Daheng

What is SP15?

SP15, or Daheng, is a Spleen-channel point on the side of the abdomen, level with the navel and about four thumb-widths out.

Its Chinese name, Daheng, is usually translated as "Great Horizontal", a reference to the horizontal line it sits on across the belly. In classical and modern Chinese medicine it belongs to the group of abdominal points used for the bowels, and it is most often linked with constipation, loose stools, cramping and a heavy, bloated feeling in the belly.

Two things are worth being clear about before you read the rest of this page. First, a long traditional record is not evidence that a point does what it is said to do. Second, that record is not evidence that it is safe for you, because the people who wrote it were not thinking about your hernia repair, your pregnancy or your blood thinner. Both of those points apply to everything below, and we will not repeat them in every section.

The honest verdict on the evidence: there is no human research that tests SP15 on its own, and almost none that tests finger pressure on it. SP15 does appear inside multi-point acupuncture prescriptions studied for constipation and for weight management, but those studies used needles, tested whole formulas, and were mostly small and unblinded. Nothing in them tells you what pressing this one spot with your thumb will do.

What finger pressure here plausibly offers is what gentle, warm abdominal pressure generally offers: muscle relaxation, slower breathing, and a sense of the belly settling. That is a modest and real thing, and it is not a treatment for a diagnosed bowel condition. Use SP15 as a comfort measure alongside the basics that do have evidence behind them, such as fibre, fluid, movement and the medication your doctor has prescribed.

Where is SP15 and how do you find it?

SP15 sits on the side of the belly, level with the navel, about four thumb-widths out from it, near the outer edge of the firm abdominal muscle.

• Start at the navel. Put one fingertip in the centre of your belly button. Everything that follows stays on that same horizontal line, so do not drift up or down.
• Measure outwards. Traditional texts place SP15 four cun to the side of the navel. One cun is roughly the width of your own thumb at the knuckle, so measure four thumb-widths sideways. In most adults that lands about 10 cm (4 inches) from the centre.
• Feel for the muscle edge. Lift your head slightly off the bed and the vertical slab of muscle down the front of your belly tightens. SP15 lies just beyond its outer border, on the softer flank, not on the hard ridge itself.
• Sink in gently. Relax, breathe out, and let your fingers settle. The point usually feels like a slightly softer, sometimes tender area that gives under light pressure.
• Do both sides. SP15 is a paired point. There is one on the left and one on the right, mirrored across the navel.

A very common mix-up is with ST25 (Tianshu), which is on the same horizontal line but only two thumb-widths from the navel, directly on the muscle. SP15 is the further-out one. If your scale is different from average, trust the muscle edge landmark over the centimetre figure.

If you cannot find a distinct spot, that is normal and nothing is wrong. Abdominal points are broad areas rather than pinpoints, and gentle pressure anywhere across that small zone is what self-care looks like in practice.

How do you apply pressure to SP15?

1. Get comfortable first. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat, or sit back in a chair. A relaxed belly wall lets you work with light pressure instead of forcing through tense muscle.
2. Warm your hands. Rub your palms together for a few seconds. Cold fingers on the abdomen make people brace, which defeats the purpose.
3. Use flat finger pads. Place the pads of two or three fingers over SP15, roughly four thumb-widths out from the navel. Never use a fingernail, a knuckle or a hard tool on the belly.
4. Press gently and straight in. Aim for about 3 to 5 out of 10 on a discomfort scale, where 10 is pain. You want a firm, settled pressure, not a dig. The abdomen has no bone underneath to protect the organs, so it needs less force than a hand or foot point.
5. Breathe out as you press. Sink slightly on each exhale and ease off on each inhale. Many people find the breathing does as much as the pressure.
6. Hold or circle for one to two minutes. Either hold steady or make slow, small circles that move the skin rather than sliding over it. Then repeat on the other side.
7. Repeat up to two or three times a day. Short, regular sessions are more sensible than one long, hard one.

Stop straight away if the pressure causes sharp pain, if you feel a pulsing lump under your fingers, if you feel sick, or if the tenderness lingers after you lift your hand. Leave at least an hour after a large meal, as pressing a full stomach is simply uncomfortable.

This page describes self-applied finger pressure only. Nothing here involves needles, heat applied to the skin, cupping or anything that breaks the skin, and none of that should be attempted at home.

What is SP15 traditionally used for?

• Constipation and sluggish bowels. This is the classic use of SP15, and it is the one most consistently listed across textbooks. Human evidence for the point alone is absent. SP15 does appear in needling formulas tested for functional constipation, but those trials tested whole prescriptions, not this point, and not finger pressure.
• Loose stools and diarrhoea. Tradition uses SP15 for both ends of the bowel spectrum, on the idea that it regulates rather than pushes in one direction. There is no controlled human research supporting that for this point.
• Cramping and abdominal pain. Gentle pressure and warmth over a cramping belly often feels better, and that much is uncontroversial. Whether the relief comes from the specific location of SP15 has never been tested against a nearby dummy spot.
• Bloating and abdominal fullness. In traditional terms this is "damp" accumulating in the middle. In plain terms, people report that slow abdominal pressure with breathing eases a tight, full feeling. That is self-reported comfort, not a measured change in gas or transit time.
• Weight and waistline claims. SP15 shows up in abdominal acupuncture protocols studied for simple obesity, and videos often repeat this as a "fat burning point". The honest position is that those studies used needles or electroacupuncture with many points, diet advice and short follow-up. There is no evidence that pressing SP15 with your fingers reduces body fat.
• Period cramps. Some practitioners use lower abdominal points, including SP15, for menstrual pain. Evidence for acupressure in period pain exists in general, but it mostly concerns points on the legs and lower back, not SP15.

