Last month I took an interesting seminar with Poney Chiang, Phd, Lac. He spent over 2 years mapping the nerve networks of the body to show the correlation with acupuncture points. Dr. Chiang used many resources including anatomy & physiology books, cadaver studies and pre-TCM ancient texts to verify his results.
The astonishing verdict is that ancient Chinese medicine doctors were very accurate at knowing where the nerve fiber bundles were and the correlation to acupuncture points we use today. Dr. Chiang pointed out there are no acupuncture points that would have survived thousands of years if they were considered redundant. There are several points on the body that are close together and provide different actions such as the ones of the san jio channel found on the dorsal wrist and forearm. The points, though very close in location, survived thousands of years due to the indication and actions of the individual points and the physical network of nerves. As an example SJ or TE-6 moves the stool, but SJ/TE-7 helps with problems of the ear.
This course also provided a hands on experience to actually palpate (touch) the nerve branches and endings. After subtle palpation, an acupuncture point can be located and needled with greater accuracy. It was interesting that some of the points had a different location than what we learned in school. Most of the schools today teach TCM based point location which would not include any acupuncture locations prior to the 1950’s.
Western physiology can clearly be connected with Eastern medicine meridians. Matter & energy are on the same continuum!
Below is a picture of the san jio channel points of the wrist and forearm: