ateral or anterior aspects of the trunk and generally receive

nerve supply from spinal cord segments that overlap with those of
the Back Shu points.122 Back Shu points receive innervation from
the dorsal (posterior) ramus of a spinal nerve, while the Front Mu
points occur along dermatomes of the same, or neighboring, spinal
nerve, supplied by either the lateral or ventral (anterior) ramus.
Because each organ and its associated pair of Back Shu and Front
Mu points often share innervation from similar or overlapping
spinal cord levels. In the spinal cord, neurons in the deep layers
of the dorsal horn receive convergent input from somatic structures and viscera.124
Unhappy nerves arise from unhappy organs and body wall structures such as tense or painful
muscles and fascia. Nociceptive
neurons, when activated, bombard the spinal cord with tales
of woe.123 They become more excitable and fire more readily in
response to stimuli. This phenomenon of central nervous system
excitation is known as “wind-up” or “facilitation”.125,126 Sensitized
neurons will, in some cases, trigger impulses spontaneously, long
after the initiating insult has ceased causing tissue damage or
irritation. Cells receiving muscle input in the intermediolateral
gray column of the spinal cord, where preganglionic autonomic
cell bodies reside, become hyperactive as well, propelling a loop
within the sympathetic system that participates in the process of
referred hyperalgesia.127
Central sensitization amplifies output to both visceral and somatic
structures. Sympathetic efferent neurons in the thoracic and
lumbar spinal cord segments join in this dysfunctional dance.
Muscles supplied by sensitized segments become tense due
to increased output through somatic motor neurons, causing
sustained muscle contraction. This engenders myofascial
dysfunction and trigger points.128 Heightened sympathetic tone
drives vasoconstriction and edema; it also amplifies tissue
tenderness and texture changes.129,130,131,132,133
Organs receiving neural input from “wound up” spinal segments
experience decreased perfusion due to sympatho-excitation.134,135
Conceivably, compromised blood flow in an organ could, over
time, lead to insufficiency or, ultimately, failure in that structure.
In the kidney, for example, activated renal sympathetic nerves
reduce renal blood flow, increase renin secretion, and increase
renal tubular sodium reabsorption.136 Should counteracting
autoregulatory controls falter or prove insufficient, hypertension
may result.137
In practice, an acupuncturist palpates the entire group of Back
Course of
Site of Synapse of
Sympathetic Nociceptive Afferent
Pre- and Post-Gan
Organ Preganglionic Pathways into the
glionic Sympathetic
Levels159,160,161,162 Central Nervous
Neurons163
System*164
Lungs (including the T2-T7, to upper thoracic T2-T6 sympathetic Afferents travel with
 the sympathetics to the
dorsal root ganglion
neurons from T2-T7
trachea and bronchi) sympathetic ganglia ganglia and the vagus nerve
to the nucleus tractus
solitarius (NTS) in the
medulla
Afferents travel with the
afferents in the middle
and inferior cervical
T1-T5, to upper thoracic All cervical sympathetic
sympathetic cardiac
Pericardium and cervical sympathetic ganglia and T1-T5
nerves and the thoracic
ganglia sympathetic ganglia
sympathetic cardiac
nerves and enter the
cord from T1-T5