 If you've ever seen a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine or an acupuncturist, you've probably been mystified by this obscure mysterious thing called pulse diagnosis where the practitioner feels the radial artery and they diagnose qualities about your certain organ function. Now in this video I thought I would share four common pulse qualities that we are feeling and what they actually mean about your health from a clinical point of view. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alex Hine, author of the health book Master of the Day and doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. So before we jump into this video here today, there are two very important links right below the video. Now the first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, you can reach out to my private practice with the link and information below this video. And the second is I've put together a free guide for daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. And again, that's right below the video. So one of the first pulse qualities that we feel is what is called a superficial or floating pulse. So a superficial or floating pulse is where just as you touch the radial artery with very, very, very light pressure, you just touch the skin, you can already feel the person's pulse. Now what this actually means when the pulse is really at the surface there is typically one of two general scenarios. One is the person is getting acutely ill. So the body is basically mounting an immune response to deal with this acute infection. Sometimes they have swollen lymph nodes. Sometimes they have a sore throat or an earache. That's pretty obvious, right? The pulse is floating. It's almost like you can visualize the person's resources are at the surface because that's at the moment where the battle is. The second scenario is where people typically what I see are under rested. So when people are under rested or this excessive, basically sympathetic nervous system activity, the pulse is floating almost in the way that a deer in the headlights has its heart racing, right? Heart racing, heart racing, where's the threat? What's going to happen in the way that people sometimes say I subjectively feel ungrounded or I feel on edge. When people are sleeping poorly or they're stressed out, you'll feel this kind of floating quality to the pulse. So this is an excess manifestation very often of really sympathetic nervous system activity, the opposite of rest and digest. The second pulse that we feel is a deep pulse. So this is called a deep, a faint, many other terms for it, but a faint or a deep pulse. Now the most serious manifestation of this is just there's no pulse. There's no palpable pulse. So deep pulses are indicative of many different things. They can indicate that there is a chronic illness, right? Basically there's been a chronic battle, autoimmune disease, Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, severe cases of depression or just long term depression, people who haven't been sleeping well for years. So typically people with chronic disorders are more likely to manifest a deep row weak pulse. The second thing is just people who are generally run down and have been run down for a long time. Like I said, people who've been overworking for a very long time or undersleeping or not sleeping well having insomnia will often manifest as a resource depleted pulse. One of the best ways to conceptualize this is basically your battery charge. A weak pulse means you have weak resources. Often people who have very, very weak pulses complain of fatigue or depression or anxiety, or there's been a long term battle there, right? Battle in terms of illness. The third pulse quality that we feel very often is what's called a wiry or a tight pulse. And this is really as simple as you feel the radial artery and you feel a lot of tension, right? The ancient medical classics talk about it being like a string. This pulse is indicative of many different things. It can be something as generic as, again, sympathetic nervous system activity, too many stress hormones shooting through that person's body all the time. It can mean they had three cups of coffee this morning before they came to see me. It can indicate a lot of digestive problems actually. So often people with upper GI issues, acid reflux, indigestion, GERD, that sort of thing will manifest with wiry pulses. People with fluid metabolism issues or bloating will often manifest wiry pulses. Various kinds of gut issues or issues involving the lymphatic system can also show a wiry pulse. For example, you are now manifesting with a sore throat. So we have a combination of pulses, floating, superficial, and wiry, right? Or thin and wiry. This is a common pulse pattern you see in people manifesting upper respiratory infections involving heat and TCM. Sore throat, maybe an earache, cough, almost like an early stage bronchitis or strep throat sort of picture, they will often manifest with these. So sometimes it's a manifestation of, again, getting acutely ill. Sometimes it can be digestive problems like people who are chronically bloated or chronically indigested as well. A fourth pulse quality we feel is what's called the soft or moderate pulse. So these are two general pulse qualities that we associate with the earth organs in traditional Chinese medicine, meaning the digestive system. So a moderate pulse one is basically it can be a normal pulse. It doesn't have to be pathological. And in addition to that, it can be just a general digestive system pulse, meaning people have digestive issues, issues with their appetite, issues with bloating, issues with stools, loose bowel movements, that sort of thing. Again, it can be non pathological. It could be a general person who's just they don't have a symptom, but they're just sedentary. They don't exercise. They're just sort of a person who sits at a desk all day. But very often these pulses are indicative of something going on specifically with digestion. Because again, this moderate sort of pulse is a pulse that we associate with the spleen and stomach. So the pancreas and stomach, that sort of thing. So these are four of the most common pulse qualities that we see. And in general, each pulse quality represents a sort of overall tendency, right? It's not common that necessarily one pulse quality is guaranteed one symptom, as if I'm a tarot card reader or something. But in general, they point a certain direction. And when you combine those signs and symptoms with the patient's signs and symptoms and their history and other forms of diagnosis, you can really hone in on what's going on in their body. So general interesting info about the pulse qualities and what we're feeling. Again, check out those other links right below this video, and I'll see you guys soon.