Understanding the Heart Channel in TCM

Hey, this is Nicholas, and let's talk about the Han Shao Yin heart channel. Like always, let's start by looking at the functions of the heart. Understanding the functions of the organ and the normal channel physiology will give us some insight into what happens when things go wrong, and under which circumstances we would want to select points from the heart channel for treatment. So we start with chapter 8 of the Su Wen. This is the chapter where each organ is assigned a government office. For example, the heart is the emperor, The lung is the prime minister, and the liver is the general commanding the troops, and so on. So about the heart, chapter 8 says, The heart holds the office of emperor and is the issuer of spirit clarity. So the heart is the ruler of the other organs and pretty much governs all the body's functions. And it houses spirit clarity, or shen ming. What do we mean by that? What the hell is a shen, and how come it's lopsided? In Wang Juyi's book, applied channel theory in Chinese medicine. He describes spirit clarity as the intelligence that allows a being to recognize and interact with its environment. So when there's a disruption of this ability to recognize or interact with the external environment, we call that shen disturbance. Some examples of severe shen disturbance are things like unconsciousness or coma. when a person is completely unable to recognize or interact with their environment, or things like delirium, manic raving, seeing ghosts, or taking off one's clothes and ascending to high places to sing. Even though the person is conscious and speaking, they're not actually able to recognize or interact intelligently with their environment. Less severe forms of Shen disturbance that we're more likely to see in clinical practice are things like anxiety, vexation, or anger, or irritability. fogginess or clouded thinking, or even poor memory. These all represent a mild disturbance in our ability to interact with our environment. So this is going to be a recurring theme with this channel, and pretty much all of the points have some action of calming the Shen. So when we look at the functions of the heart, the first one is pretty obvious. The heart commands the blood and the blood vessels. Just like in Western medicine, the heart is a pump that circulates blood throughout the body. Clinically, this comes up when we see things like chest pain or heart pain, irregular heart rhythm, or palpitations. Next, the heart stores the shen. The shen is supposed to return to its abode in the heart every night so that we can sleep peacefully. So in addition to our other forms of shen disturbance, like anxiety and irritability, we can also use the heart channel to treat things like insomnia or dream-disturbed sleep. So like we said, pretty much every point on this channel calms the shen. So what we're going to have to differentiate is by which way does it treat shen disturbance? What's the root cause? Is there some deficiency of qi, blood, or yin making the heart unable to house the shen? Therefore our treatment principle is to nourish the heart. Or is there qi stagnation agitating the heart? So our treatment principle is to regulate heart qi to calm shen. Or is there heat or fire harassing the heart and we need to clear heat to calm shen? Or is their phlegm misting the heart orifices, clouding the shen? So even though all the points calm shen, they're each going to go about it in a different way. Next, the heart opens to the tongue, or sprouts in the tongue. This is used diagnostically. We can look at the tongue to know the state of the heart. But this also means that we can use the heart channel to treat disorders of the tongue and the voice. Things like loss of voice, or aphasia, stuttering, or problems of the physical tongue itself, like stiffness or pain of the tongue. The heart governs sweating. Now don't get confused because the lung also has something to do with sweating, but that's because it regulates the exterior, regulates the wei qi, and governs the opening and closing of the pores. But the sweat itself is the fluid of the heart, so for sweating due to deficiency of the wei qi, especially daytime sweating, you'll probably want to choose lung points. Points on the heart channel treat sweating, but they tend to be used more for night sweats that occur with yin deficiency. Next, the heart manifests in the complexion. Again, we can use this diagnostically by observing the patient's face and complexion to understand the state of their shen. And we can also use this in treatment for things like redness in the face or an expressionless face. Some other things we can say about the heart. The emotion associated with the heart is joy. This can be a good thing because joy moderates the other emotions. But this can also be bad when it's out of balance. For example, we can see excess joy in the case of mania or mad laughter, or we can see lack of joy in the case of depression. So many of the points on this channel, as part of their