Welcome to the official blog for our podcast, "Study Acupuncture with Me."
In this episode titled **"Acupuncture Points for Eye Disorders: Blurry Vision, Night Blindness｜Traditional Chinese Medicine,"** our host Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc delves into the fascinating world of acupuncture and its role in improving eyesight. If you're an acupuncture enthusiast, a student, or someone suffering from eye-related issues, this guide is tailored just for you.
### Introduction: The Role of Acupuncture in Eye Health
Acupuncture, a core element of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), has been used for centuries to treat a myriad of health problems, including eye disorders. Whether you're experiencing blurry vision, night blindness, or any other eye-related concerns, acupuncture offers a holistic approach to improving and maintaining your eye health.
Today's episode arose from a question posed by a user named funkybell22, who wanted to understand how TCM can improve eyesight, especially night vision. Dr. Richard Lai covers the topic comprehensively, explaining the importance of both distal and proximal points.
### Key Acupuncture Points for Eye Health
Understanding acupuncture points is crucial in the treatment of eye disorders. Here, we'll discuss the distal and proximal points that can enhance eye health.
#### 1. **Gallbladder 37 (GB37)**
Dr. Lai highlights **Gallbladder 37 (GB37)** as a go-to point for eye issues, especially night vision problems. Located on the lateral side of the lower leg, 5 cun superior to the lateral malleolus, this point is the Luo-Connecting point of the Gallbladder channel.
**Why Gallbladder 37?**
- **Connection with the Liver:** The Gallbladder and the Liver channels are interconnected. The Liver organ "opens into the eyes," meaning that a healthy liver nourishes and moistens the eyes.
- **Treatment Action:** GB37 is known for its ability to brighten the eyes, making it effective against various eye issues such as blurry vision, night blindness, and dry eyes.
#### 2. **Liver Channel Points**
The Liver channel plays a pivotal role in eye health due to its direct connection to the eyes.
**Liver 3 (LV3):** Located between the first and second metatarsal bones on the dorsum of the foot, this point helps nourish the Liver and Liver blood. It's beneficial for eye issues arising from Liver blood deficiency.
**Liver 2 (LV2):** Found 0.5 cun proximal to the web margin between the first and second toes, this point is excellent for clearing Liver fire, which can manifest as red, swollen, or painful eyes.
**Liver 8 (LV8):** Located 1 cun anterior to Kidney 10, LV8 nourishes Liver blood and is particularly useful for eye issues related to Liver blood deficiency.
### Addressing Different Eye Conditions with Acupuncture
When treating eye disorders with acupuncture, it's essential to diagnose the underlying cause accurately. Here are some common eye conditions and how they relate to TCM diagnoses:
#### **1. Dry Eyes**
- **Diagnosis:** Liver Blood or Yin deficiency.
- **Points:** LV8, LV3 to nourish blood and moisten the eyes.
#### **2. Blurry Vision**
- **Diagnosis:** Liver Blood deficiency.
- **Points:** GB37, LV3, LV8.
#### **3. Night Blindness**
- **Diagnosis:** Liver Blood deficiency.
- **Points:** GB37, LV3, LV8.
#### **4. Gritty Eyes**
- **Diagnosis:** Liver Yin or Blood deficiency.
- **Points:** LV3, LV8 to nourish liver and blood.
#### **5. Red, Swollen Eyes**
- **Diagnosis:** Liver Fire.
- **Points:** LV2 to clear Liver fire.
### Proximal Points for Eye Health
In addition to distal points, several local points around the eyes can be very beneficial.
#### **1. UB1 (Urinary Bladder 1)**
- **Location:** 0.1 cun medial and superior to the inner canthus.
- **Function:** Brightens the eyes; treats night blindness, blurry vision, and painful eyes.
#### **2. UB2 (Urinary Bladder 2)**
- **Location:** In the depression at the medial end of the eyebrow.
- **Function:** Benefits the eyes; treats wind issues affecting the eyes.
#### **3. Yuyao (Extra Point)**
- **Location:** At the midpoint of the eyebrow, directly above the pupil.
- **Function:** Benefits the eyes; treats headaches behind the eyes, twitching eyelids.
#### **4. SJ23 (Sanjiao 23)**
- **Location:** At the lateral end of the eyebrow.
- **Function:** Brightens the eyes; treats various eye issues.
#### **5. GB1 (Gallbladder 1)**
- **Location:** 0.5 cun lateral to the outer canthus.
- **Function:** Treats eye disorders, often used with GB37 for a potent effect.
