Question: What are you feeling for when you check my pulses? Acupuncturists answer: First, let me say, pulse diagnosis is a complicated system that takes years to master. Taking the pulse gives an acupuncturist a lot of information about what is going on in your body. Having said that, what we are feeling for, in general, is the following; 1) The rate: how fast or slow is the pulse compared to the average person. This tells us information about heat and cold in the body. 2) The depth: can the pulse be found right at the surface of the arm or do we need to press very deep to find it? This gives us information about the location of the disease. 3) The strength: we feel for this on the pulse as a whole and also at each pulse position. In Chinese Medicine pulse diagnosis we feel 12 pulse positions, 6 on each side, and each position corresponds to an organ system. If one position is weak and another strong it tells us about an imbalance in the body. 4) The characteristic: This is where pulse diagnosis gets tricky. There are many (around 30) characteristics of the pulse. Some include; slippery (like pearls rolling in a dish) and wiry (like feeling a wire under the skin). Each characteristic tells an acupuncturist something about your condition. The characteristic can be different on each side or even in each pulse position. Of course this is a simplistic breakdown but these are the main things we are feeling for when we take your pulse. Pulse diagnosis is an incredibly interesting way of getting information about the body. Each time you let us take your pulse you are allowing us to practice becoming master pulse takers. Thank you!
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 17:56:28 +0000