GB-26 (Dai Mai) Girdling Vessel

What does GB-26 Dai Mai do?

GB-26 regulates the Girdling vessel and drains damp downward — it is the Gallbladder-channel point that meets the Dai Mai, and almost everything it does follows from that meeting. Because the Girdling vessel encircles the waist and binds the vertical channels, GB-26 is reached for when qi is failing to hold at the waist: vaginal discharge, irregular periods, and heaviness or aching around the girdle of the body.

• Regulates the Girdling vessel and drains dampness — the point's primary recorded action. Damp sinking to the lower body is the classic Dai Mai pattern.
• Regulates menstruation — irregular periods, absent periods and painful periods.
• Stops vaginal discharge (leucorrhoea) — the indication most tightly bound to this point; excessive discharge is described in the sources as the Girdling vessel failing to restrain.
• Activates the channel and relieves pain — lower abdominal pain, hypochondriac pain, and pain and weakness across the lumbar region.
• Regulates the lower abdomen — recorded for hernia and for lower abdominal fullness and distension.

Category note: GB-26 is not a five-shu, yuan, luo or xi-cleft point. Its one classification in Sacred Lotus sources & references is that it is a Meeting Point of the Gallbladder Channel with the Girdling Vessel. That single category explains its whole clinical character — it is where a regular channel and an extraordinary vessel cross.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 443); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 216); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is GB-26 Dai Mai used for?

GB-26 is used chiefly for gynaecological complaints and for pain around the waist and flank. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are irregular menstruation, amenorrhoea, leucorrhoea, abdominal pain, hernia, and pain in the lumbar and hypochondriac region; the reference literature sets them out as follows.

• Excessive or persistent vaginal discharge (leucorrhoea)
• Irregular menstruation
• Absent periods (amenorrhoea)
• Painful periods (dysmenorrhoea)
• Lower abdominal pain, fullness and distension
• Hernia and lower abdominal bulging
• Pain and weakness of the lumbar region
• Hypochondriac pain along the flank
• Uterine prolapse and a sensation of downward dragging
• Heaviness and weakness of the legs attributed to the Girdling vessel

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 443); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 216).

How is GB-26 Dai Mai used in practice?

GB-26 is the waist-level Gallbladder point used when a complaint sits in the "belt" of the body — discharge, irregular periods, or aching that wraps around the waist. It lies on the side of the trunk, below the free end of the eleventh rib and level with the navel; a practitioner locates the free rib end, drops straight down from it, and meets the horizontal line of the umbilicus. That crossing of a vertical and a horizontal line is a fitting way to find a point whose vessel is itself horizontal.

Which points is GB-26 combined with?

• With Zu Lin Qi (GB-41) — the essential pairing. GB-41 is the confluent point that opens the Girdling vessel; GB-26 is where the vessel is met on the trunk. Opening the vessel distally and treating it locally is the standard approach.
• With Wu Shu (GB-27) and Wei Dao (GB-28) — the two points immediately below GB-26 on the same channel, which share its category as meeting points of the Gallbladder channel with the Girdling vessel. These three form the Girdling vessel's local group on the trunk, and are often needled together for discharge and lower abdominal complaints.
• With San Yin Jiao (SP-06) and Yin Ling Quan (SP-09) — added where damp and discharge dominate; SP-09 in particular is the point for draining damp from the lower body.
• With Shen Shu (BL-23) — added where lumbar weakness and dragging are prominent and the picture is one of deficiency rather than damp accumulation.
• With Zhang Men (LIV-13) — the point directly above it at the free end of the eleventh rib, and the landmark from which GB-26 is found.
• With Qi Hai (REN-06) and Tian Shu (ST-25) — the midline and paramedian abdominal points used alongside GB-26 for lower abdominal fullness.

Is there research on GB-26?

There is very little research specific to GB-26, and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. The one study that puts the point at its centre is a small uncontrolled clinical trial: 35 patients with abdominal obesity were treated for eight weeks with a "Belt Vessel (Daimai) regulating" prescription built around Dai Mai (GB-26) and Zu Lin Qi (GB-41) together with Tian Shu (ST-25), Da Heng (SP-15), Zhong Wan, Liang Men (ST-21), Shui Dao (ST-28), Zu San Li (ST-36), Shang Ju Xu (ST-37) and Feng Long (ST-40), with electroacupuncture applied to GB-26 and ST-25. Weight, body-mass index, waist circumference and ultrasound-measured visceral fat all fell, with visceral fat reducing more than subcutaneous fat (Liang CM et al., Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2012;37(6):493-6, PMID 23383460). With no control group and ten points in the prescription, the study cannot show that GB-26 was responsible for the result. No systematic review or randomised trial isolating this point has been identified.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 443); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 216); Liang CM et al., PMID 23383460; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is GB-26 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 443): Directly below Zhangmen LIV-13 (anterior and inferior to the free end of the eleventh rib), level with the umbilicus.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 216): Directly below Zhangmen (LR 13), at the crossing point of a vertical line through the free end of the eleventh rib and a horizontal line through the umbilicus.