function of calming shen, can deal with mania and depression or situations of excess joy or lack of joy. Also in terms of emotions, the heart is affected by fright. Think of someone having a panic attack. I've got to get out of here. I've got to get out of here. Calm down. Get a hold of yourself. Stewardess, please let me handle this. I've got to get out of here. Calm down. Now get back to your seat. I'll take care of this. Calm down. Calm down. Get a hold of yourself. Their heart starts pounding, their face gets flushed, their palms get sweaty, they may babble incoherently, and they may lose the ability to interact with their environment. These are all signs that the emotion of fright is affecting the heart and disturbing the shen. So for these types of conditions, it's very common to use points on the heart channel as part of treatment. And finally, we can briefly mention that the heart is connected to the uterus through the baomai, or the uterine channel. So this will just pop up in a couple of our point functions that the points are able to treat things like uterine bleeding or uterine prolapse. So those are the functions of the heart. Next, we want to look at the channel pathways. Knowing where the channels go and what tissues they connect to can further our understanding of what these points can treat. But before we do that, let's remember where we are in the cycle. Remember the basic flow of the channels through the body. The channels go from chest to hand, hand to face, face to foot, and then foot back to chest. And then it repeats. So the lung channel goes from chest to hand, the large intestine channel goes from hand to face, the stomach channel goes from face to foot, and the spleen channel... from foot to chest. So now here we are back at the beginning with the heart channel going from the chest to the hand. So when we look at the primary channel, the heart channel begins in the heart organ. Remember our last channel in the cycle was the spleen channel and its linkage was this internal pathway from ren 10 to the heart organ. And so that's where the heart channel begins. This is probably worth remembering because the heart channel is the only channel that begins in its own organ. The heart channel then emerges from the system of blood vessels surrounding the heart. One of our functions of the heart was governing the blood vessels, so we see here that the channel pathway makes that possible. And we'll see this come up in the point functions, being able to treat chest pain. We have another branch that goes down to the small intestine. Remember one of the functions of the primary channels is to strengthen the connection between yin and yang paired organs, so every channel connects with its own organ and its yin-yang pair. via the internal pathway. So that's what's happening here with this branch. Then we have another branch that goes up alongside the esophagus to the tissue surrounding the eye. So when we get to the point functions, we'll see that points on this channel can treat throat problems and eye problems because of this channel pathway. Then, besides the heart and small intestine, this channel also connects to the lung. You can think of this like in Western medicine. We group these two organs together into the cardiopulmonary system. Or the way we express this in TCM language is, the lung governs qi and the heart governs blood. So these two organs work together to circulate qi and blood throughout the entire body. Or you can think of it in terms of the government offices. The heart is the emperor that rules over everything, while the lung is the prime minister that takes care of the day-to-day details. So these two organs have a connection, and they share a residence in the upper jiao as part of their role of governing the entire body. So from a theoretical perspective, this connection between the heart and the lung is pretty important. But from a clinical point of view, we don't really see much significance here in terms of the point functions. When we think about common lung disorders like cough, wheezing, asthma, or shortness of breath, none of the points on the heart channel address these conditions. After that, the channel emerges at the axilla and goes down the arm to the little finger. It connects to the next channel, the small intestine channel, at SI1. which is also on the little finger. So when we look at the pathologies of the heart channel, these should all make sense. We can treat cardiac pain, palpitations, and rib side pain because the channel starts in the heart and there's that circular pathway in the chest that surrounds the heart. We can treat insomnia because the heart houses the shen and we can treat night sweats because sweat is the fluid of the heart. In cases of yin deficiency, we can treat dry throat and thirst because the channel goes to the throat. And then of course, we can treat pain along the... pathway of the channel. And we can treat heat sensation in the palms, which is another common sign of yin deficiency, mal or flush or heat in the