Friday, August 20, 2010

Heart of Hearts Channel

"The Heart is the root of life, it is reflected in the blood vessels and it's Qi communicates with the tongue".

-Ling Shu, circa 500BC.

Another Yin organ, this is a short meridian with only 9 points.  It is paired with the Small Intestine (who the heck figured that out?) and both organs element is Fire.  It flows from the chest to fingers, where Si flows from fingers to face.  It starts in the center of the armpit, and runs down the arm on the anterior medial aspect to the elbow, where it continues towards the base of the wrist and out to the lateral edge of the base of the little finger's nail bed.  This runs on the pathway that cardiac pain is reported on.  Funny how these things line up...

It communicates with the Small Intestine with the Yuan source point at H7 (ShenMen) and Luo Connecting point, Tongli (H5).

It is worth noting that the Heart and Pericardium organs with their channels form one functional unit, and that the brain, heart and pericardium are closely related.  So if you want to treat the brain, treat the heart or pericardium channels.

Clinically, it's used for
  • Diseases along the channel
  • Heart diseases
  • Mental disorders (Heart is related to the Brain)
  • Tremors, chorea-athetosis (involuntary movements, and in the case of athetosis, a continuous stream of slow, involuntary movements, such as abnormal writhing of the hands) and parkinsonism.
  • Speech disorders (as the Heart connects to the tongue)
  • Autonomic disturbances, such as increased sweating
Commonly used points

H3, Midway between the medial end of the elbow crease and medial epicondyle of the humerus when the elbow is fully flexed.  Good for anything elbow related, like tennis or golfer's elbow, tremors of the forearm, numbness in the upper limb, angina pectoris and chorea, athetosis and Parkinson's disease.

H5  Tongli, Luo Connecting point.  1 cun proximal to H7 on the radial side of the tendon of the flexor carpi ulnaris.  Good for Aphasia (total speech impairment), dyspasia (partial speech impairment), hoarse voice and stammering

H6 Yinxi, Xi-Cleft point.  0.5 cun proximal to H7, good for angina pectoris, palpitation and excessive sweating.  As with all Xi-Cleft points, this is excellent for treating acute disorders of the heart, maniac behavior, severe depression, chest pains and palpitations.

H7 Shenmen  Yuan-Source point, important Tranquilizer point.  Known as "God's Door".  Indicated for Palpitation, anxiety, hysteria, insomnia, mental disorders and arrhythmia of the heart.  The other important tranquilizer points are Du20 and P6.  Ear Shen Men has similar results.  I often use Ub62 (another "Shen" point) to assist in relaxing patients.

H8  Shaofu.  Good for anything palm, arthritis of the hand and carpal joints, Duputryen's contracture (trigger finger)

H9  Shaochung, Jing well.  .1 cun proximal to the radial corner of the nail of the little finger.  Excellent for pain in the chest, apoplexy (bleeding during a cerbrovascular event), palpitation and other acute emergencies.  Drawing a drop of blood from H9 is an ideal treatment for migraine.

Review of points, names and TCM functions:

H1  Jiquan
H2 Qingling
H3 Shaohai - water point
H4 Lingdao - metal point
H5 Tongli, Luo-connecting point
H6 Yinxi, Xi-Cleft point
H7 Shenmen, Yuan source point, Earth point
H8 Shaofu, Fire point
H9 Shaochong  Jing well, wood point.

The deep circulation of the heart meridian starts in the Organ Heart and Pericardium.  It has an internal connection to the small intestine and all other Zang-Fu organs.  A deep connection runs upwards along the esophagus to connect with the tongue and the brain (via the eyes).  The energy flows into the superficial  channel from inside the armpit.

Heart Syndromes

Channel Disorders, Pain along the medial aspect of the upper limb, night sweating, dryness of the throat

Organ Disorders:  5 main categories:
  1. Insufficent Qi of the Heart:  This is usually caused by asthenia (weakness) after a prolonged illness.  Symptoms are palpitations, dysnopea, profuse sweating, mental confusion and thready pulse
  2. Deficient of Yin of the Heart:  This can result from prolonged febrile illness or mental worry.  Manifests as insomnia, poor memory and dream-disturbed sleep
  3. Stagnation of blood in the Heart:  Stagnation of Qi and blood occurs when the heart is too weak to circulate the blood.  Symptoms are of cardiac failure.
  4. Hyperactivity of the Fire of the Heart:  This syndrome is due to anxiety.  The symptoms include insomnia, fever with red tongue, bitter taste and flushed face
  5. Derangement of the Mind:  This syndrome is due to depression of the qi by high fever, coma and delerium.  Severe mental symptoms may result.
It's interesting to note that I had several patients in this week with several of these conditions.  In particular, a young lady was in last night with extreme anxiety, unable to even decide which ice cream to by for fear of picking a flavor that her husband doesn't enjoy enough.  She had Hyperactivity of Fire for sure.  Red face, dry complexion but flushed, and insomnia in spades.

Another fellow was in yesterday on a gift certificate, and he had trembling of the upper limbs, and was taking the longest list of medications I've seen in a long time.  His heart qi was deficient. 

That's the scoop on the heart meridian.  In practice, I am a big fan of H7, and rarely use the other heart points.  Although, I've used H3 on occasion to help with tennis elbow that didn't respond to Li11.  Li11 is my preferred point for tennis elbow.

Well, that's the scoop on the heart meridian!  On to it's paired organ, the Small Intestine!

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