Inner Gate
Dear Patient,
Years ago I was at a party with a friend, and she started to get nauseous. I didn’t have any needles with me, so doing my best to improvise, I raided the pantry, found some whole peppercorns, and taped one to the inside of each wrist. I told her to massage the points and breathe, and after a few minutes, her nausea began to subside. That’s the power of Pericardium 6.
Pericardium 6 is best known as an antidote for nausea and morning sickness during pregnancy. It’s also beloved by travelers who get seasick on cruises. Your local drugstore probably carries a wearable acupressure band you can use on this point—a simple elastic band and pressure bead combo that works remarkably well.
But why is this point so powerful? Pericardium 6 is what we call a confluent point—a key that unlocks one of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, our deepest reservoirs of qi. Pericardium 6 opens up the Yin Wei vessel, which links all the yin channels and rules over the interior of the body. As its name, Inner Gate, suggests, Pericardium 6 penetrates to our very core.
The Pericardium is the protector of the Heart, which is our emotional center. So Pericardium 6 treats any internal symptom rooted in the emotions. My friend got nauseous at that party not because of excess food and drink, but because she was in the middle of a difficult breakup, yet we were there to celebrate another friend’s wedding engagement. The commingling of these disparate emotions—happiness for her friend, and her own broken heartedness—was just too much. Her Heart needed the protection of the Pericardium.
We all know that time is the true healer of a broken heart. And nausea is usually only a temporary condition. But it's okay if we need a little help. We can tap at the Inner Gate, and invite the protective embrace of Pericardium 6.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
Location notes:
Pericardium 6 is located on the inner side of the forearm, between the tendons of palmaris longus and flexor carpi radialis, about two inches proximal to the crease of the wrist.