The bladder is called the 'Minister of the Reservoir' and is responsible for storing and excreting the urinary waste fluids passed down from the kidneys. As an organ the bladder has only this function, but as an energy system the bladder is intimately related to the functions and balance of the autonomous nervous system. That's because the bladder energy meridian runs along the back of the body from head to heal, with two parallel branches flowing along each side of the spinal column. These four branches of the bladder meridian exert a direct influence on the sympathetic and parasympathetic trunks of the autonomous nervous system, whose condition of modern life, over activates the sympathetic system, causing tension and pain along the spine and its periphery. This tension and pain may be relieved by stimulating the flow of energy along the spinal branches of the bladder meridian. Such stimulation induces total relaxation by switching the autonomous nervous system over to the restful, restorative parasympathetic mode. Chinese massage therapy focuses primarily on these four spinal branches of the bladder meridian because of their direct influence over the autonomous nervous system, which regulates all the body's basic vital functions.