#### **6. ST1 (Stomach 1) and ST2 (Stomach 2)**
- **Location:** Below the pupil; ST1 is on the infraorbital ridge, ST2 is in the infraorbital foramen.
- **Function:** Treat eye dryness, pain, and heat.
### Understanding the Importance of a Holistic Approach
A critical aspect of treating eye disorders with TCM is the comprehensive evaluation and personalized treatment approach. As Dr. Lai stresses, what works for one patient might not necessarily work for another. The same treatment might not even be effective from one day to the next for the same patient. Therefore, it's essential to:
- **Ask Detailed Questions:** Understanding symptoms such as dryness, redness, blurry vision, or floaters can guide the diagnosis and treatment.
- **Full Evaluation:** Consultations should include a thorough evaluation by a qualified acupuncturist.
- **Adjust Treatments:** Be flexible and willing to adjust treatments based on the patient's response.
### Self-Care and Precautions
While acupuncture can be highly effective, self-care practices can complement professional treatments. Here are some tips:
- **Acupressure:** For those who aren't acupuncturists, using clean fingertips to apply pressure on the mentioned points can offer relief.
- **Consult Professionals:** Always consult your primary care physician, optometrist, and acupuncturist for any eye-related concerns.
- **Regular Check-ups:** Ensure you get regular eye check-ups to monitor your eye health.
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Transcript of Episode
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:00:00]:
Hey, everyone. Doctor Richard Lai here with study acupuncture with me. Now this episode is on improving eyesight using both distal points and proximal points. So we're gonna go into all that and more right after we hear a quick word from our sponsor. Alright. And we're back. So today's topic is on acupuncture points that are gonna help you improve eyesight in your patients. Now this topic actually comes from a request made by a user named funkybell22.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:00:23]:
Now funkybell22 responded on a q and a on Spotify. Funkybell said, in terms of TCM, how does 1 improve eyesight, particularly night vision? So the short answer to this and the quickest win to this is just to use gallbladder 30 7. So gallbladder 37 is the lower point of the gallbladder channel, which means that it's a point that connects the interiorly and exteriorly related channel of the gallbladder and the liver. Now with the liver, we know that the liver organ opens into the eyes. Now what that means is that the eye is the sense organ that's connected to the liver. And specifically, what this means for us from a clinical sense is that if the liver is healthy, meaning if liver blood is healthy, then that liver blood is gonna be able to nourish the eyes and it's gonna be able to moisten them. That way we can see very clearly. On the other hand, if liver blood is deficient, then there could be issues like dry eyes, night vision issues, blurry vision, floaters.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:01:16]:
Maybe some patients even have color blindness. Now although I said gallbladder 37 right off the bat, if you've been following me for a while, you know me. I never like to give blanket statements for prescriptions because for for me, in my opinion, our patients, us, we're all people. In our situations, they can change from day to day. Our bodies change from day to day, and what may work for you may not work for me. What may work for them may not work for them. And even actually what worked 1 day may not work the very next day. Day.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:01:43]:
Let me tell you about my most recent patient, for example. So she came in and she was complaining of chest tightness, hypochondrial pain, difficulty breathing, tiredness, feels like her throat is closing up. So I started the acupuncture points using extraordinary meridians thinking that that would benefit her. And right off the bat, I felt like maybe this would be too strong of a treatment for her, but I still pushed through anyway. And as she was laying on the table, she became more and more sort of short of breath. She was breathing. Even her voice was quivering when she was talking. And I let it sit like that for a couple minutes.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:02:16]:
It felt like eternity. But then I thought, I'm going to change the prescription. I'm going to take out all the needles now and I'm going to completely turn it around to just light tonification points. So I went with spleen 3, kidney 3, liver 3, lung 9. Just those 4 points. That's it. And that completely changed the treatment. She started to breathe more calmly.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:02:36]:
She said she started to warm up again. Her voice wasn't quivering. So what works 1 day may not work the next day. Even what worked in the beginning of a treatment may not work at the end of a treatment. So never be afraid to change the treatment based on the presentation of the patient. Now that being said, with gallbladder 37, that's the first point that comes to mind in terms of eye problems because it's 1 of the primary distal points that you can use to brighten the eyes. Because when someone comes into your clinic with an eye related issue, then you think gallbladder 37 for the most part. That's because, again, it's the low point of the liver, which means that it connects with the liver.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:03:14]:
