Link interior Zang Fu organs with various tissues of superficial areas of the body. In this way they allow for internal adaptation to external change.
They connect different superficial areas of the body.
The Jing Luo are more external (and more Yang) than the Zang Fu Organs. When pathogens penetrate the body from the Exterior, they usually penetrate the superficial channels and then the main channels and finally the Zang Fu Organs.
Jing Luo cover the entire body.
Every part of the musculoskeletal system is related to a main meridian and its associated sub-meridians.
Via the main channel, every part of the body associated with a given internal Organ can be affected by imbalance in that Organ.
Example: The Bladder channel: connects the small toe, lateral aspect of foot and ankle, posterior aspect of leg, buttocks, sacroiliac and dorsal region, occiput, vertex, central frontal region and inner canthus of eye.
Knowing the pathway of the channels, we can make connections in symptoms as diverse as itchy eyes, occipital headaches, lumbar pain and spasms in the gastrocnemius. For example, the Heart channel begins in the axilla and ends on the small finger. It has long been noted in western biomedicine that in the case of myocardial infarction, the pain often travels along this channel. TCM provides a link between this external muscular pain and an imbalance in the associated internal Organ.
