Hi, I’m Dr. Martha Lucas, and I want to thank the AAC for this great opportunity to talk with you today about ways to treat fertility challenges and the importance of the Dai Mai.
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Hi, I’m Dr. Martha Lucas, and I want to thank the AAC for this great opportunity to talk with you today about ways to treat fertility challenges and the importance of the Dai Mai. I’m Dr. Martha Lucas. As I said, I have practices in Denver, Colorado, and Littleton, Colorado in Littleton. I work in. Western Medicine Clinic.
I’m a research psychologist who started out my medical career in Western medicine doing research in hospitals, and then I started to think about what else is operating besides the person just had surgery and I ended up loving doing Chinese medicine for more than 20 years. My specialty is the diagnosis.
I also specialize in cosmetic acupuncture, but generally my biggest practice is internal medicine because of my specialty in making an effective diagnosis. So if we wanna go to the slides, Our today we are going to talk about the Dai Mai its functions, reasons to unblock it. I’m gonna show you what it feels like in the pulses and talk to you a little bit about how you can open it up and make your treatments, your fertility treatments more effective.
Now, you’ll notice that I say fertility. And that’s how I talk about treating fertility. I talk about treating fertility challenges because. Infertility is what I call a damning diagnosis. You go to the doctor, and I think for a long time we’ve talked about the word diagnosis and how when you get a diagnosis for something, suddenly it becomes who you are.
I had a woman years ago who was so attached to her fibromyalgia. She said, my fibromyalgia, she kept saying my fibromyalgia, and finally I said to her, , can we say my experience with fibromyalgia or the diagnosis of fibromyalgia? So it’s, I don’t want to be saying infertility. Oh, you have infertility and you’re coming to see me.
I like to say you have a fertility challenge. You and your partner are having some fertility challenges or sometime it’s just the individual woman. I recently had a patient who had the whole embryo transfer. Procedure because she doesn’t have a partner. So I like to say fertility challenge because I don’t wanna set up that psychological problem of I’m infertile and I, it just happened to a current patient of mine who’s 45 years old, granted.
Getting a little up there for that. However, she went to a fertility clinic and they basically told her, you’re never gonna get pregnant. You’re pretty much in menopause. Almost like two months away because she hasn’t had a period in quite a long time. And they said they won’t even take her on as a patient.
She went to see a different fertility doctor who said to her, yeah, there’s still a chance we can still try. So again, they women, when they come in, they’re, they have been to other. Practitioners, they’ve been to fertility clinics. They already have a quote unquote diagnosis. I recently got an email from a woman who said, Yeah.
I just was diagnosed with infertility at 35 and she put a question mark because within infer with fertility clinics, infertility clinics, that’s the age. That’s the age 35, where they feel like, okay, that’s it. You’re infertile. I remember my own oldest daughter who doesn’t have any children, but I remember her saying to me at 35, oh mom, did you know, I’m infertile now?
And of course I just roll my eyes and say, you’re not infertile. So I like to say, Phrase it as we are having a fertility challenge. So the Dai Mai is so important overall for almost anything you’re treating, but certainly for fertility issues because I think that’s where schools make a big mistake. If they tell you to just keep tonifying, the lower gel tonifying, reproduction tonifying the kidneys, because if the Dai Mai is block.
What’s gonna happen with all that tonification? You could actually create toxic heat in the lower gel if you just tonify, because you don’t know whether the Dai Mai is blocked or not. Now I tell people, if you don’t know how to find the block, Dai Mai in the pulses, just open it. It’s not gonna hurt anyone. Just do your gallbladder 41, San Jo five, and just open it.
because it’s going to be good for the patient, even if it’s open. Okay. Then theoretically opening it didn’t do anything because it’s already open, but it’s all good. If you don’t know how to feel it in the pulses, which I am gonna show you today, then just open it for your fertility patients and. One of the first times, very early in my Chinese medicine career that I recognized the power of the block Dai Mai and opening it for fertility.
Challenges were, I was seeing a couple icy couples. I know it’s going to be the woman who calls you or emails you or texts you and says, I’m, I am having a problem getting pregnant. I need to come see you. I treat the couple because it takes the young part. So I tell them, regardless of whether the male feels like he’s veil and there’s nothing wrong with him and nobody said there’s anything wrong with him, I always say that according to the theory of Chinese medicine, it takes both of us.
It takes the young part and the in part, and if you’re an active gentleman and you fall skiing or fall mountain biking, or have been rear-ended, then there’s a chance your Dai Mai is blocked and it doesn’t make you a very good reproductive partner. According to the theory of Chinese medicine, so I insist on seeing both.
I do generally see the woman more and longer than the male, but I insist that I at least see the male and so I can make a, take his pulses, make a diagnosis about what’s going on with him in terms of reproduction. But it was a couple who were seeing me and they said at their first visit we wanna get pregnant next spring.
