Stomach Channel
Breast Root
乳根Rǔ GēnAnatomical location
In the fifth intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the anterior midline, below the nipple in men or at the inframammary fold in women.
Main function
Regulates Qi, descends rebellious Qi, benefits the chest, promotes lactation, relieves cough.
Therapeutic indications
- Mastitis
- breast pain
- insufficient breast milk
- cough
- chest pain
- scanty lactation
- asthma
- hiccups
Name and classical tradition
Rugen (乳根) is the “root of the breast.” 乳 is the breast; 根 is the root, the base. The soundest reading is topographic: the point lies at the base of the breast, in the intercostal space just below. Another modern reading sees in the root the origin of milk production. That gloss fits the use of the point but has no classical citation.
The Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) places it “在乳下一寸六分陷者中”, one cun and six fen below the breast, in the depression. It is the same measure the Jiayi Jing uses between the points of the chest series that ends at ST16, and the same regularity with which the channel descends the chest. Its immediate neighbor above is ST17, the point that is not touched.
