Many Western veterinarians and physicians use acupuncture in their practices. Some are well-trained in traditional Chinese medical methods. Others have attempted to reduce acupuncture to a simple form based on “acupuncture cookbooks.” These are prescriptions of common acupuncture points used in common diseases. They enable veterinarians that are not properly trained to use some acupuncture in clinical cases. “Cookbook acupuncture,” followed blindly, can give disappointing or mediocre results as the lists provide only the usual recommended points and may not be relevant. Ideally, each animal should be examined to find the affected meridian(s). An acupuncture meridian is an invisible channel, line, or plane that links specific acupuncture points, usually in a longitudinal direction. Reactive points on these meridians should be treated. This is impossible for practitioners who do not know the basic principles of acupuncture. In racehorses, for example, an imbalance in any meridian may cause lameness in any joint. Cookbook acupuncture in these horses is less likely to succeed.
In veterinary acupuncture, the points used most often are located in the thoracic-lumbo-sacral-paravertebral area, called Shu points. They are often sensitive to pressure when their associated meridian is disturbed and have diagnostic and therapeutic value. Other points used by veterinarians are Mu, trigger, local, special, and command points. Command points are situated from the stifles and elbows distally. There are 66 command points divided into six groups. Acupoints in one of these groups are known as ting-points, which are situated most distally of all the points.
Equine Ting-Point Therapy
To understand the functions of ting-points and command points it is necessary to have knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the 5-Elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Each meridian belongs to an element. Ting-points belong to the Wood element. These points are the best choice in muscular problems and why ting-point is often the point of choice in horses.
The command points belonging to this meridian will then be able to heal problems along the meridian and also symptoms related to the element that the meridian belongs. These elemental symptoms may be distributed all over the body, not only along the path of the meridian. Until now, pain reaction to point pressure, electrical resistance changes, and symptomatology were used in diagnosis. However, the microcirculatory changes in the diagnostic acupuncture points of horses may be felt clearly as changes in the consistency of the tissue within the diagnostic ting-points, which are located 1 – 2 cm proximal to the hoof-hair junction. The pitting, or decreased thickness of skin due to less blood circulation, can often be seen after pressure is applied in acute conditions and sometimes before palpation in chronic conditions. Once the diagnostic acupuncture points are located, stimulation of these points causes a biologic response in the microcirculation in the affected points. Stimulation of the reactive ting-point or any other reactive acupuncture point on the affected meridian can influence all other reactive points on the meridian, as well as the parts traversed by the meridian. Also, other meridians that are in energetic relation with the one treated will show changes.
TCT: Thoresen’s Coronary Band Therapy
The equine coronary band may also serve as an ECIWO-system. ECIWO is the acronym for E=Embryo, C=Containing, I=Information, W=Whole and B=Body. It may be used as a new therapeutic microsystem. It has the same potential as ear-acupuncture or metatarsal-two ECIWO-acupuncture in humans. Once grasped, the method is easy to learn and perform and requires little time. It’s easy to combine with ting-point method and investigation. The clinical cure rate after this treatment varies according to the type of diagnosis. However, according to other investigations of the effectiveness of microsystems, it is as good as, or better than, that of ordinary acupuncture.
ECIWO-biology is a newly re-discovered and simple method that has proved to be effective both in medicine and agriculture. The efficacy of the system is well-documented through information gathered from more than thousands of cases and several large clinical studies.
ECIWO Therapy after Thoresen
Several ECIWO-systems can be found in the horse. In fact, every anatomical structure may be considered an ECIWO-system in itself. Among these systems, the goal is to find or choose the ones that give the best therapeutic results. The ear system is one of the most effective, but difficult to use in many horses. The metacarpal/metatarsal systems are important because they combine the effect of the meridian therapy with the effect of ECIWO-system therapy. To use these systems, find the meridian that is unbalanced, either in excess or deficiency. The best choice is probably the meridian in deficiency, but results from the meridian in excess are also good, although do not last long. After localizing the meridian in unbalance, determine the anatomical placement of the symptom.
TCT – How to Diagnose the Pathological Point
To find the meridian start or endpoints of the coronary band or the ting-points, is a phenomenon called “pitting.” Pathological ting-points develop pits in the coronary band that may be discovered by pressing the thumb with a pressure of about 300 g. around the coronary band of all four legs. Pathological points then emerge as dry or spongy pit at certain points of this band, giving rise to a meridian diagnosis after where these pits are located. If the thumb is held in a vertical manner, several other points appeared. These points do not relate to the end points of the meridians, but to structures as joints and the spine.
From the author’s experience in more than 1,000 cases, use of reflex points at the equine coronary band helps in most types of treatment, especially local injury (wounds, pain, sprains, and joint damage.) The results are excellent in joint problems, especially when the method was combined with other treatments, such as acupuncture. In many cases, like simple joint pain or local injury, TCT may be used alone.
Command Points after Thoresen
To understand the placement and function of the command points, it is important to understand the development from a five-toed animal to a one-toed horse. Every species or individual has different shapes, lifestyles, social lives, eating habits, and consumes different food, plants, and herbs for survival. These points, or stimuli-receptors, have developed and placed differently. They also have different functions. Consider the difference between humans and horses in relation to the access of the breast area, stomach area, legs, and other body parts. The possible use of the human belly as a means for treatment is enormous in relation to a horse’s belly. The same applies to the chest. So the points that the horse may have on the abdomen must have been redefined or of less importance over millions of years. As a result, we find less and fewer important points in the horse’s belly.
Also, as the legs have been retracted into the body, the important points have been developed further down on the horse’s legs. Writers of textbooks or creators of point atlases do not take these factors into consideration, but rather translate the human point locations and functions to animals. The author’s team has created a new acupuncture-point atlas for the horse. We detected and tried all of the available points in the horse and mapped them. This atlas has more points on the legs and fewer on the abdomen versus humans.
To use only the transpositional points may give good results, as all placental animals do have a common offspring and, by such, have a large number of common points or at least do have “body remembrance” of different point locations. To understand body remembrance, it is important to review the evolution of the equine embryo. The horse has evolved from a five-toed animal to a one-toed animal. This evolution is also evident in the horse’s fetal development. The horse as a fetus has five toes. During 11 months of pregnancy, two disappear and two minimize to form the splints. Only the third toe evolves to become the real leg. In horses, dogs, and most animals, the points that have moved to the most developed toes are the most effective points. In horses, all human finger points have moved over to the third finger or toe. Also, the most proximal command points, which in humans and dogs are placed near the elbow or stifle, are placed directly above the carpus and tarsus.
General Effects of the Command Points
Command points do not influence the organs directly; they influence mainly the fundamental processes. It is far too easy for us to associate the bodily processes exclusively to specific organs. In humans, we associate the stomach (ST) with the “storage and ripening of food.” ST is something that for humans happens to be right in our present stage of evolution on earth. However, the function of “storing and ripening” of food in horses relates much more to the Large Intestine (LI) than to ST. This is because LI in horses has taken over most of the functions from ST, i.e. LI is the horse’s “main stomach.” Storing and ripening are earth processes and “Earth points,” especially those of LI, ST and spleen/pancreas (SP).
In the author’s experience of more than 900 cases, use of command points helps a lot in most types of treatment, especially when you may be able to classify the symptoms observed according to the element. If we have a process in deficiency without any symptoms, you may relate to an element, it is better to use the ting-point. If the symptoms are possible to relate to an element, it is better to use one of the elemental command points.