And we know also that the liver opens into the eyes. And we said before, liver blood is responsible for nourishing and moistening the eyes. So if liver blood is healthy, then our vision will also be healthy. So although we can use gallbladder 37, when a patient comes in with issues with their eye or if they say I have issues seeing at night, we have to ask more questions of this patient. For example, are your eyes dry? Do you have blurry vision? Do you have floaters? These all could be signs of liver blood deficiency. We need to ask them too. Are your eyes red? Are they dry? Are they swollen? Are they bloodshot? Because those are signs of liver fire. We could look at their eyes and see if there's gunk coming out of their eyes, or we can ask them, do you have a lot of gunk when you wake up? Do you have a lot of gunk throughout the day? We call this in TCM, gritty eyes.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:04:00]:
So are your eyes gritty? Now grittiness could be related to liver yin deficiency, or it could also be related to liver blood deficiency. We can also ask them, has your eye been fidgeting? Meaning, have they been moving back and forth? With this 1, any involuntary movement in the body is usually related to wind. So could it be liver wind? Or we can ask our patient. Or we can find out, maybe their eyesight has been declining with age. So this then could be something kidney related. So that's why it's really important to do a full comprehensive evaluation. And if you're not an acupuncturist and you're not an acupuncturist student and you're listening to this podcast, it's really important for you to go to your acupuncturist and get a thorough evaluation to help figure this out because the root changes the point prescription. If, for example, the root is liver blood deficiency, then we would wanna use a treatment that can nourish the liver and nourish the blood.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:04:44]:
But on the other hand, if the issue is liver fire, then we would wanna clear the liver, and we wanna if the issue is liver fire, then we would wanna clear the liver, and we wanna drain that fire. So for the first 1, if it's liver blood deficiency, then we would use points like liver 3 or liver 8, which both of these can nourish liver and nourish liver blood. But with liver fire, we would wanna incorporate points like liver 2 because number 1, liver 2 is the ying spring point of the liver channel, and with ying spring points, they have an effect on febrile conditions or fire related things. And if you've been following me for a while, you might remember 1 of my earlier videos where I talked about that mnemonic for the antique points, which from Jingual to is my friends are all idiots. So the second word is f, so f is for fire. So the second 1 is the yingspring point. So f for fire for febrile conditions. So yingspring point, liver 2, can treat, therefore, liver fire.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:05:40]:
Okay. So for distal points, those are the most common ones. So first, we talked about gallbladder 37. So we should talk about where gallbladder 37 is located. So gallbladder 37 is located on the lateral side of your lower leg. Now it's 5 cun superior to the lateral malleolus. Now how do you find 5 cun from the lateral malleolus? From the lateral malleolus to the occapital crease is 12 cun. That means halfway is 6 cun.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:06:04]:
So it's just 1 cun down from that halfway point. So gallbladder 37 is located on the lateral side of your lower leg and it's located 5 cun superior to the tip of your lateral malleolus. So if you take your lower leg and you draw a line from your lateral malleolus to your palpitial crease, the length of that line is 12 cun. Now half of that length is 6 cun. So gallbladder 37 is 5 cun superior to the lateral malleolus. So it's just 1 cun down from the halfway point. Now the other 2 distal points that we talked about is liver 2, liver 3, and liver 8. Now we can use liver 2 in the case of excess issues, and then we can use liver 8 or liver 3 in cases of deficiency.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:06:45]:
Liver 2, again, is your yingspring point. It's located on the top of your foot, the dorsum of your foot. It's between your first and second toe. It's about half as soon proximal from that proximal web space. And then liver 3 is located between your 1st and second metatarsals, so it's a little more up on your foot. So you basically slide your finger up between your first 2 toes and your finger is going to hit this little divot and that's where liver 3 is. And then lastly, we have liver 8. So liver 8 is the hussy point of the liver channel.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:07:15]:
1 of the functions of liver 8 is that it can nourish blood so we can use it in cases of deficiency. Now this point is located 1 soon anterior to kidney 10. Now kidney 10 is an easy point to find because it's located right in between the tendons of your semimembranosus and semitendinosus. Now I can make a separate video on these muscles and the acupuncture points in this area. Just leave a comment below if you'd like to see a video on that. So kidney 10 is located in between those 2 tendons, the semimembranosus and semitendinosus. Now liver 8 is just located onceun anterior to that. Alright.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:07:49]:
So those are the distal points for the eye related issues. Now let's talk about the local points. Now with the local points, we have this picture here. Here we have all the local points around the eye. Now this eye sort of looks familiar. Right? This is actually a vector drawing of me, so it's kind of interesting to look at. So here are all the local points. So if we start from the inner campus, we have u b 1.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:08:09]:
