There’s some decent evidence behind just one of these seven pressure points. Cochrane published a systematic review of it, looking at 77 studies including 9,847 people. There is less, or in some cases no, evidence supporting the other six.
Start with the one that could hurt you
Point CV17 is in the middle of the breastbone, and it is commonly recommended for tightness in the chest. Tightness in your chest is never helped by pressing on it with your fingertips. Tightness in the chest is a symptom of a heart attack, particularly if coupled with any other symptoms such as pain traveling into the arm or jaw, sudden nausea or breathlessness, all symptoms the NHS advises warrant an emergency call for help. So the person having the heart attack wastes 30 seconds pressing on their breastbone instead of calling 911, where every second could count.
1. P6 (Neiguan) — the one with real evidence
Real evidence, for nausea
There’s modest evidence that acupressure at this acupoint may help with some kinds of nausea. A 2025-updated review by Cochrane, an evidence-based medical research group, found that acupoint stimulation may reduce the number of people who experience nausea (by about a third) and vomiting (by about 40%) after surgery, compared with sham (fake) stimulation. It may also reduce the number of people who need rescue anti-sickness medications.
However, Cochrane researchers had low confidence in most of these results, due to imprecision and inconsistencies in findings and issues with how the underlying studies were done.
Most studies included in the Cochrane review evaluated acupuncture or wristbands that stimulated the acupoint; not whether applying acupressure with a thumb would work.
Separately, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute describes a 2007 study that evaluated the effect of acupressure at this acupoint, applied with a thumb, on more than 160 women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer. Researchers found no evidence it helped acute (right after treatment) chemotherapy-induced nausea, but it did significantly help some women with delayed-onset (starting day two) nausea.
Despite what you may have been told, research does not show acupressure or wristbands with magnets are helpful for motion sickness, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
How to apply acupressure here: Memorial Sloan Kettering suggests applying acupressure at this point several times a day, until symptoms ease. Turn your hand so your palm is facing up. Place your opposite thumb between the two large tendons, about three fingers from your wrist, and massage in small circles with firm (but not painful) pressure, for two-to-three minutes. Repeat on the other side. (Don’t just give it a poke and think you’re done! Thirty seconds is nowhere near long enough!)
2. LI4 (Hegu) — plausible neighborhood, almost no direct testing
Evidence is for needles · Avoid in pregnancy
According to NCCIH, there’s some evidence of moderate quality that acupuncture can decrease the frequency of migraines and evidence of moderate to low quality that acupuncture may be helpful for tension headaches. So of the conditions listed above, headache is in the realm of plausibility, although not in the way it is commonly described. That NCCIH evidence is about acupuncture rather than acupressure, which involves needles inserted into multiple points and administered by a practitioner over multiple treatments. A literature search turns up a couple (not a mountain) of studies of just this point LI4. So while you may get some temporary relief, toothache and face pain have even less support. This is one of the two pregnancy points.
3. SP6 (Sanyinjiao) — this one is commonly placed wrong
Location wrong · Avoid in pregnancy
The location isn’t correct either. This point is about four finger widths above the tip of the inner ankle bone, just behind the back edge of the shin bone, on the lower leg. Not the “foot inner arch,” as it is commonly labeled. Press there and you’ll be several inches away from the point. That’s no rounding error.
This is also the second pregnancy point. This point is commonly recommended for insomnia, anxiety and menstrual cramps. Luckily, period pain is the one of those that has any studies. Unfortunately, a Cochrane review of the subject found there wasn’t enough evidence to say if it does or does not work: There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate the effects of acupuncture or acupressure for primary dysmenorrhea … The quality of evidence ranged from very low to low in the studies. Not to say acupuncture/acupressure doesn’t work, just that the evidence doesn’t currently say it does or does not.
4. GB20 (Fengchi) — the migraine evidence isn’t about pressing it yourself
Evidence is for needles
GB20 is in the hollow underneath the base of your skull, between the two big prominent muscles in the back of the neck. Pressing here is a common self-massage spot, but no evidence shows that doing it yourself relieves a tight neck: the research behind this point is for multi-point acupuncture delivered by a practitioner. But it is commonly recommended for migraine, neck tension and congestion.
There is some valid NCCIH evidence (using GB20 along with many other points, and using acupuncture needles) of decreased frequency of migraines, but that’s a far cry from what’s stated here!