face, and five center heat or heat in the palms. Next we have the low connecting channel. Remember all low connecting channels start at the low connecting point, in this case heart five, and all low channels connect to their yin yang paired channel, in this case the small intestine. It follows the course of the primary channel into the heart. and then it goes up to the face, connecting to the root of the tongue and the eye. This is going to be important because we'll see later on that heart five is a major point for treating things like loss of voice, stiff tongue, and red eyes. The great compendium of acupuncture and moxibustion lists deficiency and excess conditions for all the low channels. So here we see inability to speak, which makes sense because the low channel goes to the tongue, and fullness of the chest, which makes sense because the low channel goes to the heart. Next. is the divergent channel. It separates at the axillary fossa and enters the chest to connect to the heart organ. Remember one of the functions of the divergent channels is to supply qi and blood to the head and face. So we see that here with the channel going up to the face, again connecting with the eye, but this time specifically connecting to the inner canthus of the eye. Remember another characteristic of divergent channels is that they all connect with their yang paired channel. So here the heart divergent channel is connecting with the small intestine channel at UB1. So we call this point the upper uniting point, and that means that needling this point can affect both the heart divergent channel and the small intestine divergent channel, since they both unite here. The sinew channel looks a lot like the primary channel. It starts at the little finger, binds at the wrist, the elbow, and the axilla. Then it goes across the chest and descends to the umbilicus. The fact that it goes to the umbilicus is interesting, but I'm not sure it has any clinical significance other than the fact that we sometimes talk about palpitations that are so severe they can be felt in the umbilicus, and the pathway of this channel explains why. So now that we understand the functions of the heart and the pathways of the channel, let's talk about the points. Heart 1, Ji Chuan, Summit Spring, is located in the depression at the center of the axilla. This point is interesting because it sits right at the junction between the internal pathway, going into the chest, and the external pathway, going down the arm. So this point can be used to treat both aspects of the channel. For the internal pathway, it unbinds the chest, treating rib side pain and cardiac pain. And for the external pathway, it treats pain in the shoulder and arm. This point also nourishes yin and clears deficiency heat. It treats dry throat and thirst. Remember that branch of the internal pathway? runs alongside the esophagus, and it can also treat shen problems resulting from deficiency heat. Heart 2 is 3-sune proximal to the elbow crease. This is one that people tend to mix up during location tests. So remember, lung 3 is 3-sune down from the axillary fold, but heart 2 is 3-sune up from the elbow crease. Then we also have pericardium 2, which is 2-sune down from the axillary fold, so that makes things even more complicated. So just make sure you remember the location for this one. Other than that, it's not a very interesting point. It's on the arm, so it's good for the arm. Heart 3 is called Shaohai, Lesser Sea. The Shao here is referring to the fact that it's on the Shaoyin Channel, so we'll see a few points on the heart channel with Shao in the name, and that's why. Heart 3 is a He Sea point and a Water point. This is kind of an interesting thing. We have a lot of He Sea points on the elbow that are named after bodies of water, like marshes and pools and seas. And they all share this function of clearing heat. So here, heart 3 clears heat to treat shen problems like mania and laughter, and also clears heat from the channel. Remember we have an internal pathway that goes up to the face, so here we see heart 3 treating heat in the face. We also see this interesting thing here, that heart 3 transforms phlegm to treat certain shen problems like poor memory. Now you'd think this would be a big deal, because it's the only point on the heart channel that treats phlegm. But it turns out that clinically, it's just not used very much. For heart phlegm, we're much more likely to choose points like stomach 40. Remember, the stomach divergent channel passes through the heart, so we can also use stomach points to treat heart problems. Even Maciocha, in his point prescription for phlegm misting the heart, he uses pericardium 5 as the main point, and then stomach 40 for phlegm. Heart 3 doesn't even show up. So that means that really the main function of this point is, it's on the elbow, so it's good for the elbow. It's also indicated for tremor or trembling of the hand and arm, or for things like B-syndrome, numbness, or hemiplegia after a stroke. Heart 4, Ling Dao, Spirit