{"id":3054,"date":"2013-06-26T03:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/?p=3054"},"modified":"2013-07-03T13:24:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-03T17:24:19","slug":"pulse-analysis-in-traditional-chinese-medicine-a-laymans-perspective-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2013\/06\/pulse-analysis-in-traditional-chinese-medicine-a-laymans-perspective-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulse Analysis in Traditional Chinese Medicine – A Layman’s Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the differences between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western medicine is that TCM puts more emphasis on prevention of diseases and identifying early symptoms of abnormalities that if untreated will lead to illnesses.\u00a0 A major technique, and probably the most important technique, is pulse analysis, where a TCM doctor puts his\/her fingers on the wrist(s) of the patient and listen to subtle signals from the patient\u2019s pulse. From pulse analysis, an experienced TCM doctor can determine not only whether the patient is well or ill, but also determine the patient\u2019s relative health situation on the perfectly-good-health to critically-ill-health spectrum, as well as the part(s) of the body and the bodily organ(s) that may be experiencing abnormalities. This is the reason that the first thing that a TCM doctor does in examining a patient is to perform a pulse analysis.\u00a0 This article provides a layman\u2019s introductory discussion of pulse analysis in TCM.<\/p>\n

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Pulse Analysis Pressure Points:<\/strong>\u00a0 A TCM doctor does not examine the pulse from a single point, but from three points on each wrist, thus totaling six points for two hands. A diagram of the pulse points can be found in the open-access article \u201cReview of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pulse Diagnosis Quantification\u201d by Anson Chui Yan Tang: http:\/\/cdn.intechopen.com\/pdfs\/40015\/InTech-Review_of_traditional_chinese_medicine_pulse_diagnosis_quantification.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

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If you want a larger diagram, just click on the diagram.\u00a0 These diagrams show that a TCM doctor puts three fingers on three adjacent spots on the radial artery of the patient\u2019s wrist, called cun, guan, and chi. The width of each spot is about half an inch. Besides the fact that there are three different points on the wrist to get pulse information, the pressure applied at each point can be light, medium, or heavy. Therefore, each hand can give rise to nine different pulse information, or 18 different pulse information from both hands combined. For example, if pressed down strongly, these three spots on the right hand can provide information about the lung, spleen, and kidney respectively, and these three spots on the left hand can provide information about the heart, liver, and kidney respectively.<\/p>\n

Note that the chi pressure point on the left hand can provide information about the kidney, and the chi pressure point on the right hand can also provide information about the kidney.\u00a0 However, in TCM there are two types of information associated with the kidney.\u00a0 One is more associated with the material or yin aspects (e.g., bodily fluids) of the kidney, and the other is more associated with the activities or yang aspects (e.g., force or motivation) of the kidney.\u00a0 It is also possible that information about additional organs can be obtained from a particular pressure point or combination of pressure points at a particular pressure level, but in this article we will not discuss such complexities and subtleties. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Before continuing further, we need to keep in mind that the theoretical basis of TCM is that there is a life-force, called Qi, that resides and circulates within one\u2019s body, and illnesses are due to the deficiency or excess, stagnation, imbalance, and blockage of Qi. Qi flows in various meridians (or channels) inside the body, and each meridian is associated with one or more organs. The status of Qi in various parts or organs of one\u2019s body manifests in the person\u2019s pulse, and a skilled TCM doctor can detect and differentiate the subtle differences of the Qi status by feeling the patient\u2019s pulse.<\/p>\n

Pulse Traits:<\/strong>\u00a0 There are many traits of the pulse that a TCM doctor listens to. These include:<\/p>\n