Acupuncture Large Intestine 4

AKA “He Gu”

People find it interesting that each berkeley acupuncture point has several indications… sort of like a recipe, depending on what ingredients it’s paired with in the recipe this dictates what role it plays in the dish or in this case, treatment.   

For example, Large Intestine 4 is great for many, many things.  It’s actually one of the most common points we needle.  If paired with Stomach points, I can balance any digestion issue.  I find that if I pair it with Kidney points, I can dictate it’s role to allow the body to let go emotionally.  Paired with a particular point on the Gall Bladder channel on the top of the shoulder, I can facilitate labor and delivery!  This for me as a practitioner is why I find Chinese medicine so fascinating, there’s a so many options and directions you can take the body. 

Here’s the more specific indications from a Chinese medicine perspective:

Traditional Chinese medicine actions:

Activates defensive qi and adjusts sweating 

Expels wind and releases the exterior 

Regulates the face, eyes, nose, mouth and ears 

Activates the channel and alleviates pain 

Induces labour 

Restores the yang

Traditional Chinese medicine indications:

Exterior wind-cold patterns, chills and fever, injury by cold with great thirst, copious sweating, absence of sweating, febrile disease with absence of sweating, floating pulse. 

Headache, one-sided headache, headahce of the whole head, hypertension. 

Redness, swelling and pain of the eyes, dimness of vision, superficial visual obstruction. 

Nosebleed, nasal congestion and discharge, rhinitis, sneezing. 

Toothache or pain of tooth decay in the lower jaw, mouth ulcers, lotus flower tongue, cracked tongue, rigid tongue, lips do not close, tightness of the lips. 

Throat painful obstruction, childhood throat moth, mumps, loss of voice. 

Swelling of the face, deviation of the face and mouth, lockjaw, deafness, tinnitus. 

Amenorrhoea, prolonged labour, delayed labour, retention of dead foetus. 

Dysenteric disorder, childhood nutritional impairment, childhood fright wind, wind rash, malaria, mania. 

Painful obstruction and atrophy disorder of the four limbs, hemiplegia, pain of the sinews and bones, pain of the arm, contraction of the fingers, pain of the lumbar spine.

As a patient, you can even massage this point and reap the benefits of the above.  I’ve found through massage it can work instantaneously for a sinus or forehead headache!

In Health,

Christina Martin, L.Ac.

Acupuncture Point of the Week: Large Intestine 4

Tao to Wellness

An Acupuncture wellness center in Berkeley