Shangwan

What is CV13?

CV13 (Shangwan) is a Conception Vessel point on the midline of the upper abdomen, between the navel and the tip of the breastbone.

Its pinyin name, Shangwan, is usually translated as Upper Venter or Upper Stomach Duct. It is the highest of the three midline stomach points, sitting above CV12 (Zhongwan) and CV10. Classical texts also call it a meeting place of the Conception Vessel with the Stomach and Small Intestine channels.

In traditional theory the point sits over the upper opening of the stomach, where swallowed food arrives. That idea drove its classical uses: vomiting, hiccups, belching, a bloated or blocked feeling under the ribs, and poor appetite. A few older texts also list it for agitation and seizures, which no modern evidence supports.

Here is the honest verdict on the evidence. No controlled human trial has tested CV13 on its own. It appears inside multi-point acupuncture protocols for indigestion and nausea, which means any benefit in those studies cannot be traced to this one point. The wider acupressure literature is mostly small, short and unblinded, so results are easy to overstate.

Two things are worth saying once, clearly, and they apply to this whole page. A point having two thousand years of use behind it is not evidence that it does anything. It is also not evidence that it is safe, which matters more than usual here, because CV13 lies over the stomach, the aorta and the liver edge rather than over muscle on a limb.

What gentle self-applied finger pressure on CV13 realistically offers is a few minutes of warmth, slowed breathing and distraction, and perhaps some easing of a tight, full feeling. For most healthy adults that is low risk. It is not a treatment for any diagnosed digestive disease, and it does not replace working out why your stomach hurts.

Where is CV13 and how do you find it?

CV13 sits on the midline of your upper belly, five eighths of the way from the navel up towards the tip of the breastbone.

• Lie down first. Rest on your back with your knees bent and feet flat. This softens the abdominal wall and makes the bony landmarks much easier to feel.
• Find the two anchors. Put one fingertip in the centre of your navel. Slide your other hand up the midline until you reach the lower tip of the breastbone, where the soft hollow below the ribs begins.
• Split the gap. Traditional measurement makes that whole distance 8 cun. CV13 is 5 cun up from the navel, so it sits just above the halfway mark, a little closer to the breastbone than to the navel.
• Convert it. On most adults, 5 cun up from the navel is roughly five of your own thumb-widths, or about 10 to 13 cm. Measure with your own hand, not someone else's.
• Cross-check from above. CV13 is about one thumb-width below CV14 and one thumb-width above CV12. If your finger is right in the soft dip under the breastbone tip, you have gone too high.
• Confirm by feel. You should be on soft tissue on the midline, not on bone and not on the firm ridge of muscle to either side. Many people notice the spot feels slightly tender or full.

Exact placement matters less than most videos suggest. Stay on the midline, stay below the breastbone, and keep your touch light. If you feel a steady pulse beating under your fingers, lift off and do not press there.

How do you apply pressure to CV13?

1. Pick your moment. Wait at least an hour after a large meal. Pressing a full stomach is uncomfortable and can make reflux feel worse.
2. Get comfortable. Lie on your back with knees bent, or sit leaning back slightly. A tense, braced belly cannot be pressed safely or usefully.
3. Use flat finger pads. Place the pads of your index and middle fingers flat on CV13. Never use a knuckle, a thumb tip, a pen cap or a massage tool here.
4. Sink in on an out-breath. Breathe out slowly and let your fingers sink straight down a little way. Let them rise again as you breathe in. Follow the belly rather than fighting it.
5. Keep the pressure low. Aim for about 3 out of 10, firm enough to feel a dull fullness and nothing sharper. The abdomen needs far less force than a shoulder or a foot.
6. Hold or circle. Hold steady for 30 to 60 seconds, or make slow small circles. Repeat for a total of 1 to 3 minutes.
7. Repeat sparingly. Once or twice a day is plenty. Longer and harder is not better, and repeated hard pressing can leave the area sore for days.
8. Finish gently. Release slowly, rest a hand flat on the area for a few breaths, then sit up slowly if you were lying down.

Stop straight away if the pressure causes sharp pain, if nausea or reflux gets worse, if you feel a distinct pulse under your fingers, or if you feel faint or short of breath. Stop and leave it alone for a week if the skin stays sore or bruised afterwards.

This is self-applied finger pressure only. Nothing on this page involves needles, heat sticks, cups or anything that breaks the skin.

What is CV13 traditionally used for?

• Nausea and vomiting. Classical texts place CV13 at the upper opening of the stomach and use it for food coming back up. Direct human evidence for this point is absent. For nausea specifically, PC6 on the inner wrist is the far better supported choice, with repeated controlled trials behind acupressure wristbands.
• Hiccups and belching. Tradition treats upward-rebelling stomach energy with this point. Research on hiccups is limited to small case reports using needles at various points, so nothing reliable can be claimed for finger pressure here.
• Fullness and bloating under the ribs. A long-standing use for a stuffed, blocked feeling in the upper belly. Trials of acupuncture for functional dyspepsia (indigestion with no structural cause) usually combine CV12, ST36 and PC6, with CV13 as an occasional extra. Results are mixed and the individual contribution of CV13 is unknown.
• Heartburn and reflux sensation. Some modern texts extend the stomach-duct idea to acid reflux. There is no controlled trial of acupressure at CV13 for reflux, and reflux that happens most days needs medical assessment rather than self-massage.
• Poor appetite. Listed in classical sources alongside the other stomach-region points. No human studies test CV13 for appetite in either direction.
• Agitation and seizures. Several old texts list CV13 for mania and epilepsy. This claim is historical only. Epilepsy is a serious condition that must be managed medically, and nothing here should replace prescribed treatment.