Path, is the Jing River Point on the heart channel. Remember, Jing River Points are indicated for diseases manifesting as a change in the patient's voice, and for diseases of the sinews and bones. So we see both of those functions represented here. Heart 4 benefits the voice, treating sudden voice loss, and it also relaxes the muscles and sinews treating pain in the arm, elbow, and hand. Heart 5 is a very important point. It's a low connecting point, so let's recall the functions of the low connecting points. Number 1, they treat their yin-yang paired channel. Number 2, they treat the pathway of the low connecting channel. And number 3, they can treat certain psycho-emotional disorders. So low points treat emotional disorders, and the heart houses the shen. So putting those two together, we can say that heart five is a pretty good point for settling the emotions. So here we see it treating things like sadness, anger, fright, and depression. Lowell points also treat disorders along the lowell connecting channel. Remember we said that the heart lowell channel connects to the tongue and the eyes. So here we see it treating things like voice loss, stuttering, and stiff tongue, as well as things like red eyes and eye pain. And then, low points also treat disorders of the yin-yang paired channel, in this case the small intestine. So that's why we see this point treating certain urination problems, such as enuresis, or urinary incontinence. The way we explain this is, heart heat is pouring into the small intestine. Since the small intestine is the tai-yang pair of the urinary bladder, this heat pouring into the small intestine can cause urination problems. Heart 5 regulates heart rhythm, so it can be used to treat... palpitations and irregular heartbeat. And then heart five also treats uterine bleeding. Remember we said that the heart is connected to the uterus through the baomai, the uterine channel? So here we see heart five treating uterine bleeding. So heart five is such a useful point that Ma Dan Yang listed it among his 12 heavenly star points for the treatment of aphasia, vexation and anger, and palpitations. Basically, this point is so good at treating these conditions that some guy wrote a song about it. Next is heart 6, and the name of this point is yin-xi, which tells us the two major attributes of this point. Number one, it tonifies heart yin, especially for treating night sweats. And number two, the xi means it's a xi cleft point. Remember, xi cleft points treat acute conditions and pain. So we see that here with chest pain, cardiac pain, and sudden loss of voice. And also, on the yin channels, xi cleft points have an additional function of treating blood disorders. either blood stagnation or bleeding. So we see here heart 6 treating hemoptysis and epistaxis, or coughing up blood and nosebleed, and also blood stagnation in the chest. Heart 7 is called shen men, spirit gate, and its main function is calming the shen. It's a yuan source point, so it tonifies the organ. In this case, it tonifies everything, qi, blood, yin, and yang. But it's especially useful for shen problems due to blood deficiency. If we wanted to compare heart 5 and heart 7 in terms of calming shen, Dedman says that heart 5 is better for emotional disorders such as anger, sadness, and fright, while heart 7 is better for insomnia and forgetfulness. According to Machiocha, heart 5 tonifies qi to calm shen, whereas heart 7 tonifies blood to calm shen. In fact, he says it's the number one point for insomnia and anxiety due to heart blood deficiency. Heart 8 is the yin spring and fire point, and spring points clear heat. This point not only clears heat from the heart, treating shen problems such as palpitation and fright, it also clears heat from the small intestine, again treating this pattern of heart heat pouring into the small intestine, presenting with symptoms like urination problems and itching of the genitals. Heart 8 also regulates heart qi, treating shen problems due to qi stagnation. The idea here is the stagnation is coming from the liver. So that's why we see things like sighing and plum-pit chi, which are more typical liver signs. And again, we see this connection between the heart and the uterus, this time treating uterine prolapse. Heart 9 is a Jing-Well point, and we see all the functions of the Jing-Well points represented here. It revives consciousness, especially after a stroke. It treats the upper end of the channel, in this case the tongue, throat, and eyes. And it treats fullness below the heart, for things like cardiac pain, chest pain, and palpitation. So that's the hand, shao yin, heart channel. I hope you enjoyed it because that's all for today. Thanks and see you next time. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you'd like to test your knowledge, you can head over to TCMstudy.net and take a practice quiz on this topic. The link is in the description below. You can also find more videos on both acupuncture and Chinese herbs also in the description below. See you next time.

