 One of the most mysterious aspects of acupuncture and Chinese medical theory is this idea of there being channels in the body. Now many people on the very crunchy side will or maybe esoteric is a better word will say that the channels are a mysterious energy. And people on the very material side or maybe your chiropractor will say they're just fascia or they're just muscles. But in reality the channels are somewhere in between. Now in this video I thought I would share a little demonstration of not only what the channels might be but also a simple exercise for diagnosing what might be going on in some of the channels. Hey guys I'm Dr. Alex Hain author of the health book master the day and doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. So before we jump into this video I've put together two very important links right below the video. The first is for a free guide which is four daily rituals that could potentially help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. And the second is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine you can contact my private practice and clinic right below this video. So what are the channels fundamentally? I'm going to give you a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is I don't know and the long answer is that it's a complex interaction probably of muscles and nerves and the circulatory system electricity and maybe even other factors that we aren't aware of maybe some kind of interstitial fluid I honestly don't know. What you do know is that there is not only a piece of the channels what we think of as the acupuncture channels that is muscular because when you look at dissections done of people from a fascial plane I think an anatomist named Gil Headley is someone who's done this more than anyone that I know they look very very very similar to the channels you know if you look at the bladder channel that goes along the posterior of the body from the paraspinal muscles all the way down to the calves and down to the Achilles that looks almost like one sheet that is the exact bladder channel in Chinese medicine but that doesn't mean the channels of Chinese medicine are just muscular in fact one of our most ancient texts clearly says it is not muscular the muscles the bones the tendons the flesh so the channels are not just muscles bones tendons connective tissue categorically that's what our ancient medical classics say the people who created Chinese medicine who utilized acupuncture who invented acupuncture theory said that but it also doesn't mean that it is a mystical kind of energy and I only want to share here what I know to be true right now with my current state of knowledge and experience but in general the ancient classics describe the channels and the points almost as like these waterways so many of the points for example the some of the phase points or the transport points as they're often translated have you know the descriptions of these channels are viewed as like waterways where you know there's a point in the crook of the elbow that you know a lot of these point names have like crook or cave or marsh in the name and so there's some aspect anatomically that is clear some points the meaning of the points is clearly anatomical some is a functional name and some is something else right some points the back shoe points on the back the bladder channel runs along the spine some of those points deal with the spirit right certain qualities related to certain aspects of the spirit in the body these ancient classics describe points and these channels almost as waterways and so by regulating the function of the channel the flow in the channel you can regulate the function of the organs within the body and that's very important to keep in mind so I want to jump in and give a little demo of going over the spleen channel and the lung channel just a general exercise and channel palpation learning to spot little subtle changes in the channel as well as very common clinical findings that do not require a master of acupuncture to spot out so let's walk through i'm going to show you the spleen and the lung channel will go through them and i'll point out some things to observe let's start with the spleen channel and the spleen channel runs big toe inside of the foot i'm going to push on my leg here so you can see the line actually it's very interesting it follows you can see the veins on me because i'm lean but you can see the vein coming here right key points here that i want you to observe just start by just gently running your hand along the channel right we're going to come here through here and then right along the bone all right so commonly needle points for acupuncturists are typically you know spleen three spleen four spleen six sometimes the she cleft point spleen nine but the first thing with just observing the channel right this is a video on just observing what's going on in the channels at least the physical aspects just run your finger along it and see what you notice first thing you would notice typically on spleen spleen three and four is notice the texture does it feel soft and mushy does it feel really tight with tension very common to find not only very soft mushy which is very a deficient spleen common in what we call spleen she deficiency loose stools bloating food sensitivities that kind of thing a lot of gas but a lot of the time on the spleen channel here you'll find it really mushy really really soft it just kind of caves in now compare that to some people whose spleen channel here is really really tight really tight band of tension so that would be first one is the quality of the tissue the next is the temperature is it does it feel cold cold and clammy right cold and clammy feet is totally different channel finding in chinese medicine then warm feet dry good muscle tone muscle tension there right so just feel the channel texture and then temperature and then even moisture those are three important channel findings you'll observe and then as we come up further along the channel spleen six is a commonly needle point as we get up in here but come up the medial aspect of the leg here right what most people think of as the inside of their calf and you'll notice take your thumb and apply moderate pressure slowly increasing pressure and you'll notice that right in this area the top one-third of the calf and the spleen channel around spleen nine point up in here this category you'll notice some people get these nodules and i'm one of those people where if you if you put light pressure medium pressure and heavy pressure right in this area you start to feel what feel like little pea-sized gummies so there are these little chunky gummies that are going on right in the spleen channel there those little nodules are very very diagnostic from a channel perspective so first thing is just trace the channel you go down it go up it notice the temperature obviously notice that the texture right i notice up here is normal temperature but my feet are cold and the inside spleen three and four area are clammy so that's a clear finding the texture is somewhere in between in terms of the muscle tone and then we get up here and then we feel some of these nodules in the spleen getting up towards spleen nine up here at the top of the calf the medial side so noticing texture luster temperature moisture and then little findings like these little lumps are key things to pay attention to on some of these channels here now another channel that we're going to cover here is the some aspects of the lung channel just the inferior portion so the lung channel begins up in the chest right comes down along the bicep and on the thumb here but the findings that are most obvious that are simple ones to find for some people are if you trace first let's go back to the tracing exercise so we're just tracing right obviously if this is a patient i'm kind of going this way because it's easier but you could either trace this way or just like this way and the first thing is just notice what you feel on the channel just from a really objective kind of scientific perspective does it is it is there a lot of muscle tension is it very soft and mushy is there a temperature differential you notice medial versus lateral does it the luster or the tone does that vary at all and then let's pay attention to some channel findings let's see if we see anything here one of the things i notice the most is if we're just light pressure you can sort of feel a little kink here where the you can see the even in the muscle right you can see where the forearm flexing sensing like that extending like that but one of the most common findings in the lung channel via palpation is as we get up here you'll notice that some people also get that same finding these nodules some people have a granular or a sandy kind of feeling some people have a lumpy nodular feeling as we get up here closer to the elbow this is very common to start feeling a bit of a nodular type feel right in here so pay attention to that sometimes these patients have a long-term asthma or issues with allergies and you'll feel that right in some of these lung points right up towards the elbow here now the other thing is pay attention to indents or something that protrudes right so you may notice that certain parts of the channel there they dip in or they stick out a little more right so when we go down these other channels you'll notice pay attention to the differences in in texture and luster and even the the tone here but in general just lightly go down the channel first then more pressure and more pressure and you'll start to notice just texture changes throughout the channel and those can sometimes be indicative of certain pathologies or they can be a diagnostic piece of the puzzle but we've talked about the spleen we've talked about the lung that's one of the ways you can sort of scan the channels at least certainly the material portion the muscular portion of these channels all right guys so i hope that helps again the channel is very interesting and in some ways still a very mysterious feature of chinese medicine no doubt about it one part of it is definitely material you know fascial pathways muscles connective tissue and one part of it is not and i don't know what that other part is yet but maybe in 50 years i'll let you know when i find out don't forget two important links right below the video if you'd like to become a patient locally in los angeles or virtually via telemedicine and the free guide which is for daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with chinese medicine so check those out down there below