Why Does My Acupuncturist Feel My Pulse?

If you've seen an acupuncturist before, aside from our in depth intake and examination of your face and tongue, we take your pulse on both wrists. I think many of us who are in this field know why we use the pulse for diagnostic purposes but I don't think our patients fully understand the deep philosophy and science behind it. I found a piece of literature by Bob Flaws where he talks about this and thought this would provide some depth to those of us that practice this medicine and insight to patients unsure why we use this technique in our medicine-

"Pulse examination in modern TCM primarily means feeling the pulse of the radial arteries at the styloid processes of both wrists.  This is commonly called the "cun kou" or inch opening.  It is believed by practitioners of Chinese medicine that the pulses felt here can be read as a simulacrum of the flow of qi, blood, and body fluids of the entire body.  The first chapter of the Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties) opens with the following question: All the 12 channels have sections where the movement in these vessels can be felt.  Still, one selects only the cun kou in order to determine whether the five viscera and six bowel harbor a pattern of death or life, of good or evil auspices.  What does that mean? The answer of why one can determine the health and disease of the entire body by feeling the pulses at the cun kou on the wrists that the Nan Jing gives is this: The cun kou constitutes the great meeting point of the contents passing through the vessels.  It is the section of the hand tai yin channel where the movement in that vessel can be felt.  When a normal person exhales once, the contents of the vessels proceed three inches.  When a normal person inhales once, the contents of the vessels proceed another three inches.  Exhaling and inhaling constitute one breathing period.  During this period, the contents of the vessels proceed six inches.  A person, in the course of one day and one night, breathes altogether 13,500 times.  During that time, the contents of the vessels proceed through 50 passages.  That is, they circulate through the body in the period needed by the clepsydra's dripping water to move down by 100 markings.  The constructive and defensive qi proceed through 25 passages during a yang period, and they proceed through 25 passages during a yin period.  This constitutes one cycle.  Because the contents of the vessels meet again, after 50 passages, with the cun kou, this section is the beginning and the end of movement of the contents of the vessels through the body's five viscera and six bowel.  Hence, the pattern of death or life, good or evil auspices harbored by the body's five viscera and six bowels may be obtained from the cun kou. Whether or how one chooses to accept this explanation aside, it is a fact that practitioners of Chinese medicine have been diagnosing and treating patients on the basis of pulse examination carried out at the inch opening for at least 2,000 years."

To summarize what is being said here, we are using the pulse as a diagnostic measure as it's painting a picture of the entire ecosystem within the body. Each position and depth is related to an organ and its pair. If you have specific questions, feel free to comment below! -collin (Bob Flaws, The Secrete of Chinese Pulse Diagnosis)