Diagnosis: Pulse & Touch

Evaluation of Pulse

Learning to read the 28 pulses that are an essential part of Chinese medicine diagnosis takes years of study and practice. However, your Chinese Medicine practitioner will talk to you about your pulse diagnosis, and the most common descriptions are: floating, slippery, choppy, wiry, tight, slow, rapid, thin, big, empty and full. The normal pulse resides at the middle level and is usually about four or five beats for each complete inhalation and exhalation of breath.

Disharmonies of the pulses indicate: The condition of Essential Fluids such as Qi, the organ systems and the nature of the disharmony that is present. However, there are no absolute meanings to pulses.

The practitioner may apply gentle but firm pressure along the various channels, or meridians, that your Qi flows through and may manually stimulate associated acupuncture points. Your reaction to touch can reveal sensitivities and disharmonies and can even indicate where in the body your disharmony is centered.

• If you have a pain you can’t pinpoint, that indicates Stagnant Qi. Stagnant Qi is also indicated by a pain that moves around.
• • If the pain is fixed, it may indicate Stagnant Blood (Xue).
• Pain that feels better with pressure is associated with a Deficiency condition.
• Pain the feel worse with pressure is associated with an Excess condition.
• Pain that feels better with warmth is associated with Cold.