One common thing a lot of modalities of medicine will do is to check your pulse. Have you ever wondered what it is we’re feeling for when we take your pulse prior to your Acupuncture session? We thought we’d explain exactly what we’re getting from you when we take your pulses.

Like to get some help with your health journey?

It’s an interesting thing, the pulse, and exactly what we can learn about what’s going on in your body.

There is a rich history associated with pulse-taking in Chinese Medicine and it plays a big part in our diagnosis.

Palpation (which includes Palpating the pulse) is one of the 4 major traditional diagnostic methods in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The others being Inspection, Olfaction, and Listening/Questioning.

Traditionally, the pulse was taken first thing in the morning when the patients were in a relaxed state. Unfortunately, this isn’t possible in this day and age, but we can still gauge and discover a great deal from feeling our patient's pulse at any time of day.

Some TCM doctors historically and even today will take their patients pulse for up to 30mins in their first session. For these practitioners, pulse-taking is their primary diagnostic method.

How It’s Done - What Are We Feeling For

We feel the pulse with three fingers, in three positions on both wrists. Each of these positions represents an ‘energetic organ’ from inside the body. 

For example, the middle position on the right hand relates to the Spleen organ, the strength of the pulse giving us an idea about your digestive health. 

There are many subtleties in what we are feeling for in the pulse.

Here are some words that we might use as Chinese Medicine Practitioners to describe your pulse: 

• Taut

• Rapid

• Soft

• Slow

• Thin

• Deep

• Hidden

• Choppy

• Thready

• Slippery (like running your finger
  over prayer beads).

Have a Go Yourself!

Put your 3 middle fingers from your right hand onto your left radial artery in the ‘pulse taking’ position.

See what you can feel. Can you relate it to any of the above words?

Hmm, it’s tricky hey!

We’re Looking For Balance

As with many things in Traditional Chinese Medicine it is a balance that we look for and try to help you to achieve. 

The pulse should not be too fast, too slow, too deep or too thin. And, it’s promising when we see changes over time. 

One example of when we see noticeable changes in the pulse is in pregnancy. 

A woman's pulse may be thin and soft as she prepares for conception (we are using Acupuncture and herbs to pump it up), when she becomes pregnant the pulse gets quicker, a little stronger, and can start to have a slippery feel to it. 

Later into the pregnancy, the pulse should start feeling even bigger, fuller, faster and more slippery. As labour gets closer the pulse may start to have a choppy rough feeling to it.

Pulse taking is just one of the ways we work out your Chinese Med pattern & tailor our treatments to just suit you!