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Acupoint Location Guide

By Alon Lotan B.Sc. T.E.

ISBN 965-222-735-8

Reviewed by Al Stone, L.Ac.

In the words of the author, "this is the book that I was looking for as a student". This book answers that need with comprehensive content presented in a reasonably effective paperback guide.

The Acupoint Location Guide offers a variety of solutions to students learning the accurate location of the acupuncture points. Highest on the list of effective qualities of this book is the graphics that show in simple detail local anatomy as applicable to each acupoint location. Detail is far more explicit than the usual Foreign Languages Press'acupoint illustrations. For instance, in locating point Lung 11Shaoshang, the outline of that distal phlange is given so that the point can also be located in relation to the curves of that bone. Pretty cool for people who like to palpate their points to find them.

Anatomical features are given in accessible yet anatomically accurate descriptions. The terms are Latin based, but not archaic like some of the Chinese books that seem to take their medical terminology from the 1800's. That makes it just a bit easier to use as the terms are more specific without being overly Latinized.

The book opens up with a few points of order as should any book on acupoint location. Specifically, a variety of charts describing the body's cun divisions. There are many here that I was unfamiliar with as they don't appear in CAM (Foreign Languages Press' Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (formally, "Essentials"). The source publications are listed in detail in the back of the book for those who want to know where the author got the information for any particular point, especially those that deviate from the Foreign Languages Press publications, the gold standard of acupuncture point location in China as well as the USA.

Meridian abbreviations, which vary from country to country are also described at the beginning of the book and follow the NCCAOM convention that are generally the most popular and accepted in the USA. For instance:

Once we get into the description of each point, we find the following information given:

Zhongfu - Lu 1

Location: 6 cun lateral to the front midline, on the line continuing laterally (and superior) from the 1st intercostal.
Tips & References: About 2 cun inferior (and lateral) to Lu 2.

• Medial to the deltoid muscle
• The first intercostal is superior to the second rib which is level with the sternal angel.
• Medial to the axillary artery (search for the sensation of pulse).
• Search for the first deep depression that can be felt when moving inferiorly (and lateral) from Lu 2 along the deltoid border.
  Basic Feature: Lu front 'Mu' collecting pt.. Interaction with Sp.

The bullets you see on this page are likely going to show up in your web browser as dots and help the eye locate information more easily. In the book, the bullets used are stars which I don't really think help the eye, but actually confuse it just a bit.

The "basic feature" component lists all the individual point's antique (five elements or water metaphors such as jing-well, shu-stream, etc.) associations or intersections of two or more meridians. Some of the terms used are not those that I'm familiar with and had to snoop around a bit to verify what I thought the author was talking about. What I've learned as crossing points or intersections, this book calls "interactions." This may not be something that a book such as this is really designed to do, cover all basis in regards to terminology but that was one small stumbling block I encountered that may be of concern to students who are still trying to make peace with a seemingly limitless number of terms for that end up being for the exact same thing.

In some cases, alternative locations according to other sources are given. This is really a great way to learn points. Lu 7 - Lieque for instance is described as "Proximal to the radius of the styloid process, between the abductor pollicis longus and the brachioradialis." Alternative descriptions are also given to add to this description such as:

• 1.5 cun proximal to the cubital (wrist) fold.
• On the styloid process tip radial aspect.
• On the styloid process lateral aspect.
• When stretching the thumb upwards (extension) the two tendons at the wrist joint seem to be one and together they form the anatomical snuffbox medial border. This is a good place to search for the gap between them.

The images are very good, though the light gray used may not be visible in the scanned image. If you can see a dashed line between Lu 5 and Lu 9, that's the gray. It show the trajectory of the channel between points.

The eight extra meridians are also addressed. Also included are a few charts describing all of the points along the eight extras including antique associations.

Crossing points for each meridian is given in a text table. I think it would be nice to somehow organize this particular information in a manner that isn't so text oriented. This book does excel in the graphic department. Perhaps in the next edition there will be some better representations of the crossing points ("Interaction points" as the author describes them.)

What's missing?

Two things that I can think of.

1) It would have been nice to include the English translation for each of the point names. We have "Zhongfu", we have "Lu 1" but we don't have the translation of "Zhongfu" which is "central treasury" or something similar. That would have been nice.

Author, Alon Lotan, responds:

About translating the Pinyin names, well, I worked with a book that translates and explains the Pinyin names (Grasping the wind / Andrew Ellis) as you can see in the bibliography and I was thinking of giving translations, but I found it in some cases (wich are more than a few) this issue was not as simple as we would like it to be, and might cause a disagreements wich I preferred to avoid.

2) Secondly, I think that this book would be better published not in paperback form, but bound with a wire spiral or a plastic "comb" as they say in the book binding business. This would allow the book to be open and lay on a table while acupuncture points are located by a student. As it is now, the book is opened, read, and then put down with the pages open but facing down on the table so the page isn't lost, but because it is a paperback, if it is set down with the page opened, it will close. Its a paperback book that doesn't easily sit open on a table where it is likely best used.

Author, Alon Lotan, responds:

I completely agree that a spiral spine would fit better to such a book, but it was a little expensive and I thought this book should be on the cheaper side... maybe it was a mistake.

All in all, this book does deliver its promise, to fulfill a student's point locating needs. It is a smallish sized book that could fit into a large lab coat pocket. Its a good book for learning how to find the acupuncture points. It is certainly good enough for practitioners to learn from as well. The drawings are clean and clear, the language is simple, but not lacking scientific terminology and the content seems well thought out and researched.

This book can be purchased at:
http://www.etsem.co.il/acupoint/

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