How is GB-26 Dai Mai needled?

Reference texts record perpendicular insertion at GB-26 to a depth of 0.5 to 0.8 cun, with moxibustion applicable. This is a neutral reference fact, recorded exactly as the textbooks state it — it is not an instruction, and needling is carried out only by a qualified, licensed practitioner.

What are the safety considerations at GB-26?

• It is a point on the trunk wall, below the ribs. The recorded depth is shallow for a body point, and the reason is the anatomy beneath: the abdominal contents lie under the flank at this level, and the recorded figure is a conservative textbook limit rather than a target.
• Deeper structures on the right and left differ. GB-26 sits below the free end of the eleventh rib, in the region of the flank where the liver on the right and the spleen on the left extend under the lower ribs in some individuals. Standard references record shallow insertion here for that reason.
• Pregnancy. Abdominal and lower-trunk points are handled with particular caution during pregnancy; GB-26 lies at umbilical level on the side of the abdomen. Where any doubt exists, the reference texts direct that lower-abdominal points be avoided.
• Moxibustion is recorded as applicable at this point.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 443); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 216).

What does the name Dai Mai mean?

Dai Mai means "Girdling Vessel" — dai is a belt or sash, mai is a vessel or channel. The point takes its name directly from the extraordinary vessel it meets, and that shared name is the single greatest source of confusion around it: Dai Mai is both a point (GB-26) and a vessel (the Girdling vessel). They are not the same thing, and the distinction matters.

What is the difference between the point Dai Mai and the Dai Mai vessel?

• The Dai Mai vessel is one of the eight extraordinary vessels. It encircles the waist like a belt and is the only vessel in the entire system that runs horizontally — every other channel and vessel travels lengthwise along the body. Its function is described as binding: it gathers and restrains the vertical channels as they pass through the waist, in the way a sash gathers a robe. When it fails to bind, the classical picture is one of things falling or leaking downward — discharge, prolapse, dragging heaviness, weak and flaccid legs.
• The point Dai Mai (GB-26) is a single point on the Gallbladder Channel of Foot Shao Yang, at the side of the trunk level with the navel. Sacred Lotus sources & references classify it as a Meeting Point of the Gallbladder Channel with the Girdling Vessel — the place where the Gallbladder channel and the encircling vessel cross. It is one point on that vessel's course, not the vessel itself.

Which points open and relate to the Girdling vessel?

Of the eight extraordinary vessels, each is opened by a confluent point on the limbs, paired with the confluent point of a coupled vessel. For the Girdling vessel:

• Zu Lin Qi (GB-41) is the confluent point of the Girdling vessel — the distal point on the foot that opens it. Sacred Lotus sources & references carry that classification on GB-41 itself.
• Wai Guan (SJ-05) is its coupled partner in the standard confluent-point pairing, opening the Yang Linking vessel; the two are used together when the Girdling vessel is being opened.
• GB-26, Wu Shu (GB-27) and Wei Dao (GB-28) are the three Gallbladder-channel points on the trunk that Sacred Lotus sources & references record as meeting points with the Girdling vessel — the vessel's local territory on the body.

Why does the Girdling vessel matter clinically?

Because it crosses every vertical channel that passes through the waist, the Girdling vessel is the one place where the Liver, Gallbladder, Kidney, Spleen, Stomach, Bladder and the Penetrating and Conception vessels can all be reached at once. Classical writing links it to problems that pool at or descend below the waist: vaginal discharge, lumbar weakness and pain that circles the waist, lower abdominal fullness, and heaviness or flaccidity of the legs. Damp is the pathogen most often named, since damp sinks.

How does GB-26 compare with nearby points?

Zhang Men (LIV-13) sits directly above GB-26 at the free end of the eleventh rib and is the landmark for finding it; it is the front-mu point of the Spleen and the meeting point of the zang organs, a quite different role. Jing Men (GB-25) lies above and behind at the twelfth rib and is the front-mu point of the Kidney. Wu Shu (GB-27) and Wei Dao (GB-28) lie below GB-26 towards the hip and share its Girdling-vessel category. Readers who want to open the Girdling vessel rather than treat it locally want Zu Lin Qi (GB-41) on the foot.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (point categories for GB-26, GB-27, GB-28 and GB-41); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 443); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 216); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.