How many moxa cones to apply?
How do you decide the number of moxa cones to apply?
It is not easy to decide how many cones to apply. The body tends to become insensitive when it becomes ill. You may apply many cones on points you feel hard, rising or insensitive to the touch. You may apply many cones until the body feels heat. From my experiences, the ideal number of cones for adults will be 5 to 7 cones, while that for kids will be 3 to 5 cones.
You can adjust the number of cones for the following cases.
1) Common cold: You can get good results by doing 15 – 20 cones for common cold and fever disease.
2) Stomach flu: There are acute cases in which 10 – 20 or 30 cones need applying on Rn9(??), ST27(??), Rn6(??), ST24(???), Rn12(??), and ST34(??).
3) Appendicitis: 20 – 30 cones to 100 cones are applied on Rn6(??).
4) Neuralgia: As for sciatica, choose Du2, Du3, and BL32. Depending on the symptoms, it can lead to good results when you apply more than 7 cones on BL25, BL37, and BL38. You can adjust the number of cones, depending on the severity of lower back pain and shoulder pain.
5) Weak patients: Start with 2 or 3 cones of as small size as possible for one or two weeks, and then increase it to 4 to 5 cones gradually. Too much stimulus could make them feel tired. In this case, it is desirable that the patient should skip a few days before having the next session.
6) Hypertension: As small size cones as possible and small number of cones are better. You can increase it to 5 cones gradually. However, when the blood pressure is over 200mm HG, you must not apply more than 3 cones. It is true of cerebral hemorrhage. Once the blood pressure is regulated, continue with 5 cones.
(Excerpt from “Theory and Practicality of Moxibustion” by Dr Namsu Kim, Gudang)