Yuanye

What is GB22?

GB22 (Yuanye) is an acupressure point on the side of the chest, about three thumb-widths below the centre of the armpit, between two ribs.

Its name is usually translated as "Armpit Abyss", which describes the dip between the ribs under the arm. It belongs to the Gall Bladder channel, which in traditional Chinese medicine is described as running down the side of the body from the head to the foot.

In classical texts GB22 is linked with the chest and flank: a feeling of fullness in the ribs, pain under the arm, swelling in the armpit, and a stiff shoulder that will not lift. Modern textbooks still list it, but it is a secondary point rather than a headline one. Most teaching curricula mention it; few treatments are built around it.

Here is the honest verdict on the evidence. There is no useful published human research testing finger pressure on GB22 for any condition. What exists for acupressure in general is mostly small, short and unblinded, and almost none of it isolates this point. So anything you read about what GB22 "does" is tradition, not proof.

Two things are worth saying once, clearly, because they apply to this whole page. First, the fact that a point has been used for a thousand years is not evidence that it works; long use tells you what people believed, not what happened. Second, long use is not evidence that it is safe either. Safety has to be judged from what is physically under your fingers, and under GB22 there are ribs, the chest wall, the lung behind them, and the lymph nodes of the armpit just above.

That anatomy is the practical point. GB22 is a reasonable place for light, self-applied finger pressure on a tight side of the chest. It is a poor place to dig hard, and a place to leave entirely alone if anything there is lumpy, swollen, bruised or recently operated on.

Where is GB22 and how do you find it?

GB22 sits on the side of the chest, on the mid-armpit line, about three thumb-widths below the top of the armpit, in the gap between the fourth and fifth ribs.

• Start with the armpit. Let your arm hang, then lift it to about shoulder height. Feel the deepest part of the armpit hollow with your opposite hand; this is your starting landmark.
• Drop straight down the side. Imagine a vertical line falling from the centre of that hollow down the side of your ribcage. In traditional terms the point is 3 cun below the armpit, which is roughly three of your own thumb-widths, or about 6 to 7 cm for most adults.
• Count the rib gaps. Walk your fingertips down the ribs along that line. GB22 lies in the soft gap between ribs, the fourth intercostal space, which in many people is roughly level with the nipple line.
• Feel for the soft dip. You are looking for a slight hollow between two firm ribs, not the hard rib itself. Pressing there often feels tender or slightly tight if the side of your chest is stiff.
• Check both sides. The point exists on the left and the right. The spot is usually easier to find on your non-dominant side first, with the arm resting on your head.

Use bones and creases, not guesswork. The armpit crease and the ribs are the two things you can feel reliably on yourself. Rib spacing varies with body size, so trust the soft gap between ribs more than an exact centimetre count.

A note on neighbours, so you do not mix them up. GB21 is on top of the shoulder, nowhere near here. GB23 sits about one thumb-width forward of GB22, toward the front of the chest. SP21 lies further down the same side. If you are unsure, stay in the clear hollow between ribs below the armpit and keep your pressure light.

How do you apply pressure to GB22?

1. Get into position. Sit or stand and raise one arm, resting the hand on your head or the back of your neck. This opens the ribs on that side and makes the gap easier to reach.
2. Use the flat pads of two fingers. Place your index and middle fingertips in the hollow between the ribs. Avoid fingernails and avoid a single sharp fingertip, which concentrates force on the rib.
3. Press gently inward. Aim for a 3 to 4 out of 10 on a discomfort scale: noticeable, never sharp. The chest wall is thin here, so this is one of the lighter points on the body, not one to lean into.
4. Hold and breathe. Keep steady pressure for 20 to 40 seconds while breathing slowly. Some people prefer small, slow circles on the spot instead of a static hold; both are fine.
5. Release slowly, then repeat. Rest a few seconds and repeat two or three times. Then do the same on the other side so the chest feels even.
6. Keep sessions short. Once or twice a day is plenty. There is no benefit to be gained from longer or harder work here, and bruising a rib area is easy.

This is self-applied finger pressure only. Nothing on this page involves needles, skin-breaking, burning herbs or suction cups, and you should not attempt any of those on yourself.

Stop immediately if you feel a sharp or stabbing pain, if pressing makes you cough or breathless, if you feel pins and needles running into the arm, or if the area is sore afterwards for more than a day. Mild tenderness during pressure that fades within a minute is ordinary. Pain that lingers, spreads or returns without pressure is a reason to stop and get the area looked at rather than to press harder.

What is GB22 traditionally used for?

• Tightness in the side of the chest. Classical texts describe GB22 for "fullness in the chest and hypochondrium", meaning a stuffed, banded feeling along the lower ribs. No human trial has tested finger pressure here for that, so treat any easing you get as the familiar short-term relief of rubbing a tight area.
• Pain under the arm and along the ribs. Tradition lists armpit and intercostal (between-the-ribs) pain as a main use. Gentle pressure on tight muscle between ribs can feel better in the moment, but there is no published evidence that GB22 specifically does more than general touch.
• Shoulder and arm that will not lift. Older sources connect GB22 with a stiff shoulder and difficulty raising the arm. Evidence for acupressure in shoulder pain overall is thin, small and mostly unblinded, and none of it isolates this point.
• Swelling in the armpit. Classical indications mention axillary swelling. This is the one traditional use that modern readers should set aside completely. A lump or swelling in the armpit needs a medical assessment, not pressure.
• Breathing that feels restricted. Some texts link the point with cough and a tight chest. There is no human research supporting acupressure at GB22 for any breathing problem, and breathlessness is a symptom to have checked rather than self-treated.

