Hello Dr Lee. Thank you for your presentation. You mentioned that you would treat an inner canthus problem with a Heart supplementation. From a channel perspective (the quality of the symptom aside) . . this makes sense to me because Bladder 1 is located at the inner canthus so we are treating the Bladder-Heart channel pairing in Saam. But then you mentioned you would treat an outer canthus problem with a Lung supplementation. But from a channel trajectory perspective, the outer Canthus is the Gall Bladder 1 acupuncture point location . . so I would think we would treat using the Gall Bladder - Pericardium channel pairing in Saam for outer canthus problems (from a channel perspective). Can you help me understand why you would consider Lung for outer canthus problems?
Hello Dr. Schulman,
Thank you for your excellent question.
First, please allow me to correct one thing you said. Yesterday, for the outer canthus, I mentioned tonifying Stomach meridian, not tonifying Lung meridian.
I totally understand your idea. Based on the meridian pathways, it would be applicable to apply the Bladder meridian for inner canthus disorders and the Gall Bladder meridian for outer canthus disorders. More specifically, since most eye diseases involve inflammation or redness due to heat rather than cold, I suggest tonifying the Bladder meridian, which has a cooling effect, can be applied to the inner canthus. For the outer canthus, sedating the Gall Bladder meridian can help reduce Shaoyang fire to treat eye (heat) disorders.
What I introduced in the presentation was based on the Saam Acupuncture classic book and Jisan's medical records. It would be reasonable to use the Heart meridian for the inner canthus, as the inside of the eye corresponds to the Heart according to the Five Wheels theory in TCM. However, the use of the Stomach meridian for the outer canthus is less intuitive and can be controversial.
Anyway, in the Saam Acupuncture book, it is stated as follows:
Chapter 37: Eye Disorders
- The inner canthus belongs to Monarch Fire (acceptable based on the above explanation); the outer canthus is where Spleen-Earth passes (not understandable yet).
- Outer canthus (Stomach Deficiency): SI5, ST41＋ / GB41, ST43－ (Original Tonifying Stomach formula)
- Inner canthus (Heart Deficiency): LR1, HT9, KI7＋ / SP3, LU9－ (modified from Tonifying Heart formula. Maybe [KI7+, SP3-] from Tonifying Kidney meridian, [LU9-] as a Lung Yuan (source) point for sclera (in Five wheels) treatment???)
In addition, there are many successful Jisan’s medical records (two for the inner canthus in Chapter 37: Eye Disorders and two in Chapter 26: Headache, and four for the outer canthus in Chapter 37: Eye Disorders) using these formulas.
This is the reference for the two formulas I introduced yesterday. You might consider trying them if the Bladder or Gall Bladder meridian approaches do not yield good results for canthus disorders.
I hope this can be of help to you.
Thank you.
