Acupuncture instructions for medical professionals
Point #1, mid-brain Du channel
Needle Length: ½ cun (1/2 inch) needles.
Needle Gauge range: from 32 to 36. You can use uncoated or silicon-coated needles.
This is a two-part protocol. Part A refers to the needline. Part B explains the visualization.
Part A: Needling
Yin Tang: Insert a needle at Yin Tang in the traditional manner: small angle insertion, starting just above Yin Tang, and directing the needle point towards the nose. Electrically, it would make more sense to direct the needle from the nose towards the forehead, but the shape of the face makes it difficult to do this, so just use the typical insertion.
Du-15: Insert the needle at Du-15 just superior to the acupoint. Using a moderate insertion angle, drive the point of the needle through the acupoint and continue “downward,” towards the neck, until the length of the needle shaft is almost completely under the skin.
Drawing #1
The Du channel and the mid-brain blockage
Part B: Visualization
As soon as the needles have been inserted at Yin Tang and Du-15, ask the patient to visualize energy moving through the head in the manner shown in Drawing #1, below.
The patient should briefly study the map of the current that flows through the brain. Once they have a good idea of where this current is supposed to go, they should visualize the Du current flowing through the brain along the line shown in the map.
A reminder to acupuncturists: the main path of the Du channel goes through the head, when awake. When sleeping, the Du channel energy is shunted to the route that runs over the top of the head. And when a high degree of electrical resistance is blocking the mid-brain path of the Du channel – as it does in COVID – the current cannot flow easily through the middle of the brain, and might be shunted to the “sleep-time” route that runs over the top of the head.
The mid-brain current, like all the currents in the body, is unidirectional. The main, mid-brain path of the Du channel moves from the back of the head to the front. It is crucial that this current move in the correct direction: fromthe back of the head to the front. Do not imagine this current going back and forth. Do not imagine this current flowing backwards, from the forehead to the neck. This current must be imagined as moving from the back of the head over to the front of the head, along the midline, moving neither to the left or the right.
People with COVID or Long-COVID might have trouble visualizing this crucial, life-sustaining current. The patient might feel as if a current that starts at the back of the head and moves forward towards the front of the brain is unable to get past the middle of the brain – the area that is circled in the above drawing.
The patient might feel as if they cannot move the current in a straight line towards the forehead. A patient might feel that this current is being shunted to the left or the right, or even splitting in two, with some current going to the left and some going to the right. Some people feel as if the current is diverted downward into the lower parts of the brain. Others just feel that the current becomes stuck at this point, and they cannot imagine it moving.
The patient must keep mentally hammering away at breaking through this barrier. As soon as he can imagine that this current is running successfully through the head all the way to the forehead, the visualization Some patients state that they are certain that they cannot move this energy through the brain. For these people, I give the following inspirational thought: This blockage in your brain is being created by the virus. You are larger, stronger, and more capable of thought than the virus. You can override this electrical manifestation of the virus. You must. Make a huge effort, over and over. Force yourself to imagine this current in your brain moving effortlessly towards the forehead. Force yourself, over and over. As soon as you can imagine this current moving correctly along the midline, neither to the left or right, and not up or down, but straight on towards the center of the forehead, the virus’s hold on you will be nearly ended. Your will is stronger than that of the virus.will become much easier. The feeling of “foggy thinking” might clear within minutes, or it might take up to an hour.
At this point, the health practitioner can also help by imagining this current running correctly through the midline of the patient’s brain.
In China, this type of medical work via visualization is called “Medical Qi Gong.” This type of medicine has been practiced for thousands of years, in many cultures. Although this type of treatment is poorly understood by most practitioners of western medicine, it can be highly effective. For more information on this subject, please read any book on Medical Qi Gong, or consult Tracking the Dragon; Dr. Janice Hadlock; Raja Books; 2018; pp. 73-92.
Duration
The active visualization, whether by the patient or the health practitioner, together with gentle stimulation of the needles at Du-15 and Yin Tang every fifteen minutes or so, if possible, should last until the patient can easily imagine a current moving through the center of his head all the way to the forehead. They might also experience a shift in their thinking. This sensation of restored thinking can be abrupt and obvious. The patient might suddenly say something like, “I’m back!” or “I’m alive!” or some other expression indicating that their mental clarity is resuming normal function. Even if the patient feels completely recovered, leave the needles in and remind the patient to keep doing the visualization for the duration of the approximately one-hour treatment.