Across all of these, the pattern is the same. GB22 has a consistent traditional role around the chest wall, ribs and armpit, and an essentially empty modern evidence file. That does not mean pressing it is pointless; light pressure on a tight ribcage is harmless for most people and can feel pleasant.

It does mean you should set expectations low and keep using whatever your doctor has already recommended. GB22 is a comfort measure, not a treatment, and nothing here should replace care for a diagnosed problem.

Are there tips for using GB22 effectively?

• Raise the arm first. Resting your hand on your head spreads the ribs and makes the gap between them easier to feel. With the arm down, you will mostly find rib.
• Follow the tenderness, within reason. The spot that feels mildly tender along the correct rib gap is usually the one worth working. Tenderness that is sharp rather than dull means back off, not press on.
• Work both sides. Chest-wall tightness is rarely one-sided for long. Treating only the sore side can leave you feeling lopsided.
• Pair it with breathing, not force. Slow exhales do more for a tight ribcage than hard pressure. Press lightly on the out-breath and let go on the in-breath.
• Keep the pressure flat. Broad fingertip pads spread the load over the ribs. A knuckle, a thumb tip or a massage tool concentrates it and is how people bruise themselves here.
• Try gentle side stretches instead on sore days. If the area is already tender, reaching the arm overhead and leaning away often achieves more than pressing a sore spot again.
• Log what happens. Note the date, how long you pressed and how you felt an hour later. A simple record tells you in two weeks whether this is worth your time, which is more honest than memory.
• Do not stop prescribed treatment. If you are being treated for a chest, lung, heart or breast condition, keep taking what you have been given and tell your clinician you are trying acupressure.
• Give it a fair but limited trial. Two weeks of short daily sessions is enough to see whether you notice anything. If nothing changes, the point is probably not doing anything for you.

What do people get wrong with GB22?

• Expecting a cure. The commonest error is treating GB22 as a fix for a chest, breathing or shoulder problem. There is no evidence it cures anything, and expecting that leads people to delay real care.
• Pressing on the rib instead of the gap. Landing on the hard bone gives a dull ache and no benefit. The point is in the soft dip between the fourth and fifth ribs, below the armpit.
• Using far too much force. The chest wall is thin here. People who dig in with a thumb or a hard tool end up with a bruised, tender rib area that takes days to settle.
• Confusing it with GB21. Videos often jump between Gall Bladder points. GB21 is on top of the shoulder muscle; GB22 is on the side of the chest below the armpit. They are not interchangeable.
• Starting too high, in the armpit itself. The armpit hollow is the landmark you measure from, not the target. Pressing in the armpit squeezes lymph nodes and nerves and is uncomfortable for no reason.
• Pressing on a lump. Finding a swelling under the arm and massaging it is the worst possible response. Leave it alone and have it examined.
• Working over broken or irritated skin. Shaving rashes, folliculitis and sweat rash are common in this area. Pressure on inflamed skin makes it worse and can push an infection deeper.
• Ignoring breathlessness or a new sharp pain. Treating chest symptoms with pressure instead of assessment is dangerous. New chest pain is a medical question, not an acupressure one.
• Marathon sessions. Ten minutes of grinding does not beat thirty seconds of light pressure. Longer simply raises the chance of a sore spot.

What does the research on GB22 actually say?

There is no useful published human research on GB22. We could not identify any controlled trial, or even a decent small study, testing finger pressure at Yuanye for chest tightness, rib pain, shoulder stiffness or anything else.

That gap matters more than it may seem. It is not that GB22 was tested and failed. It is that nobody appears to have tested it properly at all, so no honest claim can be made about what it does in people.

The wider acupressure literature gives some context. Most trials in this field are small, run for a short time and cannot be blinded, because a participant knows whether a thumb is pressing on them. That design makes placebo and expectation effects hard to separate from real effects, and results tend to shrink as studies get larger and better controlled.

There is one clear exception worth knowing, because it shows what good evidence looks like. PC6 on the inner wrist has repeated controlled human trials supporting a modest, real benefit for nausea and vomiting, including after surgery and in pregnancy. GB22 has nothing remotely comparable behind it.

Where GB22 does appear in published work, it is usually as one point in a larger acupuncture prescription for chest or flank complaints, delivered by a practitioner with needles. Those reports tell you what a clinician did in a treatment session. They do not tell you that the point carried the effect, and they say nothing about self-applied finger pressure.

So what should you take from this? Light pressure on GB22 is low-risk for most healthy people and may feel pleasant on a tight side of the chest. Any relief you notice is most likely from gentle touch, slower breathing and relaxing the muscle between the ribs. Judge it on your own experience over a couple of weeks, keep your expectations modest, and do not let it stand in for a diagnosis when something in your chest, armpit or breast has changed.