
Itchy Skin – Skin Itching
Itchy skin may not be serious but still! – it can drive you mad: which is serious! Discover the four main causes in Chinese medicine.
Lung point 8, Jing Qu, is the eighth point on the Lung acupuncture channel
This starts in the area of the stomach, rises through the lungs, and emerges in front of the shoulder at the level of the second rib.
Jing Qu has two main characteristics, partly explained below:
On the anterior forearm, ‘Channel Gutter’ lies about 1 cun proximal to the wrist crease on the radial side of the radial artery at the base of the styloid process.
This puts it on the line between Lung point 5 and Lung point 9.
To find it, run a finger from the wrist crease at Lung point 9 up the arm. Where it tips over the styloid process into the depression proximal to the radial bone is the point. It can be a little sore if pressed hard.
Acupuncturists sometimes worry that they’ll pierce the radial artery here, so they avoid it for that reason, but to breach the wall of an artery requires more force than most acupuncturists would ever think of employing.
No more than 0.5 cun at the most.
Usually felt towards the thumb.
No moxibustion on this point. The skin is too thin.
This point isn’t much used although it’s hard to understand why not.
Lung point 8 is the Metal point, it’s the Jing-River point (which means it is a powerful point for treating cough and difficulty in breathing, chills and fever) so you’d think it would be used to back up Lung point 7 orLung point 6 or perhaps Bladder 13 for full conditions: but it’s not.
Don’t know why.
Well, actually I do: it’s because many acupuncturists realise that it lies very close to the radial artery, is a shallow point because of the underlying radial bone, and it is therefore difficult, having obtained deqi, to send qi in the desired direction: there isn’t much room to manipulate the needle.
Also, other points are recommended in class and literature more often so, like sheep, we use them.
I don’t even use it much myself: perhaps I should, especially because, being the Metal point of a Metal channel, it has a purifying effect, strengthening the Lungs’ function: a little like the meaning of Lung point 4.
This point’s name, however, is Channel Gutter: this suggests the potential to drain undesirable qi, damp or phlegm: a clarifying, cleansing action, which is just what’s needed when your lungs are full of grunge, your mind is depressed and your spirit forlorn.
Our minds easily get obsessed these days, with money worries or the internet, friendships or our appearance. All of these tend to make us sit or stand with shoulders slumped, chest compressed.
Think of the benefits of striding uphill, body erect, deep cleansing breaths, and the sense of space and achievement we get from cresting a hill-top and seeing the city below: for a moment standing back from the hurly-burly and giving ourselves a more god-like vantage.
(Today’s Resolution: should use this point more often!)
Click here to return from Lung Point 8 to Acupuncture Point Locations.
Lung-1 | Zhongfu | Middle Mansion |
Lung-2 | Yunmen | Cloud Gate |
Lung-3 | Tianfu | Heavenly Palace |
Lung-4 | Xiabai | Protecting White |
Lung-5 | Chize | Foot Marsh |
Lung-6 | Kongxui | Great Opening |
Lung-7 | Lique | Broken Sequence |
Lung-8 | Jingqu | Channel Gutter |
Lung-9 | Taiyuan | Great Abyss |
Lung-10 | Yujo | Fish Region |
Lung-11 | Shaoshang | Lesser Shang |
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