Futu

What is LI18?

LI18 (Futu) is a Large Intestine channel point on the side of the neck, level with the tip of the Adam's apple.

Its Chinese name, Futu, is usually translated as "Support the Prominence" — the prominence being the voice box. Note that a different point, ST32, is also called Futu in English spelling. They are not related and sit nowhere near each other. This page is about the neck point, LI18.

In classical texts LI18 belongs to the group of throat and voice points. It was used for sore throat, hoarseness, loss of voice, cough and wheeze, and for swellings in the neck. Being a named channel point taught in every curriculum gives it standing in the tradition. That standing is not evidence that pressing it does anything, and it is not evidence that pressing it is safe.

The honest verdict on evidence: there is essentially no controlled human research on finger pressure at LI18 for any condition. What exists is tradition, practitioner habit, and some uncontrolled historical reports from acupuncture use during neck surgery in China. None of that tells you what will happen when you press your own neck.

LI18 also deserves more caution than almost any point in this library, and not for traditional reasons. It sits directly over the carotid artery, the carotid sinus (a pressure sensor in the artery wall that helps control heart rate), the jugular vein and the vagus nerve. Firm pressure here can slow the heart and cause fainting in otherwise healthy people. Pressure over a diseased artery is a genuine hazard.

So this page is written conservatively. It tells you where LI18 is, what tradition claimed, what the evidence does and does not show, and who should leave it alone entirely. For most readers looking for a throat or cough point, a point on the hand or forearm is a far more sensible choice than one on the neck.

Where is LI18 and how do you find it?

LI18 sits on the side of the neck, level with the tip of the Adam's apple, in the gap between the two cords of the large neck muscle.

• Find the Adam's apple. Tilt your chin slightly up and run a finger down the front of your throat. The firm bump of cartilage in the midline is the laryngeal prominence, or Adam's apple. It is easier to feel on men, but it is there on everyone.
• Move sideways, not down. Keep that level. Slide your fingers about 3 cun to the side — roughly four finger-widths, or about 5 to 6 cm on an average adult. LI18 lies on the side of the neck at that level, not on the front of the throat.
• Find the big neck muscle. Turn your head firmly to the opposite side. A thick rope of muscle stands out from behind your ear down to your collarbone. That is the sternocleidomastoid.
• Feel for its two heads. Near the bottom this muscle splits into two cords, one running to the breastbone and one to the collarbone. LI18 is described as lying between those two cords, at Adam's apple level.
• Check for a pulse before anything else. The carotid artery runs through this exact zone. If you feel a strong beat under your fingertips, you are on the artery. Do not press there.

What is agreed across texts is the level (tip of the Adam's apple) and the side-of-neck position relative to the sternocleidomastoid. The exact relationship to the two muscle heads varies slightly between textbooks, so treat the spot as a small region rather than a pinpoint.

This library covers self-applied finger pressure only. Nothing here involves needles, depth or angle of any kind.

How do you apply pressure to LI18?

If you use LI18 at all, use the lightest touch on this whole site, on one side only, and stop at the first odd sensation.

1. Check the pulse first. Rest two fingertips on the spot without pressing. If you feel a beat, move your fingers slightly back toward the muscle until the beat disappears. If you cannot find a pulse-free spot, do not use this point.
2. Use one side at a time. Never press both sides of the neck together, for any length of time, for any reason. Doing so can cut blood flow to the brain.
3. Press very lightly. Use the flat pad of one finger and the weight of the finger alone. You want a faint awareness of contact, not an ache. There should be no deep, boring or dull pressure sensation here.
4. Keep it brief. Five to ten seconds of light contact, released slowly. Many practitioners would cap total use at under a minute per session.
5. Sit down. Use it seated or lying, never standing, never driving, never in a bath. If you do feel faint, you want to already be somewhere safe.
6. Stop immediately if anything changes. Dizziness, lightheadedness, visual greying, a fluttering or slowing heartbeat, nausea, sweating or ringing ears all mean release the point at once and stop for good.

Frequency: at most once or twice a day, on days when you have a specific reason. This is not a point to rub absent-mindedly at your desk, and it is not one to use on another person.

If you are new to acupressure and want something for a scratchy throat or a cough, LI4 on the hand or LU7 near the wrist carry none of this risk and carry the same weight of traditional backing. There is no evidence that LI18 outperforms them, so the safer choice costs you nothing.

What is LI18 traditionally used for?

