Use of shu points in Kyusho Jutsu:

Does fire burn metal?

by Zoltan Dienes and Mike Flanagan

RESULTS

Figure 1 shows the mean pain ratings for the ukes for the target vanilla point alone and preceded by set up; and for the target shu point alone and preceded by set up. It can be seen that the target point is no more painful after a set up than after no set up.

How sensitive was the experiment to pick up on any real differences that may have existed? Figure 2 shows the sensitivity of the experiment. The graph shows the difference in pain with set up and pain without set up. If a set up causes more pain in the target point than the target point attacked alone, this difference would be positive. The difference for our sample means happens to be negative, but that sample difference is consistent with a range of population differences (a sample in general does not exactly reproduce the means of the population). The graph shows the range of population differences our sample difference is consistent with (to be precise: the set of all population differences the sample is non-significantly different from with a one-sample t-test at the 5% level; i.e. the range shown is the 95% confidence interval). For example, if we take the data averaged over shu and vanilla points, the REAL population difference could be -1.3 (set up makes the target point less sensitive to pain by 1.3 pain points) or as high as 0.6 (set up increases the pain sensitivity by 0.6 pain units). This range includes zero, so we have no evidence that the set up made any change to the pain sensitivity of the target. Further, if it did make a difference, we can be 95% sure, roughly speaking, that it did not make the target point more sensitive than about 0.6 pain points. This is not very much. In other words, we can say the experiment ruled out set up effects with a high degree of sensitivity.

Although obvious from Figure 2, we also formally tested whether the shu set up effect was any different from the vanilla set up effect; it was not, t(15) = 0.89, p = .39.

DISCUSSION

The aim of this experiment was to determine if a target point could have increased pain sensitivity when a set up point was struck first as compared to when the target point was struck alone. In particular, we chose points to follow the destructive sequence, a sequence often quoted in the kyusho community as making effective martial combinations. In a previous experiment (Dienes & Flanagan, 1999) we found that following the destructive sequence was no more effective than following the creative sequence for points belonging to no formal TCM category ("vanilla" points). It may be that this previous experiment did not obtain significant results because special points have to be used; the five element cycles may not usefully apply to any old vanilla point. Thus, in this experiment we contrasted vanilla points with shu points, points that are specially used in conjunction with the five element cycles in TCM healing practice. Further, in this experiment we compared set up with no set up, unlike in the previous experiment where there was always a set up. If shu points are particularly useful for manipulating qi according to the elemental cycles, one might expect a set up effect for the shu points which is larger than the set up effect for the vanilla points.

In fact, to our surprise, we found no set up effects at all, to a high degree of sensitivity. This is prima facie strong evidence against the common view that the destructive cycle provides a useful model for predicting cross point sensitization.

A critic of our study might argue that the qi had been disrupted in a nasty way by our point combination, it just did not express itself as pain sensitivity. In fact, to address this type of concern, we did try to measure heart rate changes in the experiment, using a Polar Heart Rate Monitor (which is portable and as accurate as an electrocardiogram). Sustained pain is known to produce sustained changes in heart rate (e.g. Gray, Watt, & Blass, 2000). Based on a few pilot subjects, however, we found that a one-off hit or two quick hits did not produce reliable changes in heart rate. In seems that the subjects own reported subjective pain experience was a more sensitive measure of the effect of the hit than heart rate. While we agree that other measures of qi disruption would be useful, we see no principled reason why pain should not be used as a measure. While some points produce reflex effects that occur quite independently of pain (e.g. attacks to the golgi apparatus of various muscles; Miller, 2000), we used points that gave a good pain reaction. If one wanted to argue that the pain had no relation to qi disruption, that would curtail the application of TCM ideas to a limited set of points or reactions to points. In fact, in a health setting, TCM is frequently applied to a problem showing itself through pain, and the application of TCM leads to the reduction of pain. Presumably, there is no reason why in a martial setting, if TCM applies at all, it can be applied to the task of increasing pain.

If the five element cycles do not provide a useful model for predicting cross point sensitization, other ideas from TCM may prove useful. For example, does striking along the same meridian sensitize points along that meridian? Does hitting one point sensitize the same contralateral point (there was some evidence for this in Dienes & Flanagan, 1999)? Similarly, concepts from modern western medicine may be useful. Does striking a trigger point sensitize points along its referral pathway (Baldry, 1998)? Future research will need to address these questions.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Rick Clark, Brian McCarthy, and Steven Webster for valuable discussion.

REFERENCES

Baldry, P. E. (1998). Acupuncture, trigger points and musculoskeletal pain :a scientific approach to acupuncture for use by doctors and physiotherapists in the diagnosis and management of myofascial trigger point pain, 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. Dienes, Z., & Flanagan, M. (1999). Five element sequences. At http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/USSU/shotokan/fiveel.htm
Gray, L., Watt, L., & Blass, E. M. (2000). Skin-to-skin contact is analgesic in healthy newborns. Pediatrics, 105 (1).
Maciocia, G. (1989). The foundations of Chinese medicine: a comprehensive text for acupuncturists and herbalists. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Miller, B. (2000). Reflex pressure points: The hidden secret. MN: CME Publications. Soulie de Morant, G. (1994). Chinese acupuncture. Translation of L'acuponcture chinoise. Brookline: Paradigm,1994
Stux, G., & Pomeranz, B. (1997). Basics of acupuncture. 4th rev. ed Berlin:Springer.

This Article was taken with permission from www.ussu.net/shotokan.

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