Ling Gu Da Bai (Control Three Needles)

Ling Gu Da Bai 22.05 (Young)

Control Three Needles 22.06 (Maher)

Location

Ling Gu and Da Bai (22.05) is a 2 point unit located on the Large Intestine Channel of the hand.

Ling Gu (Spirit Bone) is located just distal to the base of the bones where metacarpal 1 and 2
bones meet. Open the hand like you are holding a large glass and nestle the guide tube of the
needle as close to the juncture of the bones as you can get. Insert perpendicularly as deeply as is
reasonably comfortable, as if you were threading through to Double Son/Double Fairy.

Da Bai (Great White) is located like LI 3, but you insert the needle from the side and slide the
needle in between the bone and the tendon on the palmar side of the bone. Many practitioners of
Master Tung acupuncture recommend you take it as deep as you can, as if you were threading to
SI 3.

Control Three Needles is Ling Gu and Da Bai with the middle point added between the two
(basically, just add LI 4)

Needling note: Rest the patient’s hand on SI 3 so that Ling Gu and Da Bai are pointing up to the
ceiling

Indications and Clinical Uses

Before I launch into this, know that there are like a thousand good uses for this point set. If you
want the whole ride, check out Dr. Young’s books or Dr. Maher’s books.

Because these points are on the Yang Ming channel, which is rich in qi and blood, they mobilize
both of these vital substances. That’s kind of like firing up a generator. You can use this ‘generator’
by itself, but you can also use guiding points to direct all of that qi and blood moving energy to
places you want it to go. If you add LI 20 to this set you can treat allergies and open the nose. If you
add points on the same side as the pain that guide to the Gallbladder channel (think Gb 34, 36, 39)
you can treat lower back pain and sciatic pain on that channel. You could add Bladder points to
treat back pain on the Bladder channel (Bl 40, 63, 65). If your patient had sciatic pain referring to
the front of the leg (i.e., Stomach channel), you could add St 42.

.
 Sciatica, shoulder, elbow, knee, spinal pain, rectal pain, groin pain
 Face, ear, eye issues
 Head problems such as dizziness, brain issues. Da Bai is the top point for headche pain.
 Because it is excellent for blood circulation it is a great choice for: stroke, stye, Bells Palsy,
migraine, gynecology, fertility issues.
 Liver Qi stagnation: Ling Gu is THE Liver qi stagnation point.

Notes

Tissue Correspondence
Bone treats bone, tendon treats tendon and ligament….this is something we learned in TCM
school. This point treats bone spurs and lower back pain but if you really want to bump it up, touch
the bone with the needle. This also helps with the treatment of kidney issues (including those
reproductive issues), which this point set does very well. Ling gu treats bone spurs q

Needle the bone to treat bone. That’s why it treats bone spurs and low back pain. Also why it treats
so many kidney issues. Ling gu treats bone spurs – it’s needled right at the joining of the bones.

If you remember your 2nd metacarpal bone theory, you might remember that the head of the bone
(LI 3/Da Bai) is used to treat head issues, the middle point of the bone treats the middle jiao (LI
4/middle needle of Control Three Needles), and the base of the bone (Ling Gu) treats the lower jiao.
That’s why Control Three Needles works so well to move qi and blood in all 3 jiaos.

Final note, Ling Gu is stronger than LI 4 because there are more neural connections there than you
find at LI 4.