search
| acupoint | Mingmen |
| alias | Shulei |
| meridian | governor vessel |
| international code | DU4 |
bubble_chart Etymology _en.webp)
"Ming" (命), life; "men" (門), gate or door. This acupoint is referred to as "gate of life." It is located adjacent to Shenshu (BL23), and kidney qi is considered the foundation of body, hence the name.
bubble_chart Location
Mingmen (GV4) acupoint
(adapted from "Meridians and Acupoints")
(adapted from "Meridians and Acupoints")
On the midline of lower back, in the depression below spinous process of second lumbar vertebra (14th vertebra), approximately level with lower end of floating ribs (11th rib).
- Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing: "Located in the space below 14th vertebral joint." It can also be located at the prominence of spinous process.
- Leijing Tuyi: "When selecting acupoints along governor vessel on spine, they should be located at the prominent points of vertebral joints".
- Muscles: thoracolumbar fascia, supraspinous ligament, interspinous ligament, and ligamentum flavum.
- Nerve: medial branch of posterior branch of lumbar nerve, and the spinal cord is within the spinal canal.
- Vessels: posterior branch of lumbar artery, interspinous subcutaneous venous plexus.
Insert perpendicularly 0.5~1.5 cun, but avoid deep insertion. Alternatively, insert at the prominence of spinous process and direct it downward subcutaneously for 1~2 cun. Moxibustion with moxa cone 3 to 7 times, moxibustion with moxa stick for 15 to 20 minutes.
Fortify waist and spine, warm kidney yang, regulate blood, clear heat.
- Classical: headache as if splitting, fever as if burning, absence of sweating, spasm and convulsion, pain radiating between waist and abdomen, hemorrhoid pain, bloody stools, rectal urgency, dysentery, menorrhagia, leukorrhea, uterine prolapse, hematemesis, epistaxis, frequent urination, enuresis, seminal emission, impotence.
- Modern: paraplegia, sequelae of poliomyelitis, spondylitis, lumbar hypertrophy, consumptive thirst, infertility, pelvic inflammation, endometritis, anemia.