Pre-existing Du channel conditions
In some people, the mid-brain current was already running poorly through the midbrain or being deflected left or right, due to a history of unhealed head injury, depression, Parkinson’s disease, or other conditions that chronically alter the flow of the mid-brain portion of the Du channel. In these cases, the COVID infection made an already poor mid-brain flow even worse. If this is the case, it might be extremely difficult to mentally correct the direction of the mid-brain channel. If the patient absolutely cannot make this correction, or if, once corrected, the current resumes running to the left or right, or resumes stopping altogether, please go to the webpage for pre-existing conditions.
Drawing #1
The Du channel and the mid-brain blockage
Point #2
Mid-spine at Du-9
Needle Length: 1 cun needles
Needle Gauge range: from 32 to 36.
Insertion technique: Insert needles at Du-10, Du-9, and Du-8, in that order. Insert the needles just superior to the acupoint, and using a small insertion angle, drive the point of the needle through the acupoint and continue on, moving the point of the needle inferiorly, until the length of the needle shaft is almost completely under the skin. In other words, direct the points of the needles towards the base of the spine. This needle direction is referred to in some acupuncture school texts as “needling into”, or “needling against” the current.
If the patient has back pain as part of his symptoms, you might also insert a needle at Du-14, and one at Du-7, to make sure that the energy is flowing vigorously up the entire Du channel, including through the blockage at Du-9. Insert these two extra needles in the same manner as the other needles on the back: keeping the needle just under the surface of the skin, with a small angle insertion. Insert the needle just superior to the acupoint, and move the needle tip inferiorly, towards the feet, until the shaft of the needle is almost completely under the skin.
If the patient still feels some type of back pain after the needles have been in for five minutes, you might insert additional 1-inch needles, a quarter inch to the left and to the right of both Du-9 and Du-10.
Leave these needles in, together with the needles at Yin Tang and Du-15, for approximately an hour.
Point #3
Large Intestine-11, both left- and right-side
Needle length: 1 cun (one inch) needles
Needle Gauge range: from 32 to 36
Insert needles at LI-15, both left and right sides.
Scrape the handle of the needle at Yin Tang with a fingernail, at the same time as scraping the handle of the needle at LI-15. First one side LI-15, then the other side LI-15. These needles will act as a lightening rod, encouraging the LI channel to flow correctly when the needles are inserted into the vicinity of LI-11.
Next, insert needles at LI-13, LI-12, LI-11, and LI-8. Use traditional, moderate-angle or perpendicular insertion. The needle should be inserted at least half the length of the needle shaft, so that half the length of the needle shaft is under the skin.
At LI-4, insert a ½ cun needle to ¾ depth, or a 1 cun needle 1/3 of the way under the skin.
This group of needles, inserted in the above order, will ensure that the Large Intestine channel makes its way through the blockage and continues up to LI-15, and thence to the head. In many people with COVID, the LI channel energy becomes diverted at LI-11 and shunts into the adjacent Lung or Triple Burner channels. If this is the case, even after the blockage at LI-11 is broken up, the channel qi might still continue to shunt into the Lung or Triple Burner channels. By inserting needles at both-sides LI-15, needles that act as lightening rods for the restored channel qi, one can be assured that the restored qi path will continue in the Large Intestine route all the way to the head.
Once all the needles are inserted, you can stimulate the needles by scraping the handles with a fingernail or gently moving the needles up and down, or “twisting” the needles, as you were taught in school.
Leave these needles in, together with the needles at Yin Tang, Du-15, and on the back, for approximately one hour. After the initial needle insertion and stimulation, the needles do not need to be re-stimulated. Then again, if you have the time, it will not hurt to gently stimulate the needles every fifteen minutes or so.
Drawing #3
Large Intestine channel , Blockage at LI-11 (Only right-side is shown)
Acupuncture needle insertion at a moderate angle