Acupuncture can be used to boost the immune system as well as fight off initial infections.
In East Asian Medicine, your defensive energy, or “Qi” is called Wei Qi. In Western terms, the Defensive Qi protects against germs, viruses and bacteria. This is the most important function of Defensive Qi. Wei Qi can also be thought of as being a part of your immune system.
In East Asian Medicine, all of the organ systems have specific functions. The Lung is the organ responsible for regulating Defensive Qi. It functions to spread Defensive Qi throughout the body to the areas between the skin and muscles.
Having strong We Qi isn’t a guarantee you won’t ever get sick, but strong Wei Qi can result in an infection not being as severe or lasting as long.
In East Asian Medicine, diagnosis and treatment is holistic (whole person focused) and based on each patient. Some of the things seen when a person’s Wei Qi is first invaded is a change in the pulse diagnosis where the Lung pulse can be felt at the surface without pressing down as well as having fever, chills, headache, sore throat, yellow phlegm, sinus problems, nasal congestion and no sweating.
If Wei Qi is strong enough it will neutralize the pathogen; in some cases pathogens are so strong they can do a “direct strike.” Even with a very strong pathogen, a strong Wei Qi can prevent an infection being as virulent and shorten the duration.
Acupuncture Points to Strengthen the Wei Qi/Immune System:
Even though East Asian Medicine is individualized, there are a number of acupuncture points when combined, which can really help to boost the Wei Qi/Immune System.
They are:
Lung 7 (LU7): To help release the exterior upon initially getting symptoms like coughing, headache and/or stiff neck/muscles.
Also good initially is to have a Gua Sha (scraping) done on your upper back right when you start to get symptoms.
Overall, to boost the immune system:
Stomach 36 (ST36): Strengthens the immune system and recovering from fatigue.
Lung 5 (LU5): Clears Excess or deficient heat in the lung: coughing, coughing phlegm, shortness of breath, fullness of the chest
Lung 10 (LU10): Clears Heat from the lung, dry throat, cough.
Large Intestine 4 (LI4): Regulates Wei Qi and adjusts sweating, releases the exterior, regulates the face, eyes, nose, mouth and ears.
Large Intestine 11 (LI11): Clears heat (think fever and or inflammation) as well as dampness (phlegm).
San Jiao 5 (SJ5): Clears heat and releases the exterior.
Ren 17 (RN17): Helps to unbind the chest, shortness of breath, cough, obstruction in the chest.
Kidney 27 (KD27): Helps unbind the chest, chronic cough with vomiting of phlegm and oppression of the chest.
Spleen 3 (SP3): Moves energy in the chest and abdomen.