A Case of the Miraculous Sinews: Part 1
I was speaking to one of my oldest patients today in the clinic while performing a sinew channel treatment. She had come in for relief from her inguinal pain that began as a result of the impact of her seatbelt on her pelvis during a car accident.
The sinews are a class of acupuncture channel most commonly known for treating pain very effectively – some even say miraculously!
The sinew channels are diagnosed by assessing which movement of the affected area is most difficult to perform. People will often say “it hurts here,” and, at first, have a difficult time identifying the most painful movement, but we practitioners can work with folks to find out what is indeed the most challenging. For example, perhaps there’s pain going from sitting to standing, or with walking, or when twisting or turning, with extension or flexion of a joint. And some movements require more than one sinew channel, so we have to get quite specific on when the pain occurs – for example, is it bending over before you make a movement to stand? Is it most painful to bend over and put on your socks? There are also sinew channels that are used for all-the-time pain and even for paralysis.
What is the most difficult movement to make?
Perhaps there’s pain going from sitting to standing, or with walking, or when twisting or turning, with extension or flexion of a joint. And some movements require more than one sinew channel, so we have to get quite specific on when the pain occurs – for example, is it bending over before you make a movement to stand?
For me, the sinew channels are a class of the channels that I have come to love and appreciate very much. I say that every channel is my favorite channel, and that’s true – but the sinews hold a special place in my heart.
These channels not only treat physical but also a person’s mood, which isn’t something we are always aware of — but pain, we more often know about!
Today my patient reported that the pain was constant, and she reported that the hardest movement was hinging forward in preparation to stand up. Walking was also challenging, but not as much. I diagnosed Leg Jueyin Liver and Yangming Stomach Sinew channel congestion.
The Stomach sinew can become activated when something stops one's forward movement, or when one feels the need to self-protect regularly. It is also the sinew that is treated when the hardest movement to make is when someone is carrying something: it is the sinew that is affected when we have pain bearing weight, either the weight of our own body, or when holding or lifting something. This sinew also responds when we feel we have too much to carry and things begin to feel burdensome, too.
We know it is time to treat the Liver or Pericardium sinews when the patient reports that the pain is constant, all the time, or if there is paralysis. Emotionally, it can be used to support the release of things that make us fearful or send us into the sense of paralysis emotionally. Things we avoid, or the felt sense of despair.
As we released the Liver Sinew, it was abundantly clear that there was not only excess (a sensation of stuckness or tightness) in particular areas on the trajectory of this channel, but there was also deficiency (a feeling like you can push through the tissue, a feeling of emptiness). In this case, we needed not only to release, but also to tonify, the sinew. A quick switch of the direction of the needle during treatment, combined with a different needling technique in the area of pain, allowed us to do just that. Immediately, she and I both felt an increase in the tonicity of the previously-deficient area. There was still, however, pain at the initial movement from sitting to standing, so I knew we still needed to also release the other channel involved, the Stomach Sinew…
...to be continued in Melinda’s next Blog installment!