Yakrut
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Yakrut is located almost directly over the anatomical liver, on the bottom edge of the right side of the ribcage on a line drawn straight down from the middle of the clavicle (Lad & Durve, 2008).
“Ya” translates as “circulation”, “krut” as “action”, and Yakrut is translated as liver (Lad & Durve, 2008, p. 161). Yakrut is the seat of bhuta agni, that fire which is the metabolic energy behind all of the liver’s functions. Thus, Yakrut, that marma point called “liver”, is, in fact, the main point for treating liver dysfunction (Lad & Durve, 2008).
Some of the liver’s functions, and those regulated by this point, are digestion and metabolism. The liver and spleen are considered the root of rakta vaha srotas, the tissue that governs blood, where the liver breaks down hemoglobin, creating ojas from the globulin, and the heme becoming part of the building of rañjaka pitta, or bile (Lad & Durve, 2008).
In its role of synthesizing cholesterol into testosterone, the liver indicates its association with shukra dhatu, male reproductive tissue, as well (Lad & Durve, 2008).
Though there is no acupuncture point that corresponds exactly with Yakrut, it is located very near, almost in between, Qí mén Liver 14 (Lr 14) and Zhang mén Liver 13 (Lr 13) (Qí mén being located in between the sixth and seventh ribs, 3.5 to 5 body inches out from midline, Zhang mén below the free end of the eleventh floating rib).
Like so many other marma points located on the abdomen, Qí mén is the Mù xué “Alarm Point” on the liver channel, and, thus, one of the most important points on the body for treating any and all liver issues. Almost expectedly, Zhang mén is the Alarm Point for the spleen, as well as a major point (the Huì “Meeting” point) for all viscera (spleen, heart, lungs, kidneys, pericardium, and liver).
The functions of Yakrut seem to be an interesting compilation of the actions of these two acupuncture points. Yakrut is considered the most important point for treating liver issues, and Qí mén is near, exactly, the acupuncture equivalent.
Between Yakrut and its mirror marma on the left side of the body, Pliha, the liver and spleen find powerful regulating points. This is matched with Qí mén and Zhang mén being the respective Alarm Points (acupuncture points are all bilateral; each point is located at the same location on both sides of the body).
Even the translation of the breakdown of the name, Yakrut, “circulation action”, speaks directly to one of the main functions of the Chinese medically defined liver system, that of ensuring the smooth flow of qì and blood.
In this regulating the flow of qì and blood, the liver is referred to as the “stopper of extremes”. Mood swings are an excellent example of inadequate controlling of extremes, another being excessive flaring of emotion with relatively little stimulus (e.g. flying off the handle for a minor annoyance). The liver is also the home of frustrations of all kinds, especially those leading to anger and rage. Yakrut demonstrates its clinical usefulness for this dysfunction of the liver system in being able to pacify “fiery emotions” (Lad & Durve, 2008, p. 161).
An interesting dissimilarity of the two traditions is found in Ayurveda’s associating the right marma with the liver system (the left corresponding to the spleen), while, in Chinese medicine, the left side of the body, as a whole, is associated with the liver system. For example, left sided headaches are usually diagnosed as liver related, and when a patient presents with multiple symptoms all presenting exclusively on the left side, a liver imbalance is suspected.
Though that left sided liver association is usually treated as only one sub-paradigm, or theory, of many all contained under the broad label “Chinese medicine”. Deviation from it far from separates a practitioner from the system of Chinese medicine.
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Lad, V. & Durve, A. (2008). Marma Points of Ayurveda. Albuquerque, NM: The Ayurvedic Press.
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