5. CV17 (Danzhong) — the one to skip
Chest tightness needs emergency care
This came up earlier, and it’s worth repeating. There’s no scientific research to back up the assertions about the pressure point, and its main claim to fame is a symptom that requires medical attention rather than a thumb. You can’t measure grief, and chest tightness requires evaluation.
6. Yintang (the “third eye”) — pleasant, unstudied
Anxiety only, small trials
GV24.5 (this designation is actually informal, as in most classification schemes, it is considered an “extra” point not actually part of the governing vessel point sequence) is located midway between the eyebrows. It is commonly recommended for mental clarity, stress and sinus pressure. Anxiety is the one of those that has actually been looked at. A handful of small trials, most of them in people waiting for surgery, found reductions in self-reported anxiety after pressure or needling here, including a randomized trial in 60 women before a cesarean. That trial pressed this point and HT7 together against a sham point, so whatever benefit it found belongs to the two-point combination rather than to Yintang on its own — which is the same problem this article returns to below. Mental clarity and sinus pressure have nothing comparable behind them. Still, rubbing between your eyebrows is low-risk for most people, and many find it to be a calming sensation. Low-risk is not no-risk: minor skin irritation is possible, and the cautions further down about pressing on damaged or inflamed skin apply here too.
7. SP9 (Yinlingquan) — and a symptom worth taking seriously
Persistent swelling needs a clinician
Water retention should be cause for concern! If you frequently have swollen legs it could be a symptom of problems with your heart, kidneys or liver, so should be seen by a clinician, not massaged with your thumb. And certainly not one for a thirty-second fix.
SP9: In the dip on the inside of the leg just under the knee (under the bony bit at the top of your shin). This one is commonly placed correctly. Indications are water retention (see above!), bloating and knee pain. There is no evidence that pressing SP9 helps knee pain, and no basis for calling it plausible either: the knee evidence that exists is for courses of practitioner-delivered acupuncture in osteoarthritis, which is a different intervention.
Why one point and one symptom is the wrong unit
Except in the case of P6, one point matched to one symptom isn’t a simplification of what was done in the research – it’s something entirely different. Nearly all acupuncture/acupressure research involves testing an acupressure/acupuncture protocol – a combination of points, administered by a practitioner, over the course of more than one treatment. Aside from P6, very little research has tested a lay person pressing on an area on her own body for thirty seconds. P6 is the exception because someone thought of the idea for a pressure wristband centered around that one acupoint. Which made P6 much cheaper and simpler to study – it’s much easier to make a sham version of a pressure band for the control group, for instance, or to be sure the intervention is being applied in the same way each time – which is why P6 has such a body of evidence behind it that the other six acupoints just don’t. So when you read “moderate-quality evidence for migraine,” you should envision multiple acupuncture needles being placed in multiple acupoints on the body by a trained practitioner – not standing at home and pressing behind your ear.
The warning for pregnancy
There’s one caveat in acupressure that has traditionally been mentioned, that LI4 and SP6 shouldn’t be stimulated by pregnant women because they’re the pair traditionally reached for when someone is trying to bring on labor. A Cochrane review of 22 trials (involving 3,456 pregnant women) found moderate to high-quality evidence that acupuncture/acupressure does not decrease the cesarean rate, with no clear benefit for bringing on labor, so although the evidence behind the efficacy of these points is probably a little folkloric/weak, there’s no harm in heeding the advice (and as mentioned, it’s pretty widespread in the acupressure world), and SP6 is commonly recommended for menstrual cramps, which puts it in front of readers who may well be pregnant.
Acupressure for sleep: the one place the numbers look decent
Acupressure may help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. The evidence is the best of anything on this page, and it is still not conclusive. Acupuncture research is often criticized for inadequate blinding, and participant blinding is frequently absent in acupressure trials, which raises the risk of bias. It is not impossible, though: sham-controlled designs exist precisely to blind participants, and seven of the trials in the review below used one.
So, while the results for using acupressure to improve insomnia are promising, they’re not yet conclusive. Still, of all the conditions studied in relation to acupressure, insomnia (along with nausea) has the largest number of trials, making it possible to run a meta-analysis. A 2018 review in Sleep Medicine Reviews searched ten English and five Chinese databases and found 32 high- and moderate-quality RCTs that used polysomnography, an actigraphy watch, or a questionnaire to measure sleep improvement. In a meta-analysis of 13 studies (968 participants, all adults) that used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a commonly used measure of sleep quality, the acupressure group did significantly better than the control group.
