Name

命門

• Ming Men
• Gate of Life
• Gate of Destiny

Location

Below L2, at the level of BL-23 or BL-52. Often coincides with the level of the last floating rib.

Actions

Tonifies Kidney-Yang. Reserves Kidney-Jing. Tonifies Original Qi. Pacifies Wind.

• Kidney-Yang Deficiency
• Yang escape: Headache as if the head were splitting, body Heat as if burning without sweating. Rise in blood pressure. Fever, Fire, Heat
• Urogenital problems: impotence, incontinence, sterility, premature ejaculation, amenorrhoea, metrorrhagia
• Clears internal Heat from all organs: sensation of very deep Heat, Heat in the Bones
• Infantile convulsions, meningitis, tetanus
• Major point for menopausal syndrome: hot flushes, Dizziness, steaming Bones (sensation of Heat)
• Exhaustion from stress, excessive physical and/or sexual activity
• Lumbar pain and weakness: especially if it radiates forward: BL-52 (quadratus lumborum pain) + GV-4 + BL-60 + BL-62

Comments

The Fire of Ming Men is the root of the 5 organs and 6 bowels, the root of the 12 channels, the gate of respiration and the Essence of the Triple Burner. The Fire of Ming Men should remain in the Kidneys (to warm them); sometimes it escapes and there is Jing deficiency, Yin Deficiency: it roots Fire and Water.

Moxibustion can be applied for lumbar pain with weakness.

Treatment

• Needling: perpendicular or oblique: 0.5–1 CUN. Do not needle in pregnant women.
• Moxibustion