Jue Points
I heard about jue points a few years back during one of Kiiko Matsumoto’s seminar for the first time. As soon as I heard the term jue, jueyin channel or the jueyin points came to my mind, and as if she heard my inner talk, she continued explaining that these points should not be confused with jueyin points.
She then said that that Jue points were created by Master Maruyama originally and Kiiko has been using these points successfully for many different issues especially where there is stagnation in the specific channel system.
Jue means barrier or obstacle that, when one tumbles and falls down in Chinese, and these points are on the bottom of the points at the joint between the phalangeal and metatarsals. After a thin, small needle insertion or sometimes only o’kya moxa application is very important.
Recently I used urinary bladder (ub) jue points on a patient who was experiencing a very stubborn low back, hip pain on the left side. I had tried some orthopedic acupuncture where I needled her QL, glutues medius and priformis muscle using trigger point needling with no success. I then used cupping without any success, Mr Tung style acupuncture was also not helpful for her case. I then remembered jue points, her pain pathway was on ub channel, I needled underneath the 5th toe, ub jue points and applied o’kyu rice grain moxa. The relief was immediate, patient described it as if she felt like her back had suddenly more space and more connection to her leg and feet. She did not feel pain after getting off the treatment table. While the pain was not completely resolved in one treatment, just using jue point made a great progress. Since then I have been paying more attention to see if jue points can be helpful for other patients too.
We can consider using shaoyin (heart /kidney) jue points for patients who have adrenal fatigue, thyroid issues, or osteoarthritis, tai yin ( lung /spleen) jue points for blood vessel issues and muscle pain etc. Jue points treatments can be very important to treat head and neck problems such as headaches, eye issues, cervical spine related pain patterns etc. In summation, jue points are another tool to ensure successful treatments. While Master Tung and Orthopedic techniques often work, they sometimes don't; on the other hand, jue points always seem to be effective.
Diagram (Matsumoto, 2022)
Matsumoto, Kiiko. A Manual of the Teachings of Kiiko Matsumoto Kiiko Matsumoto Style of Acupuncture™/ Kiiko Style of Acupuncture. Jue Points Supplement. 2022, Turning Point Handout. Page 2.
Illustration 169 (Matsumoto, Euler, 2008)
Matsumoto, K., Euler, D. Kiiko Matsumoto's Clinical Strategies, Volume 2. Illustration 169. Page 181