The practical summary is that CV13 has a coherent traditional story and almost no point-specific human research. Gentle pressure may feel soothing on a tight, full upper belly, which is a real but modest and short-lived comfort effect. Treat any claim stronger than that with suspicion, especially if it comes with a promise of results.

Are there tips for using CV13 effectively?

• Use PC6 for nausea instead. If nausea is your actual problem, press PC6 on the inner forearm. It has genuine controlled human evidence behind it, which CV13 does not, and it is a far safer area to press.
• Warm your hands first. Cold fingers on the belly make people tense and guard. Rub your palms together for a few seconds before you start.
• Let the breath do the work. Sink slightly on each exhale and release on each inhale. Much of what people notice from abdominal pressure is the slow breathing that comes with it.
• Loosen your waistband. Pressing through a tight belt or jeans button is uncomfortable and makes it hard to tell where the midline actually is.
• Keep a short log. Note the symptom score before and after, on a 0 to 10 scale, for two weeks. Digestive symptoms wander on their own, and a log is the only honest way to see whether anything changed.
• Give it a fair but limited trial. Two weeks of daily use is enough to form a view. If nothing has shifted, stop rather than pressing harder.
• Pair it with the basics. Smaller meals, slower eating, less alcohol and not lying down straight after food do more for upper-belly symptoms than any point on the midline.
• Stay on soft tissue. If your fingers are on bone or on a firm pulsing structure, you are in the wrong place. Reposition rather than pushing through.
• Keep sessions short. One to three minutes is the whole technique. Long heavy sessions mostly produce a sore abdominal wall.
• Tell your clinician. If you are being investigated for stomach symptoms, mention what you are doing. It helps them interpret changes you report.

What do people get wrong with CV13?

• Expecting a cure. The commonest mistake by far. CV13 will not cure reflux, gastritis, an ulcer or any other diagnosed condition, and anyone promising that is selling something.
• Pressing on the breastbone tip. Sliding too high puts the fingers on the xiphoid, the small bony spur at the bottom of the sternum. It is tender, it can be injured, and it is not the point.
• Mixing it up with CV12. CV12 sits one thumb-width lower, halfway between navel and breastbone tip. Most videos labelled CV13 are actually showing CV12, so check the landmarks yourself.
• Digging in hard. People treat the belly like a tight shoulder. Deep gouging pressure here can bruise the abdominal wall and irritate the stomach, and it adds nothing.
• Pressing straight after eating. A full stomach plus firm pressure often makes fullness and reflux worse. Leave an hour.
• Using it on pain you have not explained. New, severe or changing upper-belly pain needs a diagnosis first. Massaging it can delay care for something that matters.
• Ignoring a pulse under the fingers. A strong beating feeling in the upper midline means you are over a blood vessel. Lift off; do not try to press through it.
• Doing it on someone else without asking. Abdominal pressure on a child, a sedated person or anyone who cannot clearly say it hurts is not safe self-care.
• Using it instead of medication. Stopping a prescribed acid-suppressing or anti-sickness drug to try a point is the one decision here with real potential for harm.
• Judging it by one session. Digestive symptoms fluctuate. Feeling better once proves nothing either way.

What does the research on CV13 actually say?

There is no controlled human trial of CV13 on its own, for any condition, and none of self-applied finger pressure at this point. That is the plain answer, and it is the answer for most individual acupuncture points.

Where CV13 does appear in the literature, it is as one item in a list. Trials of acupuncture for functional dyspepsia (persistent indigestion with no structural cause) and for chemotherapy-related nausea typically use a fixed set of points, most often CV12, ST36 and PC6, sometimes with CV13 added for individual patients. Those studies used needles, inserted by practitioners. Even when a protocol shows a benefit, it cannot tell you what CV13 contributed, and it cannot be read across to pressing the spot with your fingers.

The contrast with PC6 is instructive. PC6 and nausea is the one acupressure question with a substantial body of controlled human trials, including wristband studies in pregnancy, after surgery and during chemotherapy. The effect is modest and the quality varies, but it is real research on a specific point for a specific symptom. Nothing comparable exists for CV13.

The general acupressure evidence base also has known weaknesses that apply here. Studies are usually small, participants know whether they are being touched, outcomes are self-reported, and follow-up rarely extends beyond a few weeks. Those conditions reliably produce flattering short-term results, so a positive small study is weak grounds for confidence.

What this means for you is simple. Treat gentle pressure at CV13 as a comfort measure that may or may not help you personally, not as a tested treatment. Track your own symptoms if you want to know whether it does anything for you. And do not let a traditional reputation, however old, substitute for a diagnosis when your upper belly keeps hurting.