Spleen Channel
Food Cavity
食窦Shí DòuAnatomical location
In the fifth intercostal space, 6 cun lateral to the anterior midline.
Main function
Regulates the Qi of the Middle Jiao, strengthens the Spleen, relieves chest pain.
Therapeutic indications
- Chest pain
- hiccups
- vomiting
- poor appetite
- chest and costal distension and pain
- borborygmi
- edema
- difficulty swallowing
Name and classical tradition
Shidou, 食窦, is the “Food Cavity.” 食 is food, what the Stomach receives and the Spleen transforms; 窦 (竇) is a cavity or orifice. A modern gloss understands that the fluid of the channel drips from here inward, toward the Spleen. This is the standard interpretation, with no classical citation. Sources attribute the point to the Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion).
Its alternative names are 食关, “Food Pass,” and 命关, “Life Pass.” The second has a homonym problem. In the Song period, Dou Cai described in the Bianque Xinshu (Bianque’s Heart Book) a moxibustion point also called 命关, characteristic of his school, in which large amounts of moxa were applied. That Mingguan is located in another area of the abdomen, and its exact location is still debated. It is not the same point as this alias of Shidou, although they share a name.
