There’s an entire subset of acupuncturists that believe in only using one acupuncture point per session.
To my traditional Chinese Medicine trained brain, that’s wild as I was trained to use more points, but this concept fascinates me so I’ve played with it here and there for myself.
Turns out it works.
In school we’re taught to not needle ourselves because acupuncture is best done by someone else, but I’ve found that to be BS as I get plenty of great results on myself.
Speaking of which, I see a lot of benefit from needling my favorite point as well as using my tuning forks on it, tapping on it and pressing it too.
One that’s often studied in research to be one of the greatest anti-inflammatory points of all time.
Stomach 36. (Here’s: the best image I could find for a demo).
Located just below the bottom line of the kneecap and laterally by about two fingers and down another finger width.
This point is great for boosting the immune system, soothing stomach aches, and helping with inflammation in the stomach channel as well as leg swelling.
I tend to pair it with other points, like Stomach 25 (2″ lateral to each side of the belly button) or Ren 12 (halfway between the belly button and the xyphoid process) that vary, yet I always keep Stomach 36 in the mix. (Side note: I inject GLPs and other peptides into these abdominal points for added benefit).
The fun part about stomach 36 is that you can feel it while running your finger over your skin.
I challenge you to try it right now, it feels like a divot or almost sticky.
If you don’t feel it on the surface of your skin you can feel it above the skin by an inch or two.
Try it, put your fingers over the area and see if you feel anything pulling on your fingertips.
Either way, now that you know where the point is you can tap it, press it, or hold it for 30-60 seconds x 3 rounds to help with lowering inflammation as part of a total health protocol.
Who’s this point best for?
Someone who has sock lines, ankle swelling, chronic gut issues, or someone who just feels puffy and inflamed a lot!
Bonus points to put topical magnesium, grapefruit or a citrus essential oil, ginger, or even cedar oil on the point and tap on it a bit.
In China this point is often heated up with moxibustion (compressed wormwood that’s lit on fire) to ward off colds and flus.
While I don’t recommend putting something like that near your skin unless you’ve been trained, you can put red light therapy over it or even a heating pad and a little castor oil.
The options are endless!
Over the next few weeks I’ll be adding in some fun acupressure and acupuncture points to help you create a toolbox to work on between acupuncture sessions or as an aside to whatever health protocols you’re working on.
Have questions or wonder about points for certain things, hit reply, I’d love to help!
Here’s to using acupressure for your health,
Dr. J