For example, the heart is the emperor, The lung is the prime minister, and the liver is the general commanding the troops, and so on. So about the heart, chapter 8 says, The heart holds the office of emperor and is the issuer of spirit clarity. So the heart is the ruler of the other organs and pretty much governs all the body's functions. And it houses spirit clarity, or shen ming.

What do we mean by that? What the hell is a shen, and how come it's lopsided? In Wang Juyi's book, applied channel theory in Chinese medicine. He describes spirit clarity as the intelligence that allows a being to recognize and interact with its environment.

So when there's a disruption of this ability to recognize or interact with the external environment, we call that shen disturbance. Some examples of severe shen disturbance are things like unconsciousness or coma. when a person is completely unable to recognize or interact with their environment, or things like delirium, manic raving, seeing ghosts, or taking off one's clothes and ascending to high places to sing.

Even though the person is conscious and speaking, they're not actually able to recognize or interact intelligently with their environment. Less severe forms of Shen disturbance that we're more likely to see in clinical practice are things like anxiety, vexation, or anger, or irritability. fogginess or clouded thinking, or even poor memory. These all represent a mild disturbance in our ability to interact with our environment. So this is going to be a recurring theme with this channel, and pretty much all of the points have some action of calming the Shen.

So when we look at the functions of the heart, the first one is pretty obvious. The heart commands the blood and the blood vessels. Just like in Western medicine, the heart is a pump that circulates blood throughout the body.

Clinically, this comes up when we see things like chest pain or heart pain, irregular heart rhythm, or palpitations. Next, the heart stores the shen. The shen is supposed to return to its abode in the heart every night so that we can sleep peacefully.

So in addition to our other forms of shen disturbance, like anxiety and irritability, we can also use the heart channel to treat things like insomnia or dream-disturbed sleep. So like we said, pretty much every point on this channel calms the shen. So what we're going to have to differentiate is by which way does it treat shen disturbance? What's the root cause? Is there some deficiency of qi, blood, or yin making the heart unable to house the shen?

Therefore our treatment principle is to nourish the heart. Or is there qi stagnation agitating the heart? So our treatment principle is to regulate heart qi to calm shen.

Or is there heat or fire harassing the heart and we need to clear heat to calm shen? Or is their phlegm misting the heart orifices, clouding the shen? So even though all the points calm shen, they're each going to go about it in a different way. Next, the heart opens to the tongue, or sprouts in the tongue.

This is used diagnostically. We can look at the tongue to know the state of the heart. But this also means that we can use the heart channel to treat disorders of the tongue and the voice. Things like loss of voice, or aphasia, stuttering, or problems of the physical tongue itself, like stiffness or pain of the tongue. The heart governs sweating.

Now don't get confused because the lung also has something to do with sweating, but that's because it regulates the exterior, regulates the wei qi, and governs the opening and closing of the pores. But the sweat itself is the fluid of the heart, so for sweating due to deficiency of the wei qi, especially daytime sweating, you'll probably want to choose lung points. Points on the heart channel treat sweating, but they tend to be used more for night sweats that occur with yin deficiency. Next, the heart manifests in the complexion.

Again, we can use this diagnostically by observing the patient's face and complexion to understand the state of their shen. And we can also use this in treatment for things like redness in the face or an expressionless face. Some other things we can say about the heart. The emotion associated with the heart is joy. This can be a good thing because joy moderates the other emotions.

But this can also be bad when it's out of balance. For example, we can see excess joy in the case of mania or mad laughter, or we can see lack of joy in the case of depression. So many of the points on this channel, as part of their function of calming shen, can deal with mania and depression or situations of excess joy or lack of joy. Also in terms of emotions, the heart is affected by fright. Think of someone having a panic attack.

I've got to get out of here. I've got to get out of here. Calm down. Get a hold of yourself.

Stewardess, please let me handle this. I've got to get out of here. Calm down.

