Back Shu points – Bei Shu Xue

The Bei Shu points are acupuncture points located on the back, on either side of the spine, and they are of great importance in Chinese medicine. Let’s look together at what they are used for.

Contents

• Location of the 12 back Shu points
• Indications of the back Shu points
• Palpation of the Bei Shu points

Location of the back Shu points

There are 12 of these points, located on the 1^st line of the Bladder meridian, that is, along the top of the paravertebral muscles.

Indications of the back Shu points

Each of these points corresponds to a specific organ or bowel, as shown in the table below:

The back therefore holds a kind of hologram of the body’s organ system. That is why, as a Chinese medicine practitioner, I begin the vast majority of Tuina massages by working on the back. Besides the relaxing effect felt by the person being massaged, it makes it possible to send a specific message to a particular organ, depending on the aim of the session.

Here are a few concrete examples to illustrate this:

• A person comes to see me because they have little appetite. They suffer from digestive pain that bother them and occur mainly after meals. In this case, I will work on the points PiShu and WeiShu , which are the back Shu points of the Spleen and the Stomach. This stimulates the functions of this pair of organs, whose role is to digest food;
• The point ShenShu is the back Shu point linked to the Kidney. As this organ nourishes and warms every part of the body, stimulating it can, for example, help treat severe fatigue. As this point lies in the middle of the lower back, at the level of the 2^nd lumbar vertebra, I often use it locally as well, this time to treat lower back pain ;
• A final example is that of a woman who has period pain of emotional origin, such as anger, which blocks the circulation of energy in the body. As the Liver is the organ responsible for draining and dispersing energy throughout the body, I will stimulate its corresponding back Shu point, Ganshu. The same point can be used for a person suffering from migraines caused by emotional disorders, stress and anger.

You can now see why it is important to know the cause of your pain in order to relieve it effectively.

Palpation of the Bei Shu points

Palpating these points makes it possible to assess the state of an organ, and therefore to make sure we are working on the right points. When there is a disorder, the point becomes reactive (a so-called ‘Ashi’ point), meaning that it is painful on palpation. If I detect a disorder of a given organ, I act on its Bei Shu point, dispersing it in case of excess or tonifying it in case of deficiency. When cold is present (for example, in a person whose lower back hurts every time temperatures drop), moxa can be applied to bring warmth and expel the cold.

If you would like to learn more about the meridians and the different families of acupuncture points, I invite you to get my illustrated book Meridians and acupuncture points in Chinese medicine.

Take care of yourself 🙏🏼

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