Sinew channel pulses

[Armin]

Hi Ann and everyone!

I have had this situation come up a few times already, where I am checking the pulses to determine what are the deficiencies before starting with a sinew treatment, and all I get are very tight/wiry (sorry still not 100% clear on the difference but working on it!), but more importantly I am feeling this quality on all levels, not just the 1-3 or 3-6 beans. So when I press deeper to check for stomach fluids at middle level, it’s still forceful and tight. Same for checking the kidney yang, or lungs for that matter.

Needless to say, the patients in these cases are elderly and much depleted. So I am guessing the pulses are indicating escape of yang qi (the pulses keep pushing up as I release from the deeper levels).

My question is, given that that these pulses are appearing to be excess, but everything else (tongue and other symptoms) are pointing to a lot of deficiency, would I just go ahead with boosting the stomach fluids, kidney yang and dispersing the lungs?

Thank you and at your convenience!

Hope this makes sense.

[Johannah Ashley]

Hey Armin,
Tight means that is pressed in at the sides, whereas wiry is squeezed tighter the full circumference of the pulse.
When looking at resources the width of the pulse will tell you how much substance they have: eg in the Stomach/ Spleen Right/guan position this would be how much thin fluids they have, if it’s in the liver/ left guan it would tell how much blood they have. The force of the pulse hitting your finger is about how qi they have. Could be this elderly person has running low on deeper resources such as fluids, hormones, blood and yin, due to this their qi isn’t being contained or anchored.
If the kidney yang pulse is floating up/ pushing on your finger as you lift up from 12 beans and beats against or floats up to the sinew level, then it would be better to perform a San Jiao Divergent Channel Treatment DSD.
Not sure if that’s helpful.

[Armin]

Hi Johannah,

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, I didn’t get the notification that you had replied until actually entering the forum just now.

I should have mentioned that I was trying to treat this elderly person for acute arthritic knee pain flare up. I know given that it’s a joint issue, divergents are more indicated as you have also pointed out, but currently I am immersing myself in the sinew treatments to get a better overall feel for this style first before tackling divergents in the near future.

I should also say that I did go ahead and tonified those deficiencies and right after the session, the pulses were less wiry and floating and when he came back after three days, there was an overall improvement with the knee and the pulses had mainly stayed less forceful, wiry and he felt overall warmer.

Thanks,
Armin

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