Diabetes and meridians

[Xequat]

I recently started studying pressure points and meridians, and I was wondering if anyone knows of anything that I should be careful about. My instructor tells me that the spleen meridian would be a bad one to attack, so we usually stay off of it in class, but does anyone else know of anything weird about it, since I am a Kyusho rookie? Heh, anyone know a cure?

 

[bujinclergy]

Depends how bad your diabetes is....
As for the "obvious" earth channel related points such as stomach and spleen it isn't as simple as that since spleen rules the muscles. So technically by that theory anywhere in the body is a no go.
Ask your teacher instead of where not to get hit what herbs, exercises and such you can do to strengthen your entire system so balance would keep you from getting in trouble.

 

[Xequat]

Ah, OK. Thanks, I appreciate that. Thanks for the info about the spleen; I didn't know that.

 

[TwistofFat]

Xequat - My thoughts are that Kyusho is best left to treat the side effects of diabetes. If you are a type I or fully insulin dependant type II do not mess with insulin enhancement herbs and the like as the side effects FAR outweigh the benefits. If you are a type II and not yet reliant upon insulin, the impacts of a good diet and meridian efforts to improve bloodflow are well worth it (for all types). The effect that many treatments have on insulin obsorbtion mimic lots of bad things for the diabetic (like alcohol does - raises blood sugars then drops like a rock...).

As a 22+ year diabetic (minimed pump wearer for last 5+), I have tried many treatments and a good run, diet, visits to the local chiroprator and plenty of EPAK goes a long way.

Best regards - Glenn.

 

[bujinclergy]

This is an excellent point!!
The herbal treatments I agree should only be considered if your not working with insulin and your "borderline" diabetic.
Once things have gone pancreatic south - maybe best to stay away from chinese herbology and go the good foods, careful with your insulin doses and plenty of great exercise.
I watched my dad get diabetes and the FDA took the one drug that worked well for him off the market. Everything went haywire till he went on insulin. Unfortunately that was after he lost 6 toes from gangrene. (in the days when they used to cut off quite a bit more so he was lucky.)
Once on insulin he didn't have many problems at all till I lost him to a heart attack.
Not a "disharmony" one should play around with.
Good point "Twist of Fat"

For those not aware the pancreas and spleen are sometimes considered to be the same organ from a TCM reference.

 

[shesulsa]

Spleen is a cleansing, biliary organ and works with everything - particularly your stomach. Most people have sensitive points on the spleen meridian because our spleens are generally dirty.

It's easy to cleanse the spleen, but since you have some kind of diabetes, I concur that the absolutely best thing you can do is modify your dietary intake - for life.

Talk to your doctor about it before you take any advice from anyone, but to prevent it I have cut WAY WAY WAY WAY down on my fat intake, sugar intake, caffeine intake and dairy intake. I try to eat as many of my vegetables raw as possible (not possible with things like squash and pumpkin, some greens, etc.), my fruit whole, I try to eat whole grains only. I don't mix protein with starch and I keep my starches way way down.

I drink the appropriate amount of water, and exercise a lot.

As far as attacking spleen points - I'm not so sure as to the time of day it is dangerous to attack spleen points (time of day does matter in these things, I understand) and not all points on that meridian do the same thing.

Maybe it would be a good idea to discuss with an accupuncturist about the ramifications of stimulating or depressing the spleen using the meridian and the possible effects on the pancreas.

Good luck and healing to you.

 

[Blooming Lotus]

I don't really know alot about diabetes . As far as qi goes is that too much or defecit???



Also read a diabetes variation of an aitkins diet today :- as per aitkins ( high protein , low starchy / refined complex carbs & sugar( the whiter the worse off you'll be) ) , specifically low on starchy veg like corn, carrots, beetroot etc ( for sugar content) root veg ( general rule the leafier or sloppier the better) ( Ie;-no potatoes or other bulbs) , refined carbs, whole grains only for dry complex carb ( not including white rice) , plenty of fruit , veg, quality proteins ( like fish, chicken, duck, occassional meats etc) and water/ herbal teas to hydrate. Also hear that red dates are extremely good in tcm for spleen qi but until we find out if diabetes is excess or not enough qi, .hold that thought.

BTW :- if you don't do dairy, eggs, ( tofu/ soy products, if you must and don't mind man-boobies) or a whey powder ( if budget allows ) is a great bio-available source of protein and particluarly for anyone active. Optimum protein enzymes come from milk albumin and egg albumin, but a good shake ( for around $25-$50 / wk ( reccomend redback or Aussie bodies available at woolworths supermarkets and most good health stores) will have you covered and you can even mix it with water. Do you do goats milk??? High in iodine ( good internal disinfectant) and a protein quantity of its own.

BL


Ps: on the sp meridian for attacks, there are so many points that work in different combos with other meridians and different corresponding times pending the result you're after in your combo that unless you tell us the specific point , disscussion about it is either waaaaaaaaay to long to get into here or just out and out silly. Will look at some charts / folders soon though and if noone gets there first and I see something I can explain to you in no more than 2 paragraphs, I'll come back to it.

cheers

 

[undeadcheese]

I've been told that if you want to do some major cleaning of your meridians, a vegan diet helps reduce the amount of junk clogging your organs. Plus there was a netscape article in 2006 that reported a 43% reversal rate of symptoms for diabetics using the vegan diet. This is compared to a 26% reversal on the ada diet. Cholesterol levels showed similar variations. I believe that similar findings were reported in a chinese study as well.

There's a good explanation for why this discrepancy happens, but it takes a while to explain and im not sure if you would want to be bored by the details.