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This acupuncture point could save the life of your companion in an emergency

 

Acupuncture has been around for more than 5,000 years.  Most people associate the Chinese with it, but it has also been used in one form or another by Egyptians, South African Bantu tribesmen, the Arabs, Eskimos, and Brazilian cannibals.  Science is still trying to figure out what exactly acupuncture does.  They know it releases endorphins and the points identified by the Chinese so long ago actually marks the location of important micro tubules beneath the skin which house tiny nerves and blood vessels.  When the nerves are stimulated they can help to stop pain and promote healing.

In his book "Love, Miracle and Animal Healing", Allen M. Schoen, DVM states that "if you and your pet were stranded on a desert island and you had knowledge of only six acupoints, this would be the most important."

Governing Vessel 26 (or GV26) is located in the center space half way between the nose and the upper lip (one third of the way for humans.)  It is actually a very potent little point that has many application for both animals and humans, but for today we are going to focus on how it is used for emergency situations.

When it is stimulated, GV26 stimulates the body's production of adrenaline or epinephrine which in turns stimulates the heart and respiration in times of stress.  In fact, it stimulates it so well that an animal or human can be "clinically dead" and it will restart the heart and lungs.  You can do a search on the Internet and see a number of sites that talk about this being the acupressure point used extensively in emergency situations.

In the aforementioned book, Dr. Schoen talks about being at a conference where he was talking about acupuncture.  There was a surgeon there who let him know that he didn't want to hear about medically borderline treatments that bring animals back from the dead.  Having had his hat handed to him and feeling somewhat self-conscious, Dr. Schoen was exonerated by fate.  At that moment a bunch of doctors rushed by with a 12 year old German Shepherd who had gone into cardiac arrest after complications from a surgery.  Nine veterinarians tried all of the standard methods for restarting the heart including epinephrine injections, manually massaging the heart, and shocking the heart and they were unable to revive the dog.  Before they turned off the machine that was doing the breathing for the dog Dr. Schoen asked if he could give it a try.  He was basically told "the dog is dead.  Go for it."  Using what he called "henpecking," a series of short jabs to the cartilage with the needle, after several seconds the technician operating the artificial respirator announced that the dog was breathing.  When they looked at the EKG, instead of a flat line, there were now up and down movements.

Dr. Schoen encourages all technicians in emergency vet hospitals be familiar with the point.  It is something that all guardians of animals should also know.  Hopefully you will never have to use it.  But if that fateful day comes, at least you will be prepared.

http://med-vetacupuncture.org/english/articles/gv26.htm
http://www.seaturtle.org/ists/PDF/final/2703.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19127922
http://www.americanacupuncture.com/history.htm