there is also internal wind which is not caused by the external climatic factors. It is produced by blood or yin deficiency or internal heat, and primarily affects the Liver. Shaking or jerking conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s and restless leg syndrome are examples of internal wind. Conversely, paralysis and strokes are also thought to be the effects of internal wind. The 14th century physician Zhu Danxi coined the term windstroke, and in modern Chinese medicine, zhongfeng still means stroke.

If someone expresses an aversion to wind, or an unusual craving for it, this is considered to flag an imbalance in the Wood Element. While one would not diagnose a Wood imbalance solely on a person’s attitude to wind, if there are other Wood resonances present, this would be corroborating evidence. These might include issues with the organs of liver or gall bladder, the eyes, the tendons and ligaments, or signs and symptoms along the pathways of the Gall Bladder and Liver meridians. And certainly, a tendency to headaches and neck stiffness when in contact with wind, or a psychological disturbance when seeing the effects of wind outdoors, would lead one to a diagnosis of Wood imbalance.

Point names that include feng

Point names are very instructive as to their clinical uses, so anything with feng in the name is of interest here. There are six such points. All dispel wind from the body.

Gall Bladder 20FengchiWind Pool
Gall Bladder 31FengshiWind Market
Bladder 12FengmenWind Gate
Small Intestine 12BingfengGrasping the Wind
Triple Heater 17YifengWind Screen
Governor Vessel  16FengmenWind Palace

All these points are on yang channels, appropriate as wind is a yang pathogen. Most of them are in the neck and shoulder, in the yang half of the body, with only GB 31 in the leg as the exception. These points dispel wind, in particular from the part of the body where the pain or stiffness lodge: GB 20 and GV 16 at the occiput, TH 17 behind the ear, BL 12 and SI 12 in the shoulders.

GB 20 Wind Pool is located at the occiput, two fingers width lateral to the hollow at the base of the skull. Treats headaches and neck stiffness.

GB 31 Wind Market is located on the side of the leg where the tip of the middle finger lands when the arm is by the side. Treats pain the leg, sciatica, itching.

BL 12 Wind Gate is located in the upper back, two fingers width lateral to the midline at the level of the junction of the 2nd & 3rd thoracic vertebrae. Treats symptoms of common cold and fevers, neck and shoulder rigidity.

SI 12 Grasping the Wind is on the middle of the top of the scapula, in a depression found when the arm is raised. Benefits when there is difficulty raising the arm or turning the head. Treats pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders.

TH 17 Wind Screen is in the hollow behind the earlobe. Treats ear disorders, lockjaw, pain and swelling in the cheeks, toothache of the lower jaw.

GV 16 Wind Palace is in the middle of the occipital hollow at the base of the skull. Treats pain the head and neck, visual disturbances, shivering, sweating, loss of voice, high blood pressure. This is a powerful spirit point, calms the mind and spirit, regulates the nervous system, activates the vagus nerve.

Other points known to dispel wind include LU 10, LU 11, LI 11, LI 15, ST 6, ST 36, SP 6, BL 40, KI 2, HP 8, GB 30, GB 34, GB 38, LV 1, LV 2, LV 7, GV 20, GV 22, GV 26. Most of these points clear wind anywhere in the body, and in particular treat symptoms of wind in the local area of the point.

One final tip: sweating helps to eliminate wind. As the pores of the skin are considered to be the portals via which the wind enters the body, so too they can be the point of exit of the wind. Thererfore sweating can aid in the expulsion of wind. Just be careful not to sweat profusely while being exposed to wind.

Take care during the remainder of the spring. I’ll be back in the summer with a look at Heat.

Calm Perspetive

Rest and be Thankful, Argyll, Scotland

It’s been a strange summer in Australia. La Nina has given us more rain and lower temperatures than usual such that it seems summer has hardly started. So it might come as a surprise to hear that summer is drawing to a close. February 4th, midway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox, will be the start of Autumn, so we are already in the Late Summer season. I should by rights be writing about Earth points. But I too have been caught unawares of the lateness of the season.

