7 Acupressure Points for Stomach Problems (And their benefits)

If you want to know the key to living well and living a long life, look no further than the doctors of the Far East. I mean, these ancient doctors and ancient monks were obsessed with how to live a long and a healthy life. Even to go so far as to send children and their loyal subjects off east to go search for this land of mysterious immortal tonics and elixirs, many of whom never returned. But one of the practices that came out of this search for longevity was the practice of acupuncture and the overlying channel theory behind traditional Chinese medicine. So in this video, let's jump in and we'll demo and talk about the seven most important points that I see clinically. Hey, I'm Dr. Alex Hine, board licensed doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book master the day. So let's get in. So what is actually the point of acupressure and learning this whole channel and meridian system? I mean fundamentally if you go back to what the ancient doctors who invented this medicine said yin and yang are the foundation of life and death and the channels are what hold the yin and yang. The illness manifests in what Chinese medicine calls the channel system the meridian system before it progresses deeper to some of the organs. And if you can learn to regulate illness in the channels, this is how you prevent yourself from getting seriously ill. For example, if you've ever eaten a lot of food and you've gotten a food baby afterwards and you have that really uncomfortable gas and bloating pain, we call this excess in the stomach. It literally is excess because it's literally excess food or excess gas. But what do you actually do about that? Well, for example, there are simple practices like tapping on the stomach or large intestine channel that will actually relieve a lot of that pressure within 5 minutes. People are often baffled when I show them this that it actually works and it does. It's amazing because you're literally physically stimulating paristalsis in the intestines. But there are lots of other acupuncture points and acupuncture techniques that you can do at home via acupressure that will often improve some of the symptoms of poor digestion. Point number one is called jongwan or ren 12. This point ren 12 is located midway between your belly button and the bottom of your sternum. This point is really commonly indicated for indigestion, bloating, and acid reflux. And one of the things you can do here is I wouldn't necessarily recommend tapping because if you do have reflux it can be uncomfortable. But sometimes just doing this kind of gentle rubbing around the middle GI or honestly for a lot of people putting a heating pad here if they have a little bit of a stomach ache not necessarily from massive acid reflux but if they have a stomach ache just putting a heating pad on their stomach can be really really soothing. Point number two is called stomach 36 or zusan lee. Now stomach 36 is found about four finger widths below your kneecap. So if you go here's my kneecap. You go below find the shin and then about a finger width off the shin. So we can place it like right about there. Right? You can either massage you can either go down the channel like this to massage it or you can just press and release. Press and release. And if you've seen my other videos, doing moxabustion on this point is often one of the most effective ways to increase immunity without putting something inside of your body. I mean, obviously consuming medicinal herbs and a good diet, sleep will work better, but this point very, very effective for a wide range of stomach problems. Now, by the way, guys, acupressure is just one of the healing modalities within traditional Chinese medicine used to fix illnesses and live a long life. But I've also put together the other practices in a 7-day email series just called the lost science of healing. Now, if you go to drlexheim.com/quiz or the first link below this video, you will not only be able to download a free root cause quiz, which is basically will help you score your symptoms and see which organ system or network this actually relates to, as well as linking to other videos on the channel that you can use to sort of get to the root cause. Then you'll also get a 7-day email series on this lost science of healing about healing with traditional Chinese medicine. So I highly recommend checking that out because it includes other practices not featured here. Point number three is called nuan or PC6. Now paricardium 6 is about three finger widths up from your wrist crease on your inner forearm, the inside of your arm between those two tendons. Now for this one commonly used for nausea and that kind of thing. But basically you can push and release, push and release. push and release or I just do like a gentle rhythmic pressing like that. But you want to find the zone between the two tendons right in here. Point number four is called gongen. The easiest way to find it is trace the spleen channel which is sort of this inside of the foot right from the big toe. If you find the big bone on the big toe there, slide your finger into the first fleshy part. This is what's called spleen 3. And then basically we come down a little bit to spleen four. So you're going to go right over the bone. Slide a little more. And then again you can push and release. push and release. Push and release or massage this way. And these points, spleen three and spleen four, are both very indicated for GI issues and bloating. Spleen 4 is more abdominal pain and more issues with dysmenoria. So, lots of women's health uses for this point here as well. The fifth point is called stomach 25 or tien. Stomach 25. Basically, you find your belly button here. Trying not to make this a shirtless uh vanity video. We'll just show you with a shirt here. But you find your belly button and then just come to the side here. It's sort of equidistant between outside of the rectus muscle. And you can just generally guess about in between equidistant. But stomach 25 is one of those points used for constipation and diarrhea. And this is one of the best areas just to tap like this when you feel excessively bloated after a meal. It often works really, really well. If you do this for 5 minutes when you're overly having too much lower GI bloating or gas, this sort of rhythm and routine can really help stimulate paristalsis. Do this for 5 minutes and you'll just hear like a and then you'll notice that you're having a little bit more relief that way as well. Point number six is called large intestine 4 or ku. You find the webbing between the two fingers here, thumb and forefinger. You can also squeeze the webbing and find the highest point. That's a good way to cheat it. You can massage this point here like this. And it's often used for both headaches as well as used for GI issues as well. Primarily again those due to stress. And the last point is called liver 3 or taiong. Now taichong is located on the top of your foot in the webbing between your big toe and your second toe. And you're going to find this fleshy part in between. Now where you place it differs on different body types, but in general you're going to find the first little divot that you find in here, right? It can be here. It can be high. It can be in between. But basically, this point not very comfortable. But you can press it and release. Press it and release. Press it and release. Or again, massage the area. And again, it's commonly used more when there's a stress related component to your GI issues, whether it is constipation or it is something like IBS and that kind of thing that strongly tracks and correlates with stress for you. Now, don't forget guys, acupressure is just one of the healing modalities within traditional Chinese medicine. And I've put some of the other ones into a free 7-day email series called The Lost Science of Healing. It's just a link right below this video, dra alexheim.comquiz, which includes a free quiz to basically score your symptoms and see what organ network they're coming from according to traditional Chinese medicine. So, we will go through a lot of the most common symptoms that I see clinically and point to more of like the root of where it's coming from. So, I highly recommend checking that out right below this video. If you want to work with me onetoone, I work with a limited number of new patients every month in my clinic in Los Angeles or virtually via tele medicine. So, if you guys just go to drlexheind.com/clin or there's information right below this video on calling my clinic or emailing us and then we can always find a time to set up an initial visit that way. But this is really the best for specialized targeted advice that will really help you with a custom compounded herbal formula. Don't forget before you go, I have another great video on acupressure right here.