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One of the more unique and probably more difficult skills to master in traditional Chinese medicine
diagnostics is the pulse diagnostics. When your acupuncturist goes to check your pulse,
it will be different from when a nurse or a doctor goes and checks your pulse. They're
usually looking for things like the rate, how fast your heart is beating and maybe the
strength. Other than that, they don't get a lot of information from that pulse diagnosis.
For the Chinese practitioner, it tells us so much more. You'll find that your Chinese
practitioner will actually check both sides, both hands, and that they're going to spend
probably a few minutes on each pulse that they check. There's a few other different
things as well. When your doctor or nurse takes it, they usually use two fingers on
your radial pulse at the edge of the wrist. The acupuncturist will actually use three
fingers because we're going to check three different positions as well as three depths.
There is a relationship then to the organs within side the body. So just like the tongue
diagnosis gave us a great deal of insight into what was going on internally, the pulse
can do the same thing as well. So a rapid pulse tells us that there is heat inside.
A slow pulse tells us there is cold, a floating pulse may tell us that you're catching a cold
or a flu. So there's many other things that it can tell us that takes years to practice
and perfect for the Chinese practitioner. So be sure to ask your practitioner some questions
about why they're taking their time and what they're looking for.