Now get back to your seat. I'll take care of this. Calm down.

Calm down. Get a hold of yourself. Their heart starts pounding, their face gets flushed, their palms get sweaty, they may babble incoherently, and they may lose the ability to interact with their environment. These are all signs that the emotion of fright is affecting the heart and disturbing the shen.

So for these types of conditions, it's very common to use points on the heart channel as part of treatment. And finally, we can briefly mention that the heart is connected to the uterus through the baomai, or the uterine channel. So this will just pop up in a couple of our point functions that the points are able to treat things like uterine bleeding or uterine prolapse.

So those are the functions of the heart. Next, we want to look at the channel pathways. Knowing where the channels go and what tissues they connect to can further our understanding of what these points can treat.

But before we do that, let's remember where we are in the cycle. Remember the basic flow of the channels through the body. The channels go from chest to hand, hand to face, face to foot, and then foot back to chest. And then it repeats.

So the lung channel goes from chest to hand, the large intestine channel goes from hand to face, the stomach channel goes from face to foot, and the spleen channel... from foot to chest. So now here we are back at the beginning with the heart channel going from the chest to the hand.

So when we look at the primary channel, the heart channel begins in the heart organ. Remember our last channel in the cycle was the spleen channel and its linkage was this internal pathway from ren 10 to the heart organ. And so that's where the heart channel begins.

This is probably worth remembering because the heart channel is the only channel that begins in its own organ. The heart channel then emerges from the system of blood vessels surrounding the heart. One of our functions of the heart was governing the blood vessels, so we see here that the channel pathway makes that possible.

And we'll see this come up in the point functions, being able to treat chest pain. We have another branch that goes down to the small intestine. Remember one of the functions of the primary channels is to strengthen the connection between yin and yang paired organs, so every channel connects with its own organ and its yin-yang pair. via the internal pathway.

So that's what's happening here with this branch. Then we have another branch that goes up alongside the esophagus to the tissue surrounding the eye. So when we get to the point functions, we'll see that points on this channel can treat throat problems and eye problems because of this channel pathway.

Then, besides the heart and small intestine, this channel also connects to the lung. You can think of this like in Western medicine. We group these two organs together into the cardiopulmonary system. Or the way we express this in TCM language is, the lung governs qi and the heart governs blood.

So these two organs work together to circulate qi and blood throughout the entire body. Or you can think of it in terms of the government offices. The heart is the emperor that rules over everything, while the lung is the prime minister that takes care of the day-to-day details.

So these two organs have a connection, and they share a residence in the upper jiao as part of their role of governing the entire body. So from a theoretical perspective, this connection between the heart and the lung is pretty important. But from a clinical point of view, we don't really see much significance here in terms of the point functions.

When we think about common lung disorders like cough, wheezing, asthma, or shortness of breath, none of the points on the heart channel address these conditions. After that, the channel emerges at the axilla and goes down the arm to the little finger. It connects to the next channel, the small intestine channel, at SI1.

which is also on the little finger. So when we look at the pathologies of the heart channel, these should all make sense. We can treat cardiac pain, palpitations, and rib side pain because the channel starts in the heart and there's that circular pathway in the chest that surrounds the heart. We can treat insomnia because the heart houses the shen and we can treat night sweats because sweat is the fluid of the heart.

In cases of yin deficiency, we can treat dry throat and thirst because the channel goes to the throat. And then of course, we can treat pain along the... pathway of the channel.

And we can treat heat sensation in the palms, which is another common sign of yin deficiency, mal or flush or heat in the face, and five center heat or heat in the palms. Next we have the low connecting channel. Remember all low connecting channels start at the low connecting point, in this case heart five, and all low channels connect to their yin yang paired channel, in this case the small intestine.

It follows the course of the primary channel into the heart. and then it goes up to the face, connecting to the root of the tongue and the eye. This is going to be important because we'll see later on that heart five is a major point for treating things like loss of voice, stiff tongue, and red eyes.

