Hey, it's Nicholas! 👋

Most acupuncture points are bilateral (or on the midline), but did you know that there are some points that exist on only one side of the body?

Well, maybe…

It turns out that this is a little bit controversial, and it may differ between east and west.

While there are many reasons that you might choose to needle a point on only one side, pretty much all of the acupuncture points exist bilaterally.

(Of course, the obvious exception here are points that lie on the midline, like the Ren and Du points.)

But it turns out that there are a few points that are only one-sided.

The Appendix and Gallbladder Points

There are two points that I know of that are one sided. They’re both extra points on the right leg, corresponding to specific organs, and both can be used diagnostically as well as in treatment.

Lan Wei Xue – The Appendix Point

This point is located approximately 2 cun distal to ST-36 (Zusanli) on the right leg.

It's used for both acute and chronic appendicitis and it often becomes tender when the appendix is inflamed. That means the point can play a role in both diagnosis and treatment of appendicitis.

Dan Nang Xue – The Gallbladder Point

Also one-sided, Dan Nang Xue is located 1–2 cun distal to GB-34 (Yanglingquan) on the right leg.

This point is used for both acute and chronic cholecystitis and cholelithiasis and, similar to Lan Wei Xue, it becomes tender when the gallbladder is inflamed. So it can also be used both diagnostically and in treatment.

Why the right side?

So why are these points one-sided? Well it probably has to do with the fact that their corresponding organ is right-sided as well.

These are not classical points. They probably came about in the 1950s when Mao Zedong was promoting the integration of TCM with Western medicine. During this time, the Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine described hundreds of “new points,” many of which were organ-specific reactive points discovered through clinical observation.

Lan Wei Xue, for instance, probably emerged from studies exploring acupuncture as anesthesia during this time.

While there are other extra points corresponding to one-sided organs–such as Pi Gen for the spleen or Wei Wan Xia Shu for the pancreas–these organs don’t usually suffer from acute inflammation, so they’re usually used bilaterally.

Controversy: East vs. West

Looking further into this, it turns out that the one-sided nature of these points is actually disputed.

In A Manual of Acupuncture by Deadman and Al-Khafaji — the major acupuncture textbook used in the West — these points are described as being on the right side only. They say in their commentary, “Dannangxue (M-LE-23) is one of the few acupuncture points that only exists on one side of the body.”

But when we look at the Chinese book, Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, there's no reference to these points being one-sided.

We can even find studies in China where these points are specifically used bilaterally. For example, for appendicitis they specifically say "阑尾穴双侧均取" ("Lanweixue, both sides taken") (Chinese/English).

Other one-sided points?

Are there any other one-sided points? Not really…

I suppose you could say that Jinjin and Yuye are each one-sided — one is on the left side of the tongue and the other is on the right — but this is really a pair of points. They're just named differently on the right and the left.

(There's actually a similar thing with ST-28 [Shuidao]: Sun Si-miao referred to left ST-28 as Baomen [Uterus Gate] and right ST-28 as Zihu [Child’s Door].)

Other one-sided points are specific to style. For example, in Master Tung’s acupuncture, Wood Anger is needled on the left hand only and Spleen Edema is needled on the right hand only.

Also, in auricular and scalp acupuncture, certain points and zones are one-sided.

Treating Gallbladder Issues

So why were one-sided acupuncture points on my mind?

Well, it’s something that came up during my research on gallbladder issues and liver disease.

My friend Patrick and I have been putting together a continuing education course about herbal formulas for Gallbladder Sludge and Liver Fibrosis, and that’s where the point Dannangxue came up.

The course is finished and just waiting approval from the NCCAOM (or NCBAHM as it’s now called).

If you want to be notified when it becomes available, join the waiting list and you’ll be the first to know!

Gallbladder Sludge and Liver Fibrosis: An Herbal Approach Have you ever had a patient come in with gallbladder issues, and their doctor wants to take it out? That's what was happening to Patrick in his clinic. So he developed an herbal formula to help them with their gallbladder sludge. And we turned it into a CEU course: Patent medicine for gallbladder and liver issues Custom formulas for gallbladder sludge and liver fibrosis 4 CEUs for $30, CA and NCCAOM (pending approval) ​ Join the waiting list to be the first to know when it's approved: Join the Waiting List

I'm still just working on making continuing education courses.

I'll be honest, it was never my goal in life to sell CEU courses to practitioners. What I'm most passionate about is helping students–especially first-year students–get through their program and understand the medicine at a deeper level.

But as you can imagine, students don't have a lot of money, and I still need to pay rent (and buy cat food).

So this is my part of my evil plan: sell CE courses to practitioners, and use that money to fund free resources for students.

So if you're a student, sorry, a lot of my student content is on hold for now. Hopefully doing it this way will make this whole thing more sustainable. But I'll come back to it eventually.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Nicholas

P.S. If you enjoy random acupuncture facts like this one about one-sided points, you may enjoy the 50 Daily Acupuncture Facts CEU/PDA Course. It's 10 CEUs/PDAs for $50.

This is a weekly newsletter to let you know about the weekly updates like livestreams, office hours, and Q&A's. It's also a way to share whatever little TCM tidbit is on my mind. If you prefer not to receive this each week, you can unsubscribe from just the newsletter. You'll still receive major updates when new videos are added, you just won't get this newsletter.