ACUPUNCTURE
Shen Mai: TCM Acupoint Guide
SHENMAI
Name
Shen Mai (Shenmai)
Location
On the lateral side of the foot, approximately 0.5 cun inferior to the inferior border of the lateral malleolus, in a depression posterior to the peroneal tendons.
Needling
- Oblique insertion directed inferiorly, 0.3 to 0.5 cun.
- Slanted insertion pointed downward, 0.3 to 0.5 cun, causing local distention and soreness.
- Puncture perpendicularly, 0.3 to 0.5 cun.
- Moxibustion is applicable.
Command Functions
- Confluent, Master, point of the Yang Qiao Mai
- Coupled point of the DU channel
- Sun Si-miao Ghost point
Actions
- Pacifies Interior Wind
- Expels Exterior Wind
- Calms the Shen
- Treats epilepsy
- Benefits the head and eyes
- Opens and regulates the Yang Qiao Mai
- Activates the channel
- Alleviates pain
- Relaxes the muscle channels
Indications
- Chills and fever
- Intermittent fever
- Aversion to Wind with spontaneous sweating and a headache
- Red eyes
- Red, swollen and painful eyes
- Eye pain that originates at the inner canthus
- Eye pain due to an attack of the Yang Qiao Mai
- Epistaxis
- Deafness
- Tinnitus
- Mania-depression
- Palpitations
- Heart fright
- Insomnia
- Cold Bi of the lumbar region and hip
- Pain of the lumbar region and leg
- Difficulty extending and flexing the knee
- Straw shoe Wind, that is redness, swelling and pain of the leg and foot
- Fullness of the chest
- Sequelae of Windstroke
- Psychosis
- Sensation of electricity or excessive energy in the skin
- Meningitis
- Seizures
- Glaucoma
- Wind-predominant Bi
- Fatigue
- Disorientation
- Vertigo
- Lassitude of the lower limbs
- Abdominal pain in women
- Migraine
- Hypertension
- Back ache
- Aching of the lower extremities
- Mental confusion
- Mental disorder
- Atony of the foot
- Tibial paralysis
- Quadriplegia
- Beriberi
- Pain due to Excess of Qi and Blood in women
- Tuberculosis
- Wind dizziness
- Eye dizziness due to Wind
- Head Wind
- Headache
- Lateral and midline headaches
- Frontal headache
- Thunder head Wind
- Opisthotonis
- Upward staring eyes
- Lockjaw
- Epilepsy
- Daytime epilepsy
- Windstroke with aphasia and hemiplegia
- Deviation of the mouth, face and eyes
- Counterflow qi
- Stiffness of the nape of the neck
- Stiffness and difficulty extending the back
- Redness and swelling of the lateral malleolus
- Blood and qi pain in women
- Swelling of the neck and axilla
- Post cerebrovascular accident hemiplegia and muscle spasms
- Occipital neuralgia
- Spinal trouble
- Meniere's disease
- Arthritis of the ankle
- Insanity
- Post-concussion syndrome
- Nasal congestion and discharge
- Uterine spasms
- Depression
- Coldness of the foot
- Dyspnea
- Dizziness
- Lumbago
- Lower limb neuralgia
- Cerebral hemorrhage
- Loss of speech due to stroke
- Hemiplegia
- Mouth and eyes awry
- Bi syndrome of the leg
- Contracture of the leg, knee and foot
- Dermatosis
- Sensation of qi rising
- Rheumatism in the kidneys
- Spasms of the uterus
- Pain control
Combinations
| Points | Indications |
|---|---|
| UB-63 Jinmen | Head Wind, severe headache |
| LI-10 Shousanli, UB-63 Jinmen | Head Wind, visual dizziness and stiffness of the nape of the neck |
| ST-41 Jiexi | Madness |
| KI-6 Zhaohai | Night-time epilepsy, diseases below the ankle, insomnia (reduce Shenmai, reinforce Zhaohai) |
| UB-11 Dazhu, GB-39 Xuanzhong, KI-7 Fuliu, ST-45 Lidui, UB-23 Shenshu | Coldness and pain of the bone marrow |
| GB-31 Fengshi, GB-30 Huantiao, UB-40 Weizhong, UB-60 Kunlun, ST-33 Yinshi, UB-57 Chengshan | Pain of the legs and lumbar region |
| GB-42 Diwuhui, GB-38 Yangfu, UB-39 Weiyang, PC-1 Tianchi, GB-41 Zulinqi | Swelling of the axilla |
| SJ-17 Yifeng, N-HN-54 Anmian, LIV-3 Taichong | Meniere's disease |
| SI-3 Houxi, SI-2 Qiangu | Seizures |
Notes
This point expels Cold and Heat and treats one-sided and generalized head Wind. It has a direct effect on the endocrine glands.
Sources and further reading
We cite classical materia medica and modern reference works. This article is health education, not medical advice.
- Shennong Bencao Jing (The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica), Han dynasty.
- Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), Li Shizhen, 1578.
- Chinese Pharmacopoeia, current edition — identity, quality and safety monographs.
- NCCIH and WHO reference material on traditional medicine safety.
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