Burong

What is ST19?

ST19 (Burong) is a point on the Stomach channel of the upper abdomen, about two thumb-widths to the side of the midline, below the breastbone tip.

Its Chinese name, Burong, is usually translated as "not contained" or "no room". Classical texts link that name to a stomach that feels too full to hold anything more. It is the nineteenth point counted along the Stomach channel, which runs down the front of the body from the face, through the chest and abdomen, to the second toe.

In traditional practice ST19 is grouped with the upper abdominal Stomach points and is described for fullness in the stomach, vomiting, poor appetite and cough. It is taught in most point-location courses, but it is a secondary point in everyday practice; practitioners reach far more often for ST36 on the leg or ST25 beside the navel.

Two things are worth saying once, up front, and we will not repeat them in every section below. First, a long tradition behind a point is not evidence that pressing it does anything measurable. Second, tradition is not evidence that it is safe for you; old texts were not written with your medication list, your pregnancy or your recent surgery in mind.

The honest verdict on evidence: there is essentially none for ST19 specifically. We could find no controlled human trial testing this point on its own for any condition. Research on acupressure for nausea and digestive symptoms clusters around PC6 on the wrist and ST36 below the knee, not here. So anything you read about ST19 relieving bloating or stopping hiccups is a traditional claim, not a tested one.

Everything on this page is self-applied finger pressure. Nothing here involves needles, heat, cupping or anything that breaks the skin, and you should not take instructions of that kind from a video. ST19 sits over the soft upper abdomen near the liver and stomach, so the pressure described here is light and the list of people who should skip it is a real one.

Where is ST19 and how do you find it?

ST19 sits on the upper abdomen, roughly two thumb-widths to the side of the midline and about two thumb-widths below the lower tip of the breastbone.

• Find the breastbone tip. Sit back slightly and run a fingertip down the centre of your chest. The bone ends in a small pointed cartilage, the xiphoid process, with soft belly below it.
• Drop down the midline. From that tip, move about two thumb-widths straight down toward the navel. In traditional measurement this is 6 cun above the navel, which is three-quarters of the way up from navel to breastbone tip.
• Move out to the side. From that midline spot, slide about two thumb-widths (roughly 4 cm, or 2 cun) sideways. That is ST19. It is paired, so there is one on the left and one on the right.
• Check what is under your finger. You should be on soft abdominal wall, not on rib or on the hard edge of the costal margin. If you feel bone, you have gone too high or too far out.
• Use your own hand to measure. One thumb-width at the knuckle is about 1 cun on your own body. Tall or short, your own thumb scales correctly.

A useful cross-check: ST19 is level with the midline point CV14, which sits in the same horizontal line. If you lie down, the upper abdomen softens and the breastbone tip becomes easier to feel. Many people notice this area tightens under the fingers when they are tense, which is why the spot can feel tender even when nothing is wrong.

Location sources agree on the measurement above, so you do not need to hunt for a special sensation. If you cannot feel anything distinctive, you have probably still found it. Do not press deeply while searching, and do not press at all into a lump, a pulsing mass or a tender swelling in this area.

How do you apply pressure to ST19?

1. Pick a calm moment. Wait at least an hour after a large meal. A full stomach makes pressure here uncomfortable and can worsen reflux.
2. Get comfortable. Lie on your back with knees bent, or sit well supported and lean back a little. This softens the abdominal wall so you are not pushing against braced muscle.
3. Warm your hands and locate the point. Use the flat pads of your index and middle fingers, not a fingernail or a knuckle. Cold, sharp pressure makes the belly tense up.
4. Press lightly. Sink in slowly until you feel a mild, dull sense of pressure, no more. On the abdomen this is gentler than you would use on a shoulder or a hand. Pain, sharpness or nausea means stop.
5. Hold or circle. Keep steady pressure for 30 to 60 seconds, or make slow small circles. Breathe out as you press in and let the pressure ease as you breathe in.
6. Do both sides. Treat the left and right points, either one after the other or together with one hand on each.
7. Keep it short. One to two minutes per side, up to two or three times a day, is plenty. Longer is not better, and repeated hard rubbing can leave the abdominal wall sore.
8. Stop when told to. Stop if pressure brings on sharp pain, nausea, lightheadedness, a racing heart or any pain that spreads into the back or shoulder.

Finger pressure only. Do not use hard tools, pressure pens, suction devices or anything that pierces or marks the skin on the abdomen. The abdominal wall is thin and the organs beneath it are not protected by bone at this level, which is exactly why the force used here should stay light.

If you want to try ST19 for a symptom like fullness after eating, give it a fair run of a week or two alongside your normal care and judge honestly whether anything changed. It is an add-on, not a replacement for treatment or a reason to delay getting a new symptom checked.

What is ST19 traditionally used for?

• Stomach fullness and bloating. This is the central traditional claim and the source of the name Burong, "no room". No controlled human trial has tested ST19 acupressure for bloating, so this remains a claim from tradition rather than a measured effect.
• Nausea and vomiting. Classical texts list ST19 for vomiting and for food that will not stay down. The real human evidence for acupressure and nausea is for PC6 on the inner wrist, which has been tested in many trials for pregnancy sickness, motion sickness and post-operative nausea. That evidence does not transfer to ST19.
• Poor appetite. Tradition uses the upper abdominal Stomach points when someone cannot face food. There is no trial evidence for ST19 here, and persistent appetite loss or unplanned weight loss needs a medical assessment rather than a pressure point.
• Hiccups and belching. Listed in older sources alongside other Stomach channel points for rebellious qi, meaning symptoms that move upward. Untested in modern research.
• Upper abdominal discomfort and reflux-type symptoms. Some modern teaching includes ST19 for burning or pressure below the breastbone. Reflux is well treated by conventional means, and self-pressure should never replace that.
• Cough and chest tightness. A few classical sources extend ST19 to cough and wheeze because of its position high on the abdomen near the diaphragm. This is one of the weaker traditional indications and has no human evidence behind it.
• A general relaxation effect. Slow, gentle self-massage of the abdomen with steady breathing can feel settling. That may be the most reliable thing on this list, but it is not specific to ST19; any calm, warm hand on the belly might do the same.

