Pulse diagnosis
| Against allopathy Alternative medicine |
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| Clinically unproven |
| Woo-meisters |
Pulse diagnosis is an unproven method of diagnosis used in some systems of alternative medicine, such as Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and Unani. It involves detecting minute changes in the pulse; some types of pulse include slippery, choppy, full, empty, slow, rapid, superficial, and deep.[1] The practitioner should develop an instinct or "feel" for detecting these. However, practitioners using pulse diagnosis have low inter-rater reliability.[2] In TCM, pulse diagnosis should happen before sunrise because the yin and yang are apparently in balance then.[3] Pulse diagnosis should be for when the patient is at rest and not immediately following exercise.
This method is in no way related to empirically-verified diagnosis methods based on analysis of heart rate, on heart sounds such as heart murmurs or gallop rhythms or electrocardiography.
External links[edit]
- A Defence of Blood-letting, as a Remedy for Certain Diseases, by Benjamin Rush, which goes into some detail about pulse diagnosis.
References[edit]
- ↑ Pulse Diagnosis, Wandering Primate.
- ↑ Interobserver reliability of pulse diagnosis using Traditional Korean Medicine for stroke patients, J. Altern. Complement. Med. 2013 Jan;19(1):29-34. doi: 10.1089/acm.2011.0612. Epub 2012 Sep 6.
- ↑ The Skeptics SA guide to Acupuncture, Skeptics SA.