When limited to only the seven studies (385 participants) with a sham control group, acupressure improved PSQI score by 3.4 points, which the authors estimated to equate to an improvement in sleep quality of 13 to 19 percent. The heterogeneity between studies was very low, meaning the results were very similar across studies. Subgroup analysis found that the PSQI factors that improved the most were time to fall asleep and total sleep time. No side effects were reported in any of the studies. Keep in mind, however, that most studies used the HT7 point (in the wrist crease, directly below the pinky), which isn’t one of the points covered above, and applied 3 to 5 kilograms of pressure for 1 to 5 minutes per point, three to seven times a week for three to four weeks, not just a 30-second press.
P6 for morning sickness: a different answer than for surgery
The P6 evidence at the top of this article is about nausea after surgery, and it’s tempting to assume that it might also work for morning sickness. A 2015 Cochrane review included 41 trials (5,449 women) looking at various types of treatment (acupuncture, P6 acupressure, ear acupressure, electrical stimulation of P6, ginger, vitamin B6, chamomile, lemon and mint oils, prescription anti-nausea medication, etc.) for nausea and vomiting during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. Evidence for P6 acupressure, electrical stimulation of P6 and ear acupressure is limited.
For acupuncture, either at P6 or using the traditional set of acupuncture points, no significant benefit was found. Ginger may help, but evidence is limited and inconsistent, although three recent studies did find it better than placebo. Limited trial evidence was also found for vitamin B6 and anti-nausea medication for mild to moderate symptoms. Same point, different group of people, different answer: evidence for an acupoint is evidence for one use of it.
A P6 band is low-risk rather than risk-free. Minor skin effects — irritation, redness, blistering — are reported with sustained pressure on a point, and Cochrane rates its confidence in those side-effect findings as very low. Safety data in pregnancy specifically are limited. It may help some people. But it’s not something that the results from 41 clinical trials could back up.
The pregnancy points, used on purpose: acupressure in labor
LI4 and SP6 are the two points this article says to avoid in pregnancy, because tradition holds that they bring on contractions. The same tradition means they have been tested, on purpose, for pain once labor has started. A 2020 Cochrane review summarizes 28 randomized controlled trials (13 acupuncture and 15 acupressure studies) involving 3,960 women in labor. According to the reviewers none of the included studies were at low risk of bias in all domains.
Compared with a sham, acupressure lowered pain scores by about 2 points on a 10-point scale (six studies, 472 women), but the reviewers rated the certainty very low, meaning the true effect could be quite different. Compared with usual care it showed a similar drop (eight studies, 620 women), again at very low certainty.
There was moderate certainty evidence from two studies that acupressure may decrease pain slightly when compared with a combined control group (usual care and sham combined). Acupressure probably results in fewer women having a cesarean section (risk ratio 0.44) compared with sham acupressure (four studies with 313 participants). However, the reviewers were keen to point out that this finding needs confirming in larger, well-run trials before anyone should believe a pressure point cuts cesareans in half. The reviewers also found no evidence to suggest that acupressure has an effect on the use of pain medication in labor.
If you want to try one anyway
Before moving on, there are some guidelines that Memorial Sloan Kettering provides. They are written for P6 specifically, in a handout about nausea, rather than for every point — but they are reasonable general cautions. They include not pressing points if the skin over or near a point is blistered, peeling or broken (open wound) or if the points appear to be red, swollen, warm, purulent or rashy. In addition, pregnant women are commonly advised to avoid pressing LI4 and SP6; that advice comes from elsewhere, not from the MSK handout. Pressure should be firm but never painful. Acupressure should complement but not supplant medical treatment. Aside from that, acupressure is generally low-risk when those cautions are followed, though adverse effects are incompletely reported in the trial literature and minor side effects do occur. There’s a decent amount of evidence for point P6 for post-surgical nausea. So, playing around with a point, just to see what happens, seems like a reasonable choice.
When to stop pressing and get help
See a health professional if the symptom continues or returns or has not gone away after several days. Get urgent advice if you are vomiting repeatedly and cannot keep down fluids. Get emergency care if you vomit blood, or material that looks like coffee grounds, or have sudden, severe abdominal pain. The same goes for sudden nausea arriving alongside a tight or heavy feeling in the chest, arm or jaw pain, or trouble breathing, because that combination can mean a heart attack. If you think you’re having a heart attack, call 911 (if you are in the US) or your local emergency number. That last one is the symptom CV17 is recommended for.
Martha ‘Marti’ Jones founded Fitness Four after three decades of living with IBS, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and pernicious anemia.
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