The great compendium of acupuncture and moxibustion lists deficiency and excess conditions for all the low channels. So here we see inability to speak, which makes sense because the low channel goes to the tongue, and fullness of the chest, which makes sense because the low channel goes to the heart. Next. is the divergent channel. It separates at the axillary fossa and enters the chest to connect to the heart organ.

Remember one of the functions of the divergent channels is to supply qi and blood to the head and face. So we see that here with the channel going up to the face, again connecting with the eye, but this time specifically connecting to the inner canthus of the eye. Remember another characteristic of divergent channels is that they all connect with their yang paired channel.

So here the heart divergent channel is connecting with the small intestine channel at UB1. So we call this point the upper uniting point, and that means that needling this point can affect both the heart divergent channel and the small intestine divergent channel, since they both unite here. The sinew channel looks a lot like the primary channel. It starts at the little finger, binds at the wrist, the elbow, and the axilla.

Then it goes across the chest and descends to the umbilicus. The fact that it goes to the umbilicus is interesting, but I'm not sure it has any clinical significance other than the fact that we sometimes talk about palpitations that are so severe they can be felt in the umbilicus, and the pathway of this channel explains why. So now that we understand the functions of the heart and the pathways of the channel, let's talk about the points.

Heart 1, Ji Chuan, Summit Spring, is located in the depression at the center of the axilla. This point is interesting because it sits right at the junction between the internal pathway, going into the chest, and the external pathway, going down the arm. So this point can be used to treat both aspects of the channel. For the internal pathway, it unbinds the chest, treating rib side pain and cardiac pain. And for the external pathway, it treats pain in the shoulder and arm.

This point also nourishes yin and clears deficiency heat. It treats dry throat and thirst. Remember that branch of the internal pathway? runs alongside the esophagus, and it can also treat shen problems resulting from deficiency heat. Heart 2 is 3-sune proximal to the elbow crease.

This is one that people tend to mix up during location tests. So remember, lung 3 is 3-sune down from the axillary fold, but heart 2 is 3-sune up from the elbow crease. Then we also have pericardium 2, which is 2-sune down from the axillary fold, so that makes things even more complicated.

So just make sure you remember the location for this one. Other than that, it's not a very interesting point. It's on the arm, so it's good for the arm.

Heart 3 is called Shaohai, Lesser Sea. The Shao here is referring to the fact that it's on the Shaoyin Channel, so we'll see a few points on the heart channel with Shao in the name, and that's why. Heart 3 is a He Sea point and a Water point.

This is kind of an interesting thing. We have a lot of He Sea points on the elbow that are named after bodies of water, like marshes and pools and seas. And they all share this function of clearing heat. So here, heart 3 clears heat to treat shen problems like mania and laughter, and also clears heat from the channel.

Remember we have an internal pathway that goes up to the face, so here we see heart 3 treating heat in the face. We also see this interesting thing here, that heart 3 transforms phlegm to treat certain shen problems like poor memory. Now you'd think this would be a big deal, because it's the only point on the heart channel that treats phlegm.

But it turns out that clinically, it's just not used very much. For heart phlegm, we're much more likely to choose points like stomach 40. Remember, the stomach divergent channel passes through the heart, so we can also use stomach points to treat heart problems. Even Maciocha, in his point prescription for phlegm misting the heart, he uses pericardium 5 as the main point, and then stomach 40 for phlegm.

Heart 3 doesn't even show up. So that means that really the main function of this point is, it's on the elbow, so it's good for the elbow. It's also indicated for tremor or trembling of the hand and arm, or for things like B-syndrome, numbness, or hemiplegia after a stroke.

Heart 4, Ling Dao, Spirit Path, is the Jing River Point on the heart channel. Remember, Jing River Points are indicated for diseases manifesting as a change in the patient's voice, and for diseases of the sinews and bones. So we see both of those functions represented here.

Heart 4 benefits the voice, treating sudden voice loss, and it also relaxes the muscles and sinews treating pain in the arm, elbow, and hand. Heart 5 is a very important point. It's a low connecting point, so let's recall the functions of the low connecting points. Number 1, they treat their yin-yang paired channel.