Last time we looked at the xi-cleft points of the “Outer Fire” functions of Triple Heater and Heart Protector. Now we turn our attention to the “Inner Fire”, the actual organs of the Fire Element, Small Intestine and Heart. Xi-cleft points are typically used for acute conditions, blood conditions and for emotional overwhelm. Yet as we shall see, the use of the points extends wider than that frame.

Small Intestine 6 ~Yanglao ~ Support the Aged

The name of this point is intriguing. The left-hand character yang is composed of a sheep seen from behind together with spoons of boiled rice. The overall sense is one of gentle nurturing. Meanwhile the right-hand character lao depicts a 70 year-old man whose hair and beard have turned white. Yanglao can therefore be variously interpreted as Support the Old, Nourishing the Aged, or even Debra Katz’s elegant rendering, “The Nourishment and Cultivation of the Elders”. As a whitebeard approaching 70 myself, I find some affinity with these characters.

The organ of the small intestine is indeed devoted to the extraction of nourishment from food. However, the significance of the name lies in the fact that Small intestine 6 treats a range of conditions that tend to be experienced by the elderly: lower back pain, stiff and painful wrists, shoulder pain, joint pain, poor eyesight, deafness, toxicity, confusion and digestive problems. Many of these conditions lie along the pathway of the Small Intestine channel which travels from the little finger, up the side of the arm to the back of the shoulder, through the neck and finishes at the ear.

Yanglao therefore treats pain along the channel, especially in the shoulder and arm, pain so severe is feels as if there is fracture or dislocation.  It also treats lumbar pain with difficulty sitting and getting up, and foot pain with difficulty flexing and extending the foot. The channel connects with the outer and inner edges of the eye, so is known for eye problems, especially blurring and dimness of vision. It is believed to strengthen the constitution and help long standing conditions.

The yang xi-cleft points are known to work at the emotional level. The emotion of the Fire Element is joy, so in cases where there is a lack of joy, an absence of joi de vivre, Yanglao is good for raising the spirit. It is particularly called for when cynicism, sarcasm and bitterness from past experiences have replaced joy.

A psychological function of the Small Intestine is sorting. Just as the organ itself sorts the components of our food, absorbing that which is nourishing and passing out that which is not, our mind also sorts out the good from the bad experiences of life. When we are weighed down by the negative and have difficulty seeing the positive, Support the Aged can benefit us, no matter how old we are.

Heart 6 ~ Yinxi ~ Yin Cleft

We now reach the fourth of the Fire xi-cleft points. I’ve left this point until last because the Heart is the most delicate, most precious of all the organ-channels and must be approached with care and sensitivity. The ancient classic, the Ling Shu, (chapter 71) tells us that the Heart is the shelter of seminal essence and spirit and any appearance of injury there causes the spirit to depart. Injury therefore appears in the Heart Protector and it is that which must be treated. Some practitioners take this teaching to heart and do not use points of the Heart channel at all. I do treat Heart points, but I do so with the care and sensitivity they require.

Because xi-cleft points treat acute conditions, Heart 6 can be used to address heart pain, stabbing pain in the heart region, chest fullness, palpitations, racing heart from fright, epilepsy and loss of voice. Blood diseases are typically treated using the yin xi-cleft points. However for Blood conditions of the Heart, it is the Heart Protector that is better treated for reasons discussed above. It does however treat night sweats, dry mouth, insomnia and anxiety.

When a person has depleted their inner resources and there is a feeling of “running on empty”, Heart 6 is called for. The original meaning of the word yin was “the shady side of a mountain”. Yinxi can provide a cool and shady respite from the agitated mind, a calm space in which to rest, restore and find a new sense of perspective.

Location of Small Intestine 6

With the hand resting palm downwards, place a finger on the styloid process of the ulna, the large bump on the back of the wrist towards the little finger side. Now bring the hand so the palm is resting on the chest. Your finger will now be in a hollow on the radial (towards the thumb) side of the styloid process. This is Small Intestine 6.

Location of Heart 6

Find Heart 7 on the inner wrist crease, between two tendons and about a quarter of the way across the wrist from the ulnar (little finger) side. Heart 6 is half a cun (about the thickness of the little finger) proximal to (above) Heart 7.

Location of Small Intestine 6
Location of Heart 7