So u b 1 is located just medial and slightly superior to the inner campus. And Dedman says that it's actually 0 point 1 sun medial and superior to that inner campus. Now this is the first point of the urinary bladder channel. The name of this point is jingming So jingming means eye brightness and 1 of the functions of this point is therefore that it brightens the eye. So obviously then, you can use it for most eye related issues, like for example, night vision issues, blurry vision, or painful eyes. Next, we have u b 2. So u b 2 is superior to u b 1 and is located in the depression close to the medial end of the eyebrow. Now u b 2, as a local point, can also brighten the eyes.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:08:51]:
So it can also treat eye related issues. So both u b 1 and u b 2 can treat eye related issues. U b 1 and u b 2 can also treat wind issues or treat any excess things that are going into the eye. Alright. So now next, we have an extra point, which is called or which means fish waste in Chinese. So this point is located right in the middle of the eyebrow. With this 1, you gotta ask your patient to look straight ahead so that way you can find this point directly above the pupil in the middle of the eyebrow. Now this point can benefit the eyes.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:09:23]:
This point can also treat headaches that are located behind the eyes. This point, because of where it is, it can also treat issues with the eyelids. Like, for example, if the eyelids are twitching or if they're drooping, or it can also treat any eye related issues like the blurry vision, the issues with night vision, or pain in the eyes. Alright. Next, going around the local points, we have Sanjiao 23. Now Sanjiao 23 is located on the lateral end of the eyebrow. It's another local point that can benefit the eyes. It can brighten the eyes.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:09:52]:
You can also use this point to treat all those issues that we've been talking about so far. Okay. Next, we have gallbladder 1. Now gallbladder 1 is located 0.5 soon lateral to the outer campus. Now you can feel this 1 right on the edge of your orbital foramen. Now that orbital foramen is the socket that's around your eye. In fact, with all these points, you'll notice that we're basically going around the rim of the eye socket. So gallbladder 1 is a local point, 0.1 soon lateral to the outer campus.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:10:21]:
And it can also be used to treat issues related to the eye. Now with gallbladder 1, it's a pair with the liver. And before, we already talked about how the liver opens into the eyes. So using gallbladder 1 as a local point in connection with that distal point we talked about before, gallbladder 37, that can be a really strong prescription for eye related issues. Next, we have an acupuncture point called Chu Ho. Chu Ho is an extra point. It's also located on the border of the orbital foramen. This one's located on the inferior aspect of the orbital foramen.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:10:51]:
And Denman says that it's at the junction of the lateral 1 quarter and medial 3 quarters of the intraorbital foramen. So basically for this 1, you find the rim of the orbital foramen, which is right below the middle of your eye, and then you just sort of slide your finger laterally just a little bit, and you'll find this divot there. So that's exactly where Qu Hou is. If you break this area up into quarters, it's on the lateral 1 quarter and medial 3 quarters. That's what dead men's referring to. Now this is an extra point that has an action to benefit the eyes. Alright. And now lastly, but not leastly, we have 2 other local points which can benefit the eyes.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:11:26]:
And those 2 points are stomach 1 and stomach 2. Now stomach 1 is located right below the pupil on that infraorbital ridge. And then stomach 2 is located below stomach 1. It's located in this thing known as the infraorbital foramen. So there's this little hole that you'll feel when you slide your fingers downward from stomach 1. That's where stomach 2 is. It's called the infraorbital foramen. Now both of these points can be used as local points that can benefit the eyes.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:11:53]:
So whether the eye is affected by heat, by dryness, by pain, by grittiness, you can use these local points to treat those eye related issues. And if you're someone who isn't an acupuncturist or an acupuncture student and you're watching this video, you can use acupressure on any of the points that we talked about. So you can use your knuckle, you can use your clean fingertip to just apply pressure to these areas to activate their benefit. So if you're having eye strain issues, night vision issues, dry eyes, you can use the points that we talked about to activate their function to benefit the eyes. But with that, I highly recommend that you see your primary care physician, your optometrist, and your acupuncturist for a full workup for any of the symptoms that you're having related to your eyes. Because this video is only for educational purposes only, and this video should not be used replacement of medical treatment or medical evaluation. And with that being said, that does it for this episode. So I hope you found tremendous value out of this episode.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:12:51]:
If you did, I hope you interact with this episode. So if you're watching on YouTube or you're listening on podcasts, leave a comment below, hit the like button, and share this episode with a friend who you think would also benefit from listening. And don't forget about my email list. By subscribing to my email list, you get study guides sent to your email with each theory based episode. So please go to www.studyaccu with me.com to sign up today. All right, everyone. Until next time. God bless and happy studying.
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