• Sore throat and swallowing discomfort. The main classical use, tied to the point's position beside the throat. Human evidence for finger pressure at LI18 for sore throat: none that we could find. Claims rest entirely on traditional reasoning.
• Hoarseness and loss of voice. Texts group LI18 with points for the voice box, and its name refers to the laryngeal prominence. No controlled trials test this. Sudden or lasting voice loss needs a doctor, not a pressure point.
• Cough and wheeze. Listed in classical indications alongside throat conditions. There is no human research showing acupressure here changes cough frequency, breathlessness or lung function.
• Neck lumps and swellings. Older texts list goitre (an enlarged thyroid) and scrofula (tubercular neck glands). These are historical disease categories. A lump in the neck today is a reason for medical assessment, and pressing on one is a bad idea.
• Hiccups. Mentioned in some point lists, probably because of the vagus nerve's course through this region. Hiccup remedies involving the neck have no good trial support, and deliberately stimulating the vagus nerve at home is not something we recommend.
• Surgical use of the region. During the acupuncture-anaesthesia period in China, needling in the LI18 and nearby area was described during thyroid and neck operations. Those were uncontrolled reports by surgical teams, and they describe needling under medical supervision. They say nothing about self-applied pressure.

Taken together: tradition is consistent about throat and voice, and modern evidence is silent. Someone presenting LI18 as a proven throat treatment is going well past what anyone actually knows.

Are there tips for using LI18 effectively?

• Treat safety as the technique. With most points, technique means finding the right depth of pressure. Here, it means confirming you are off the artery and keeping the touch feather-light. Get that right and you have done the important part.
• Pick a calm moment. Use it seated, relaxed and well hydrated. Dehydration, standing up quickly, alcohol and skipped meals all make fainting more likely, and this point adds to that risk rather than offsetting it.
• Keep sessions short and spaced out. A few seconds of contact, then release. There is no reason to believe longer holding does more, and every reason to think it raises the risk.
• Consider a safer substitute. For throat and voice complaints, LU7 above the wrist crease and LI4 in the web of the hand share the same traditional territory with none of the neck hazards. Many practitioners reach for those first.
• Notice what tradition is actually claiming. Classical indications describe comfort and symptom easing, not cure. Reading them that way keeps your expectations in step with what the tradition itself says.
• Track honestly. If you do try it, note the day, what you felt, and whether anything shifted. Throat irritation often settles by itself within days, so without notes you will credit the point for ordinary recovery.
• Skip it on other people. You cannot feel their pulse under their skin the way they can, you cannot judge their pressure tolerance, and you will not know if they have carotid disease. Self-pressure only.
• Tell your practitioner. If you see an acupuncturist or physiotherapist, mention that you have been pressing a neck point. They may simply redirect you somewhere safer and more useful.

What do people get wrong with LI18?

• Pressing on the pulse. The commonest and most dangerous error. The carotid artery runs right through this zone, and firm pressure on the carotid sinus can slow the heart and cause fainting. Always check for a beat before you press.
• Working both sides at once. Symmetrical pressing feels natural and is exactly wrong on the neck. Never apply pressure to both sides together.
• Using deep, digging pressure. People transfer shoulder-rub habits to the neck. The structures here are soft, shallow and important. Firm pressure is not more effective, just more risky.
• Confusing it with ST32. ST32 is also spelled Futu in English and sits on the front of the thigh. Videos sometimes mix them up. If an instruction tells you to find Futu on your leg, that is not LI18.
• Landing on the front of the throat. LI18 is on the side of the neck, not the midline. Pressing the windpipe or voice box directly is uncomfortable and pointless.
• Pressing on a lump. A swollen gland, a thyroid nodule or any new neck lump should be looked at by a doctor and left alone in the meantime. Massaging it is not treatment.
• Expecting a cure. No acupressure point cures a throat infection, a vocal cord problem, asthma or a thyroid condition. Expecting one delays the care that actually works.
• Carrying on through warning signs. Dizziness or a fluttering heartbeat is not the point "working". It is a signal to stop and not return to this point.
• Using it as a vagus nerve hack. Online content frames neck pressure as nervous system tuning. Deliberate vagus stimulation at home can trigger fainting and is not something to experiment with.

What does the research on LI18 actually say?

We found no controlled human trials testing finger pressure at LI18 for sore throat, hoarseness, cough, hiccups or anything else. That is the plain answer, and it is the same answer for most individual acupuncture points.

The one body of material that comes up is historical. During the acupuncture-anaesthesia period in China, roughly the 1960s to 1970s, surgical teams published descriptions of needling points in the LI18 and nearby neck region during thyroid and other neck operations. These were uncontrolled reports, written by the teams performing the surgery, with no blinding and no comparison group. They also describe needling by clinicians in an operating theatre, under drugs and monitoring, which has no bearing on what a reader can do with a fingertip at home.

Beyond that, LI18 sometimes appears inside multi-point protocols in broader acupuncture studies on neck or throat complaints. When a point is one of six or eight used together, a trial cannot tell you what that single point contributed. So even a positive result in such a study is not evidence for LI18 specifically.

Acupressure research in general has real limits that apply here. Trials tend to be small, short, and impossible to blind properly, because participants know when someone is pressing on them. Expectation and attention both shift how people rate symptoms. Throat irritation and hoarseness also settle on their own in most cases, which makes before-and-after reports unreliable.

What this means for you: treat LI18 as a traditional point with no demonstrated effect. It may be harmless when used lightly and briefly by a healthy person on one side. It is not a treatment, and given the carotid artery underneath, it is one of the few points where the risk side of the ledger is not merely theoretical.