It was maybe September. We kind of wanna get pregnant in the spring. We think that would be a good time for us. But we are starting now cuz we kind of wanna get, just like everything, all our ducks in a row. , I saw them both. I opened both their Dai Mais and they were pregnant the next month.
And of course they were like, oh, I thought we told you we wanted to get pregnant in the spring . And I said hey, your husband’s Dai Mai is blocked. We open it up, things are flowing, and boom, you get pregnant. So it’s very important. So let’s talk a little more generally. About the dynamite. So first of all, it is called the be.
It’s one of the extraordinary vessels, one of the eight extras, one of the specials some people call them. It is also known as the Belt Channel or the Girdle channel. And it goes around the body horizontally and we can see that the pathway of it is literally around the belly and the hypochondriacal, one of its main functions is to connect the vertical channels.
Okay, so the belt channel, the, we know that the Dai Mai connects the upper and lower bodies, and it’s it’s very important for the functioning of all of the vertical channels, the longitudinal channel.
Right here is our core energy. That’s where all the, this is the part of the pulses that fund everything. This is what funds all the rest of the pulse diagnosis movements.
That’s how important the Dai Mai is to stay open a block. Dai Mai can lead to poor digestion. Now we know digestion is how we make our energy. Digestion is partly how we make our blood. We need those. Items in order to be able to reproduce. So if the Dai Mai is blocked, we can also have problems with our digestion.
It can be implicated in a whole bunch of health issues, migraines, reproduction issues, psoriasis, low back pain, knee pain. It’s always good to be able to figure out whether the Dai Mai is blocked or not, because then we can see. , oh, that might be related to the condition that this person is suffering from or their quote unquote diagnosis.
And then even if they feel uncentered, it can be because of a blocked Dai Mai losing the connection. This makes total sense. Losing the connection between the upper part of the body and the lower part of the body can make the person feel uncentered. It can make them feel like they have lost their energetic center.
And, that’s why it’s important to know about the blocked Dai Mai. Now, how does it get blocked? It can get blocked from a fall, and I have to tell you that. A large percentage. A large percentage of people have a black Dai Mai no matter what they’re coming to see you for. It’s always good to check for the black Dai Mai, and I think I said before, with your reproductive patients, even if you can’t figure out how to feel a black Dai Mai in the pulse, just open it.
Just do the gallbladder 41, SAN five and open it. It’s gonna help them no matter. Whether it’s open or not, and you need to recheck after you open it, because sometimes that doesn’t work. Sometimes it’s so blocked, like for example, by repressed emotions that opening it with the master and the couple point does not open it.
So sometimes. What the books tell us is going to happen doesn’t happen. Which is another reason why it’s so important to keep taking the pulses during the treatment so that the person, you can tell whether your acupuncture prescription worked or not. So let’s say you take it again, it doesn’t work, then you need to do gallbladder 26.
And we’ll talk about that a little bit more, but at any rate, a fall, even a sports fall. And that’s interesting because especially men will say, no, I’ve never had a fall, because they’re thinking, old person fall. They’re thinking like, oh I, yeah, I need the walker cuz I fall or I, yeah, I fall and I’m gonna break my hip.
No, it means, , I’m skiing, I fall. Guess what’s gonna happen in your body? Your Dai Mai is going to block because it’s trying to protect your internal organs from that trauma. Now you get up, you walk away, nothing’s broken, you’re good. So we don’t think, oh wow, that was a fall, perhaps. I injured myself. And when I was playing soccer, I did the same exact thing.
I would get knocked over, I’d fall, I’d roll back up. No, no blood or broken bones, but the Dai Mai gets blocked. So if a person is active, , chances are they have a block Dai Mai getting rear-ended because of that, that jerkiness that happens to you when you get rear-ended will block the Dai Mai pregnancy blocks the Dai Mai.
I open the Dai Mai, I treat my patients, my fertility patients before they’re pregnant, during their pregnant, and then after they’re. Pregnant and during the pregnancy, their Dai Mai is blocked because for heaven’s sakes, there’s a huge blockage in there. Now they have another human being in there, so they have a big group of cells that is creating a block.
So I open it every time. You can just feel the energy and they feel like, oh, I’m so much more open now. I feel so much more free flowing. If you have an abdominal surgery, it can block the Dai Mai storage of emotions, so repressed emotions. Sometimes when I feel the Dai Mai is blocked and I’m asking the person, oh, is your Dai Mai blocked or not?
Is your dite? Did you have you had a fall? Oh no nothing. But I know it’s blocked. I can feel it in the pulses. I might ask them, do you express your emotions? And some people say yes, and some people say not so much. All right. Holding it. Remember, it’s gonna block the spirit, right?
We all know about liberty cheese stagnation. It blocks that angry energy from getting up to the spirit, but also repressed emotions that we stuff down get. Below the spirit below liver 14 and can actually lead to a block Dai Mai. So a block Dai Mai is actually a fairly common condition for you to see in your practice.
