BLUE POPPY PRESS RECENT RESEARCH REPORT # 348
Body Acupuncture & Network Vessel Puncture
for Prolonged Plum Pit Qi
by
Honora Lee Wolfe, Dipl. Ac., Lic. Ac.,
FNAAOM
Keywords: Chinese medicine, acupuncture,
network vessel puncture, plum pit qi, globus hys-
tericus, neurotic esophageal stenosis
In Chinese medicine, neurotic esophageal steno-
sis or globus hystericus is called plum pit qi (mei
he qi). Plum pit qi refers to a feeling of some-
thing stuck in the back of the throat which can
neither be swallowed down nor spit up. This feel-
ing is likened to a piece of cooked meat or a plum
pit lodged in the back of the throat, hence its
Chinese name. This condition is considered pri-
marily a psychiatric complaint in Chinese medi-
cine. It typically occurs in female patients who
are under stress or who have unresolved psycho-
logical issues. Typically, it accompanies exces-
sive fear and fright, nightmares, heart palpita-
tions, a feeling of anxiety and apprehension, and
insomnia. Also typically, physical examination of
the throat is negative, although sometimes post-
nasal drip may be diagnosed. Within Chinese
medicine, this condition is believed to be due to
depressed liver qi which drafts upward and binds
with phlegm. This phlegm lodges in the throat
similar to how creosote is deposited in a chim-
ney. Commonly, this condition comes and goes
depending on the patient’s level of stress, and it is
usually amenable to treatment by either acupunc-
ture or internally administered Chinese herbal
medicine. However, in some patients, this com-
plaint can continue for months and even years. In
such enduring conditions, certain special
Chinese medical theories must be invoked which
1
then indicate the usage of special acupuncture
techniques. In issue #8, 2002 of Hu Bei Zhong Yi
Za Zhi (Hubei Journal of Chinese Medicine),
Wang Zhi-xing and He Shui-yong published an
article titled, “The Treatment of Plum Pit Qi with
Body Acupuncture, Network Vessel Puncture,
and Cupping,” in which they discuss the
acupuncture treatment of just such enduring, pro-
longed plum pit qi.
Cohort description:
Altogether, Drs. Wang and He describe 30
patients in their article, 12 males and 18 females
aged 23-55 years. All of these patients had suf-
fered from plum pit qi for from 1-6 years, and all
had undergone physical examination of their
throats which excluded any organic disease
changes.
Treatment method:
Drs. Wang and He applied two different treat-
ments to these patients in tandem. The first treat-
ment consisted of using a plum blossom or seven
star hammer on the two sides of the anterior neck
bilateral to the Adam’s apple. A seven star ham-
mer is a small hammer with seven small needles
embedded in the face of the mallet. The head of
the hammer holding the needles is tapped on the
skin. Depending on the force of the tapping, this
causes either erythema or erythema accompanied
by slight bleeding of the treated area. In this case,
Drs. Wang and He did tap till bleeding was
caused. Then they applied small suction cups
over the area that was bleeding in order to
increase the amount of blood withdrawn from the
superficial veins. This treatment was done twice
per week, with two times equaling one course of
treatment. Additionally, each patient received
“body” acupuncture at He Gu (LI 4), Tai Chong
(Liv 3), Lie Que (Lu 7), and Zhao Hai (Ki 6). If
chest oppression was severe, Nei Guan (Per 6)
was added. If there was profuse phlegm in the
throat, Feng Long (St 40) was added. If there was
insomnia, Shen Men (Ht 7) was added. These
points were needled once per day, and the nee-
dles were retained for 30 minutes per treatment.
Five such body acupuncture treatments equaled
one course of treatment, and treatment effects
were assessed after anywhere from 1-3 courses
of treatment.
Treatment outcomes:
Cure was defined as complete disappearance of
any subjective symptoms as well as freedom
from recurrence on follow-up after a half year.
Marked effect was defined as marked improve-
ment in subjective symptoms and/or slight recur-
rence from time to time. Some effect meant that
there was a decrease in subjective symptoms but
that these symptoms recurred. Based on these
criteria, 21 cases were judged to have been cured,
eight cases experienced a marked effect, and one
case experienced some effect. Therefore, the
total effectiveness rate was 100%. In fact, 24
cases experienced marked improvement in only
one treatment.
Discussion:
Body acupuncture means the puncture of the
channel points on the trunk and extremities of the
body with so-called fine needles. Fine needles
(hao zhen) are one of nine traditional types of
acupuncture needles. They are what most people
think of when they think of acupuncture needles.
They are extremely fine (30-40 gauge) solid nee-
dles from one half to four inches or so in length.
According to traditional Chinese acupuncture
lore, fine needles treat the channels. However, in
the above case, because the condition was pro-
2
longed and enduring, it was no longer just in the
channels but had entered the network vessels.
The network vessels (luo) are smaller than the
channels (jing). They are also more numerous.
As Drs. Wang and He point out, one of the state-
ments of fact in Chinese medicine is that new or
recent diseases are in the channels, while old or
enduring diseases have entered the network ves-
sels. When Chinese doctors say that a disease has
entered the network vessels, what they mean is
that the disease has caused blood stasis in the
network vessels. In that case, it is not enough to
use fine needle acupuncture on the channel
points located on the body. One must use a spe-
cial technique called network vessel puncture
(luo ci). Network vessel puncture means to nee-
dle the superficial venules and/or capillaries in
order to cause bleeding. This technique thus
drains the static blood from the network vessels,
something which fine needle acupuncture does
not do or at least does not do very efficiently.
When network vessel puncture is followed by
cupping, this even more effectively drains static
blood from the network vessels.
In the above protocol, Drs. Wang and He used
body acupuncture to address the main disease
mechanisms of plum pit qi, i.e., liver depression
causing upward counterflow and phlegm bind-
ing. But because this condition had gone on for
so long, this alone was not, in their opinion,
enough to remedy this situation. Therefore, they
used network vessel puncture followed by cup-
ping in the affected area in order to locally treat
the blood stasis in the network vessels. By com-
bining these two techniques, they were able to
treat both the root (ben) and the tip or branch
(biao) of the disease simultaneously and
achieved a 100% effectiveness rate (although not
a 100% cure rate).
What I personally find important about this arti-
cle is that it shows that body acupuncture with
fine needles is not effective to treat every kind of
every disease. Fine needle acupuncture is only
one of the treatment modalities which as a whole
comprise the art of zhen jiu or acupuncture and
moxibustion. The traditional techniques of
acupuncture and moxibustion are not fully inter-
changeable and discretionary. Certain of these
techniques are indicated for certain situations.
Needles do not necessarily do the same things as
moxibustion, and, even with needles, fine needle
acupuncture cannot necessarily achieve all the
same things as network vessel puncture and vice
versa. Unfortunately, both in Asia and the West,
there has been a tendency in the last 50 years to
emphasize the role of fine needle body acupunc-
ture to the point that many acupuncturists do not
even realize that is only one of several modalities
that make up acupuncture and moxibustion as
whole. In my experience, many of the failures of
acupuncture in contemporary clinical practice
are due to using the wrong tool on the wrong
condition. Hopefully, this article will alert more
practitioners to the irreplaceable importance of
network vessel puncture in the armamentarium
of acupuncturists.
Copyright © Blue Poppy Press, 2003. All
rights reserved.

Copyright © Blue Poppy Press, 2003

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