Chinese medicine partially works with treating mai, channels, in the body, and how they are balanced with internal organs, body, and mind. Points are located on the channels (or meridians). These points are seen as links into different meridians and organs, and some points weave the system together in different ways. A skilled acupuncturist can then use needles to stimulate points, stabilize channels, and increase or decrease energy and function in different way in a patient.
Chinese medicine works a lot at diagnosing and treating qi, energy, in a living human being, and how it moves towards balanced health or towards illness. The points on a person is one way to access this.
Today, they started in on the basics of the meridians and the points, beginning with the Lung channel, which is one of the classical ones people begin with.
The Lung channel is one of the easier ones, comprising of a main flow going from the end of the torso near the armpit and out into the thumb. It has nine points on it. Originally it goes from inside the body, in the large intestine, and then up, linking to the lungs, and then out into the arm. But the part of the channel out on the surface is only the last part from the shoulder and down.
The Lung channel is linked to a lot of things, but primarily works with lung function and problems related to this. Everything in chinese medicine is a web of interweaving relationships – listing what one channel is linked to would be a very long list (Lung channel would be linked to Metal Element; more on the Five Elements later in the blog). Points on a channel can also have treatment effects that are very different to that of the channel itself, and I know from talking to chinese doctors that they often don´t care a lot about the channels in China: more focus is on the points themselves, and the innumerable ways these are interwoven for specific treatment effect.
Today, the students were taught the Lung channel basics, then marked the points out on each other with eye-liner (yes, eye-liner).
Many people on the course (quite small this year, only 17 people instead of the usual 30-40; recession) have no background at all in chinese medicine. Some have a little. For those with no previous knowledge, I can see that this will be a tough course. This week, the Lung channel; next Pericardium, after that Heart, etc... If you have no previous training in this, it will be a lot of information to digest. The tests won´t be difficult, really, but the pace is high.
We were also introduced to two new members of staff, Keith and Kenneth.
Keith is a life-size mannequin marked with points and channels; Kenneth is a plastic skeleton happily hanging from his trolley and hook.
