What Neiting does
Neiting is treated here as a practical point rather than a curiosity: where it sits, how it is needled, what the tradition says it does, and the skin conditions in this database that name it.
Actions
- Clears Heat from the Stomach Channel and eases pain
- Regulates the Intestines and resolves Damp-Heat
- Expels Wind from the face
- Calms the Mind
Location
The written location is summarised from the classical record; use the landmark named there together with the diagram.
How to find it
Find the bony landmark first, then feel for the hollow or tender spot the location describes. The point is usually sensitive when pressed. More precisely, the point lies in the soft web where the second and third toes meet. With the foot relaxed, run a finger from the web towards the ankle until it falls into the shallow depression just before the bones converge, roughly half a cun behind the fold. Asking the patient to spread the toes opens the web and makes the spot easier to see; in a cold foot, warm the skin first so that the toes are not clenched.
Deqi
De qi at this point is felt as local distension, heaviness or aching, and may travel a short way along the channel.
A cun is a proportional body measurement, not a fixed length: one cun is about the width of the thumb at the knuckle, 1.5 cun about two finger widths, and 3 cun about the width of four fingers. On an average adult one cun is roughly one inch, but it scales with the person, which is why the texts measure in cun rather than centimetres.
Technique
Needling
Angle: 90 degrees, perpendicular Depth: Standard depth half a to half a cun. Direction: Needle in the direction the location describes.
Moxibustion
Moxibustion is not the first method at Neiting, because much of the point's work is to clear heat and warmth works against that. It is kept for the cold end of the picture, such as cold-damp diarrhoea with a chilled abdomen, where five to ten minutes with a stick can support the needle. Where the patient feels hot and thirsty, moxa is left out.
Cupping
The reference marks cupping at Neiting as questionable. The space between the toes is too small for a cup to seal, and the skin there is thin, so suction is not part of the usual approach; where a cup is wanted for a digestive pattern it goes on the abdomen or the back instead.
Gua sha
Gua sha is also recorded as questionable at Neiting. The dorsum of the foot has little flesh over the bones and the small arteries of the toes run close to the surface, so scraping across the point is not routine practice. Where scraping is wanted for heat, a broader area of the back or of the channel above the ankle is preferred.
Skin uses
Neiting is the Ying-spring point of the Stomach channel, recorded to clear Heat from the Stomach, resolve Damp-Heat, expel Wind from the face and calm the Mind. Its skin reading is indirect and twofold: the Heat and Damp-Heat actions map onto hot, damp skin pictures, and the point sits on the foot, so lesions there are sometimes considered locally. The classical entry mentions facial swelling in the context of toothache, which is not a skin indication. The point has no skin-specific classical indication recorded, so the rationale above stays indirect and is not trial evidence.
No skin-specific classical indication is recorded for this point. The rationale above is an indirect, traditional reading of the point, not a promise of benefit.
Point classifications
| Classification | Value |
|---|---|
| Five phase | Water-Shui |
| Transporting type | Spring-Ying Point |
| Mother-child role | Child (Reducing) |
| Classical groups | Ma Dan Yang Heavenly Star |
Classical record
The qi leaves the well point, flows to the spring point and gathers there; on the Stomach channel this is Neiting.
Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), on the five transporting points
Toothache, a blocked throat, nosebleed and a swollen abdomen, with heat in the body and cold limbs.
Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture), indications for Neiting
For toothache from Stomach Fire, swelling of the face and heat in the Yangming channel, Neiting is the point to reduce.
Ma Dan-yang, Song of the Heavenly Star Points
Safety
Who should treat this point
Acupuncture and moxibustion are practitioner procedures. This page is educational and is not a guide to self-treatment.
Caution
No special hazard is recorded for this point; use standard care for the region and adjust depth to the patient. Even so, the web between the toes deserves care: the skin there is thin and often moist, so the needle is kept shallow, manipulation is light, and the site is cleaned before and after treatment. Because the point drains heat strongly, it is used cautiously in patients who feel the cold or run deficient, and strong stimulation is avoided in pregnancy.
Deficiency and constitution
In a depleted patient the point is worked gently and briefly. The needle is also gentler and shorter, or the point is left out in favour of tonifying points, because the heat-clearing action can leave a weak patient feeling more tired if it is pushed hard.
Before treatment
Educational reference only. Skin that is spreading, painful, blistering or accompanied by fever needs medical assessment.
Modern evidence and safety
General references for acupuncture safety and skin evidence. They are not specific to this point, and they are not a claim that needling it treats any condition.
- Acupuncture-related adverse events: systematic review and meta-analyses of prospective clinical studies. BMJ Open, 2021. PMID: 34489268.
- Acupuncture for atopic dermatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open, 2024. PMID: 39638592.
- Manual acupuncture for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Surgery, 2025. PMID: 40696933.
- Acupuncture in Dermatology: An Update to a Systematic Review. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2021. PMID: 32955916.
Evidence note
No controlled trial of this treatment in skin conditions was identified for this entry. What is described here rests on the classical and later materia medica record and on traditional clinical use, not on controlled trial evidence, and it is not a prediction of benefit. Where skin-specific research does exist it is linked above.
Common questions
What does Neiting do in skin practice?
It is used where the skin picture includes the conditions it is used with, always as part of a combination chosen for the pattern.
How is it needled?
90° (Perpendicular) / 45° (Oblique). Standard depth 0.3 - 0.5 cun. De qi: Localized distending or aching sensation between the toes, which may radiate along the dorsum of the foot toward the ankle. Some patients experience a mild electrical or tingling sensation. The deqi is typically moderate in intensity.
Why is a point on the foot used for toothache?
The Stomach channel runs from the face down to the foot, and Neiting sits at its spring point, near the toe end. Heat showing in the jaw or teeth can therefore be cleared from that end of the channel, and in practice the point is needled together with a local point such as Hegu or a facial point rather than on its own.
Can Neiting be used in pregnancy?
Strong stimulation of this point is avoided in pregnancy, as with the strong reducing points generally. Where a pregnant patient has a hot or digestive problem, a practitioner will select points and techniques that are safer, and this page is an educational reference rather than a guide to self-treatment.