Extra point · Upper Limb
Low Back Pain Point
腰痛点Yāo Tòng DiǎnAnatomical location
Two points on the dorsum of the hand, between the 2nd–3rd and the 4th–5th metacarpals, proximal to the metacarpophalangeal joints.
Main function
Activates Qi and Blood, relieves acute low back pain.
Therapeutic indications
- Acute low back pain (lumbar sprain)
- low back pain from overexertion
Name and classical tradition
Yaotongdian, 腰痛点, is the “low back pain point,” a name that is itself an indication: 腰痛, pain in the waist; 点 (點), point. There are two points on the dorsum of each hand, between the metacarpals, far from the area they treat.
The name, with the modern word 点 in place of 穴, gives away a 20th-century point, and it does not appear in any of the classical works we were able to check. Its logic is that of the distal point, which is very old: the same principle that leads us to treat the back through BL40, Weizhong, in the song of the four major points.