So the major organ systems involved in fertility healthy kidney G, I already mentioned that the block Dai Mai prevents the healthy flow of G down into the reproductive area and into the kidneys. That good flow of energy is necessary for ovulation and healthy menstruation. We all know that, so we know for the lower gel energy to be flowing correctly for fertility purposes, we need to have the open dynamite.
For those of you who don’t know me, I am a total techno boob, so I really appreciate Alan’s support and you guys being patient. At any rate, healthy kidney G, we need it for fertility, healthy liver energy, right?
We need healthy liver energy. We all know that for reproduction, for having a good period for being emotionally stable and the block, Dai Mai is not going to allow us to have healthy liver energy. We need healthy heart energy. Heart is partly how we make our blood and flow our blood. It’s, it sends blood to the uterus.
And remember, your fertility patients have a lot of emotions going on, so we need them to have healthy heart energy. So two of the extraordinary vessels that are involved in fertility besides the black dynami are the remi and the chmi. Now the Ren links and regulates yin channels, essence, and fluid.
Regulates menstruation nourishes the fetus. In men, it affects libido and impotence. It affects our endocrine system and affects digestion. And this is why we also very often during fertility treatments, open up the Ren and the Chong, or treat the Ren and the Chong. The Chong affects reproduction.
Effects digestion, respiration, it’s a reservoir of chi and blood. For example, the woman is not having very good periods, what I call a tiny pink period, meaning not very much blood. It’s the root of postnatal chi, so post heaven chi, and it basically is known to treat all menstrual reproductive. Heart issues, spiritual issues, digestion, depression, anxiety.
The CHMI is another one of my favorite extraordinary vessels to use. So I’m going to show you a little picture here of the pulses and we’ll review the positions so you can see that we have a left side and a right side, and the positions are what we all know the kidneys are. The Cor Chi. Then we have Earth and all of the regular positions.
So we have Imperial fire wood, and then the kidneys.
And it’s just the same my system uses the same as we’ve No. Although I do need to tell you that on the left kidney, in the left kidney position is where you also find uterus and prostate. So it’s in this position that you will find things like uterine fibroids or if the male’s prostate is getting enlarged.
So it’s, this is an important position to be paying attention to. Oh, it’s also where you’ll feel pregnancy, that position, the left kidney pulse is where you will feel the actual pregnancy grow.
Where do you find the block, Dai Mai?
It is in the kidney, in the pulses. You will feel a block right here. The kidney energy will not be going into the liver sector. So what happens is between your fingers here, it’ll feel like it’s hitting. That’s where you feel the blocked Dai Mai. Now, sometimes it’s so blocked that you will also feel it on the right side.
This kidney pulse will be hitting. Instead of flowing through, because as I, you can see these energies are supposed to be flowing and when they’re not flowing, because there’s a block here, then again the kidneys aren’t supporting the other organ systems and neither can the other organ systems flow back over into the kidney.
This is like the infinity symbol between the pulses moving, they’re all supporting each other, so that is where you find it at a deep level. So deep, deep down in the. Pulse positions very deep over there on the left side. You cannot feel the kidneys moving through into the liver gallbladder, and as I said, sometimes it’s so strongly blocked that you don’t see it.
You can also see it blocked on the right side. So what do you do? As I said, you do gallbladder 41 san five. That is traditionally what opens the Dai Mai. It’s what the books tell us, however, the next little square says, but it’s still not open, which means I did gallbladder 41, san five, and instead of assuming.
That worked. I rechecked the pulse and I see that, oh, their Dai Mai is still blocked. What point can I do to open up the Dai Mai again? Gallbladder 26 regulates or modulates the Dai Mai. Put that point in. Recheck it. See if it’s still, if it’s still op, not open. If it’s still not open, then sometimes I palpate the diaphragm.
Maybe I palpate the diaphragm with my right hand while my hands are on the left pulse. So I’m trying to see is the energy flowing from the kidneys to the liver yet to see if maybe I have to actually do some diaphragm points or a little diaphragm. Massage or acupressure because the Dai Mai is still so blocked.
So I work at it until I know that the Dai Mai is open in the pulses. And then after the Dai Mai is opened, you can start finding other blocks if there are any, or start more or less a treatment that you would use for fertility because as I said earlier, If you just tried tonify, the kidneys or the lower G, but the Dai Mai is blocked, so that energy you’re putting in can’t flow, then it’s liable to actually create something like toxic heat.
The best case scenario is. Your treatment just isn’t effective. You’re not creating any toxic heat, but you’re wondering why? Why isn’t this person getting pregnant because everything looks like it should be wonderful. If their Dai Mai is blocked, then your treatment may not be as effective as you would like it to be.
So that’s the importance of opening the Dai Mai in your fertility patients, both male and female.
I wanna thank the AAC for this opportunity. If you would like more information, you can reach me at either lucasteachings.com or acupuncture women.com. At lucasteachings.com, we have events, we have courses both online and in person that offer CEUs and my books are available there, and good treating. I hope that this helped, you have really effective treatments.