Traditional Chinese Medicine channel
Triple Energizer Channel
手少阳三焦经Fire21:00 - 23:0023 pointsTE1 → TE23
Description
The Triple Energizer channel, also called the Triple Heater or San Jiao, regulates the functions of the three jiaos (upper, middle, and lower), which govern the respiratory, digestive, and urogenital systems. It acts as a system for controlling temperature and distributing energy throughout the body. Imbalances can show up as problems with thermoregulation, immune disorders, chronic fatigue, and difficulty absorbing nutrients. It is essential for coordination among the body's different systems and for the ability to adapt to environmental and emotional change.
Main functions
- Controls the transformation and transport of fluids
- Regulates body temperature
- Protects the heart and the pericardium
- Regulates Defensive Qi (Wei Qi)
Pathway
It begins at the ring finger, rises along the back of the hand, the arm, the shoulder, and the neck, circles the ear, and ends at the temple.
The channel in the Lingshu
“三焦手少陽之脈，起於小指次指之端”. The Triple Energizer begins at the tip of the ring finger, at TE1, rises along the back of the hand and through the center of the outer side of the forearm, “出臂外兩骨之間”, between the two bones, passes through the elbow and climbs the arm to the shoulder, where it crosses behind the foot Shaoyang. At the supraclavicular fossa it enters and does something typical of its diffuse nature: “布膻中，散絡心包”, it spreads through the center of the chest and disperses in the envelope of the Heart (the Pericardium), before descending through the diaphragm and belonging, one after another, to the three Jiao.
The two branches in the head encircle the ear. One rises from the chest along the neck, ties in behind the ear and passes over it; the other enters the ear, exits in front, crosses the cheek and reaches the outer corner of the eye, next to TE23, where the Qi passes to the Gallbladder. That is why its “是動” disorders begin with the ear: “耳聾，渾渾焞焞”, deafness with a confused ringing, and go on to a swollen throat. The chapter gives it dominion over Qi (是主氣所生病者).
Its branch is “手少陽之別，名曰外關”, Waiguan, TE5, two cun from the wrist, which winds around the arm on the outside, pours into the chest and joins the lord of the Heart, its partner.
