Gallbladder Luo-Connecting Channel

The Gallbladder Luo-Connecting Channel pathway shows why Gallbladder 37, its luo point, is so effective.

The Gallbladder luo pathway starts at Gallbladder 37.

It then joins up with the primary channel of its partner channel, the Liver. (Click on that to see where it goes.)

It then travels downwards and spreads out in the dorsum of the foot.

 

 

 

Symptoms of Gallbladder Luo

All Luo-connecting channels have great influence in maintaining health and mental equilibrium. The following symptoms for the Gallbladder luo channel were described by the ancient Chinese, and mostly arise because of the way it joins up with the Liver primary channel:

• Symptoms of Fullness: fainting. There would almost certainly be other symptoms of Fullness too! Fainting may due to a number of syndromes in Chinese medicine.
• Symptoms of Emptiness: weakness and loss of tone in the lower limbs and feet, and difficulty standing up from a sitting position 

• Heat: redness and inflammation in the eyes; nosebleed, bitter taste, thirst.
• If Heat combines with Damp (ie Gallbladder Damp-Heat) there may also be yellowness, and hypochondriacal distension and/or pain.

Comment on Gallbladder luo

Knowing how to treat the Luo-connecting vessels gives acupuncturists great flexibility and understanding of how pain and discomfort accumulate in the body, and how this trapped Qi can be helped.

The luo-connecting points have many attributes, including the ability to stop bleeding and ease pain.

They also have mental potential, helping to calm patients when used correctly for the appropriate syndromes.

If you think about the state someone healthy and active gets into when they have a sudden eye infection or damage in the eye – even a piece of sand/grit in the eye making it impossible to use the eye(s) without great discomfort, meaning they can’t see – you can infer the mental condition here. It’s a feeling of both fullness and deficiency. On the one hand you’ve got something in your eye which is intensely uncomfortable and pressure and rubbing make it worse. This is ‘fullness’. On the other hand, you can’t use the eye to see with, it’s unable to bring you information because it’s not working properly: deficiency. The gallbladder luo channel symptoms describe it beautifully.

This ability to stop bleeding and ease pain applies particularly to the eyes, and makes Gallbladder 37 such a useful point for them.