The field of TCM is truly an Art as opposed to simply being a collection of scientific principles. What do I mean by this? I mentioned in my last blog how treating ailments is not centered around simply treating the affected area. This point is most clearly seen when dealing with pain cases. Now there are TCM practitioners that still do local needling, needling right at the source of pain. The ones who are trained adequately do get positive results.
However, the majority of TCM practitioners are using more elastic methods to treat. One such method that I have had the most success in treating is what I term distal needling. This is simply needling away from the source of the injury. The Leg Shaoyang Meridian is often used to identify and treat lateral knee or leg pain. There are still some TCM practitioners that needle directly on this channel to treat the lateral knee pain.
I have found that I have been more successful in treating pain by distal needling in which I use the “paired” channels of the one affected to treat. For instance, I often needle the Arm Shaoyin Meridian to treat disorders of the Leg Shaoyang Meridian. The Arm Shaoyin is a paired channel. You may have already guessed that this channel is in a completely different region of the body than the affected Meridian, the Leg Shaoyang channel.
In fact, I needle the points on the Arm Shaoyin channel that are located on the wrist or upper arm/elbow area to treat the left lateral knee pain. How does this work? For now, it is enough for you to appreciate that the ancient healers in China, thousands of years ago, established this. Again, they understood the body as an integrated unit that functions as a whole. Therefore, they looked at the body in terms of Meridians running through it that were integrated with others