Across all of these, the pattern is the same. SP15 has a solid place in tradition and almost no research that isolates it. Treat it as a comfort technique, and expect small, short-lived effects at most.

Are there tips for using SP15 effectively?

• Relax the belly wall first. Knees bent, head supported, a few slow breaths out. A tense abdomen resists pressure, so you end up pushing harder for a worse result.
• Let the breath do the work. Press lightly on the out-breath and release on the in-breath. Slow breathing on its own calms the gut and is probably the most reliable part of the whole routine.
• Work both sides evenly. SP15 is paired. Give the left and the right the same time rather than favouring whichever side feels tender.
• Add warmth, not heat. A warm palm or a covered hot water bottle held over the area afterwards is pleasant and safe. Never use anything that could burn the skin, and never anything involving smoke, fire or skin-breaking.
• Pick a consistent time. For bowel-related use, many people prefer the morning or about twenty minutes after breakfast, when the gut is naturally more active. Consistency matters more than the exact hour.
• Keep the real basics in place. Fibre, fluids, walking and any prescribed medication are the things with actual evidence behind them for constipation. Acupressure sits on top of those, never in place of them.
• Keep a simple two-week note. Record bowel pattern, bloating and comfort before and after. If nothing has shifted in two weeks, this point is not doing much for you and that is useful to know.
• Stop at discomfort, not after it. Tenderness that fades as you press is fine. Tenderness that sharpens is your signal to lift your hand.

One more practical point: if your belly is tender all over rather than at one small spot, that is a reason to see a doctor rather than a reason to press harder.

What do people get wrong with SP15?

• Expecting a cure. SP15 will not cure constipation, irritable bowel syndrome (a long-term gut condition) or obesity. Anyone promising that is selling something. Expect modest, temporary comfort at best.
• Confusing it with ST25. ST25 (Tianshu) sits two thumb-widths from the navel, right on the abdominal muscle. SP15 is four thumb-widths out, past the muscle's outer edge. Most online diagrams that label SP15 are actually showing ST25.
• Drifting off the navel line. People slide up towards the ribs or down towards the hip bone. SP15 stays on the horizontal line level with the belly button.
• Digging in with a knuckle or tool. The abdomen has no bone shielding the organs. Hard, pointed pressure here can bruise and achieves nothing extra. Flat finger pads, moderate force.
• Pressing over a scar, hernia or bulge. If you feel a lump, a soft bulge that appears when you cough, or a surgical scar at the spot, leave it alone and ask a doctor.
• Working on a full stomach. Pressing straight after a meal is uncomfortable and may bring on reflux or nausea. Wait about an hour.
• Using it to postpone a diagnosis. New, severe or changing abdominal symptoms need a medical opinion. Acupressure is not a way to wait and see.
• Quitting after one go, or never quitting. One session proves nothing. Equally, grinding away for months with no change is not persistence, it is just habit. Two weeks is a fair trial.

The underlying error behind most of these is treating a traditional point as if it were a prescribed treatment. It is a self-care technique with a long history and thin evidence, and it should be used with those expectations.

What does the research on SP15 actually say?

There is no published human trial that tests SP15 on its own, and we could find none that tests finger pressure on SP15 for any condition. That is the main finding, and it should shape how you read everything else about this point.

What does exist is indirect. SP15 appears as one component in multi-point acupuncture prescriptions that have been studied for functional constipation and for simple obesity, usually in Chinese trials and often using electroacupuncture rather than plain needling. Systematic reviews of acupuncture for constipation generally report modest short-term improvements in stool frequency, while noting small sample sizes, weak blinding and inconsistent sham controls. None of that evidence can be attributed to SP15 specifically, because the point was never tested separately from the rest of the formula.

A second indirect strand is abdominal massage. Trials in nursing and rehabilitation settings have tested broad abdominal massage for constipation, including in people with spinal cord injury and in residents of care homes, and have found small benefits in bowel frequency and comfort. Those studies used whole-abdomen massage along the line of the colon, not acupressure on a named point. They suggest that gentle, repeated abdominal pressure is reasonably safe and mildly helpful, which is a weaker and more honest claim than anything made for SP15 itself.

Two practical takeaways. First, the needling trials describe what researchers did in a clinic and are not a model for home use, which is finger pressure only. Second, where studies combined acupuncture with diet advice, exercise or laxatives, the extra ingredients could easily explain the result.

If you see a video citing "studies proving" SP15 burns fat or clears constipation, assume it is referring to one of these multi-point needling trials and has overstated it considerably. The grade here is insufficient, meaning not disproven, but genuinely untested.