Number 2, they treat the pathway of the low connecting channel. And number 3, they can treat certain psycho-emotional disorders. So low points treat emotional disorders, and the heart houses the shen.

So putting those two together, we can say that heart five is a pretty good point for settling the emotions. So here we see it treating things like sadness, anger, fright, and depression. Lowell points also treat disorders along the lowell connecting channel. Remember we said that the heart lowell channel connects to the tongue and the eyes. So here we see it treating things like voice loss, stuttering, and stiff tongue, as well as things like red eyes and eye pain.

And then, low points also treat disorders of the yin-yang paired channel, in this case the small intestine. So that's why we see this point treating certain urination problems, such as enuresis, or urinary incontinence. The way we explain this is, heart heat is pouring into the small intestine.

Since the small intestine is the tai-yang pair of the urinary bladder, this heat pouring into the small intestine can cause urination problems. Heart 5 regulates heart rhythm, so it can be used to treat... palpitations and irregular heartbeat. And then heart five also treats uterine bleeding. Remember we said that the heart is connected to the uterus through the baomai, the uterine channel?

So here we see heart five treating uterine bleeding. So heart five is such a useful point that Ma Dan Yang listed it among his 12 heavenly star points for the treatment of aphasia, vexation and anger, and palpitations. Basically, this point is so good at treating these conditions that some guy wrote a song about it. Next is heart 6, and the name of this point is yin-xi, which tells us the two major attributes of this point. Number one, it tonifies heart yin, especially for treating night sweats.

And number two, the xi means it's a xi cleft point. Remember, xi cleft points treat acute conditions and pain. So we see that here with chest pain, cardiac pain, and sudden loss of voice. And also, on the yin channels, xi cleft points have an additional function of treating blood disorders. either blood stagnation or bleeding.

So we see here heart 6 treating hemoptysis and epistaxis, or coughing up blood and nosebleed, and also blood stagnation in the chest. Heart 7 is called shen men, spirit gate, and its main function is calming the shen. It's a yuan source point, so it tonifies the organ. In this case, it tonifies everything, qi, blood, yin, and yang. But it's especially useful for shen problems due to blood deficiency.

If we wanted to compare heart 5 and heart 7 in terms of calming shen, Dedman says that heart 5 is better for emotional disorders such as anger, sadness, and fright, while heart 7 is better for insomnia and forgetfulness. According to Machiocha, heart 5 tonifies qi to calm shen, whereas heart 7 tonifies blood to calm shen. In fact, he says it's the number one point for insomnia and anxiety due to heart blood deficiency.

Heart 8 is the yin spring and fire point, and spring points clear heat. This point not only clears heat from the heart, treating shen problems such as palpitation and fright, it also clears heat from the small intestine, again treating this pattern of heart heat pouring into the small intestine, presenting with symptoms like urination problems and itching of the genitals. Heart 8 also regulates heart qi, treating shen problems due to qi stagnation.

The idea here is the stagnation is coming from the liver. So that's why we see things like sighing and plum-pit chi, which are more typical liver signs. And again, we see this connection between the heart and the uterus, this time treating uterine prolapse.

Heart 9 is a Jing-Well point, and we see all the functions of the Jing-Well points represented here. It revives consciousness, especially after a stroke. It treats the upper end of the channel, in this case the tongue, throat, and eyes. And it treats fullness below the heart, for things like cardiac pain, chest pain, and palpitation. So that's the hand, shao yin, heart channel.

I hope you enjoyed it because that's all for today. Thanks and see you next time. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you'd like to test your knowledge, you can head over to TCMstudy.net and take a practice quiz on this topic.

The link is in the description below. You can also find more videos on both acupuncture and Chinese herbs also in the description below. See you next time.

Transcript for:Understanding the Heart Channel in TCM

Transcript for:
Understanding the Heart Channel in TCM