Taken together: ST19 has a consistent traditional role in upper digestive complaints and no specific human trial support for any of it. If a symptom here is new, severe, or comes with vomiting blood, black stools or weight loss, that is a medical question, not a pressure-point one.

Are there tips for using ST19 effectively?

• Lie down first. The abdominal wall relaxes when your knees are bent and your back is supported. Pressing into a braced belly tells you nothing and feels unpleasant.
• Use a flat finger, not a point. Two finger pads spread the force. A single fingertip or a thumbnail digs in and makes the muscle guard against you.
• Match pressure to the tissue. This is soft abdomen, not a muscular shoulder. If you would describe the pressure as firm, it is probably too much for ST19.
• Breathe with it. Press gently on the out-breath and release on the in-breath. The rhythm is what most people find settling, and it stops you pushing continuously.
• Keep the hands warm. Cold fingers on the belly make people tense and hold their breath. Rub your palms together first.
• Treat both sides. ST19 is a paired point. Working only one side is an easy habit to fall into when you use one hand.
• Leave a gap after meals. An hour or more. Pressing a full stomach can push acid upward and make reflux worse.
• Keep a simple note. Write down the symptom score before and after for a week or two. Acupressure effects in studies are usually small and short-lived, so honest notes beat memory.
• Combine sensibly. If your interest is nausea, spend your effort on PC6 at the wrist, which is the point with real human evidence, and treat ST19 as an optional extra.
• Skip it and ask instead. If the area is tender every time you touch it, that tenderness is information. Mention it to a doctor rather than massaging it away.

One more practical point: consistency matters more than force. A gentle minute on each side, once or twice a day, is a reasonable trial. If a fortnight of that changes nothing, ST19 is probably not doing anything for you, and that is a perfectly acceptable result to act on.

What do people get wrong with ST19?

• Expecting a cure. No pressure point cures reflux, gastritis, an ulcer or anything else. At best, acupressure is a small comfort measure alongside proper care, and ST19 has not even been tested for that.
• Pressing far too hard. The upper abdomen is soft and unprotected by bone here. Deep digging can leave the area sore for days and tells you nothing useful.
• Landing on the ribs or breastbone. If the surface under your finger is hard, you have drifted up onto the costal margin or the xiphoid tip. ST19 is on soft belly, roughly two thumb-widths below the breastbone tip and two out from the midline.
• Confusing it with its neighbours. ST21 sits lower down, level with a point four thumb-widths above the navel, and CV14 is on the midline itself. People often describe one and press another.
• Using it on undiagnosed pain. Pressing an unexplained upper abdominal pain is the wrong move. Pain here can come from the stomach, gallbladder, pancreas or heart, and massage can delay a diagnosis.
• Working on a full stomach. Pressure straight after eating commonly brings on reflux or nausea, which people then blame on the point.
• Copying needle instructions from a video. Some content shows practitioners needling ST19. That belongs to a trained clinician in a clinic. Never attempt insertion, heat or skin-breaking techniques on yourself.
• Treating tenderness as proof. A sore spot does not confirm you found the point or that the point is "active". Many people are tender over the upper abdomen simply because they are tense.
• Stopping a prescribed medicine. People sometimes trial acupressure instead of their reflux or stomach medication. Do not change prescribed treatment without talking to the prescriber.

What does the research on ST19 actually say?

There is essentially nothing. We found no controlled human trial, and no reliable observational study, that tested ST19 acupressure on its own for any condition. That is the honest answer, and it is the same answer for most individual acupuncture points outside a small, well-studied handful.

Where ST19 appears in modern literature at all, it is usually one name in a list of points used together in an acupuncture protocol for digestive complaints. Multi-point studies like that cannot tell you what any single point contributed. If a trial needles eight points and the group improves, ST19 might have done everything, something, or nothing.

For context, the strongest acupressure evidence in the whole field sits elsewhere. PC6 at the inner wrist has been tested in many randomised trials for nausea and vomiting, including pregnancy sickness, motion sickness and nausea after surgery, and reviews generally find a modest benefit. That body of work is the exception, not the rule, and it says nothing about ST19.

The wider acupressure literature also has well-known limits. Most trials are small, run for a few days or weeks, and cannot blind participants to whether a finger is pressing on them. Sham-controlled designs often use a nearby "wrong" spot, and results frequently narrow once that comparison is made. Expectation and attention plausibly explain a share of reported benefit.

What this means for you is practical rather than discouraging. Gentle self-pressure at ST19 is low-cost and, for most healthy people, low-risk, but you should treat any claimed effect as unproven. Give it a short, honest trial if you want to, keep notes, and do not let it stand in for a diagnosis or a prescribed treatment.

If better research on this specific point appears, this page will change. As of now, ST19 rests on tradition, not on trials, and anyone telling you otherwise is overstating what exists.