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Studies Support The Use Of Auriculotherapy, Auricular Acupuncture, And Acupuncture In The Treatment Of Addictions
Dr. Paul Nogier’s original work led to the discovery of what we now know as auriculotherapy. This type of treatment is not the same as ear acupuncture or auricular acupuncture. While auricular acupuncture uses needles stuck among a rigid number of so-called acupuncture points, auriculotherapy neither uses fixed points nor does it require the use of needles. The points used in auriculotherapy points are generated by the stimulation of three cervical ganglia and four cranial nerves. Those are clearly not acupoints.
In auriculotherapy, the practitioner makes use of a pen-shaped FDA class 11 medical device to:
1. Find the location of an auriculotherapy point
2. Evaluate the located point, and
3. Heal the point if it is deemed to be pathologic
Characterized as the identification and treatment of the ear’s neurological points by stimulation of micro-currents, auriculotherapy is a painless procedure in which each point is treated for 30 seconds using a small manual device shaped like a pen. Treatment involves both ears for ten minutes five days a week for about four years. Needles used in auricular acupuncture are inserted in the skin where they remain for 40 minutes to an hour or so.
Medical Studies Supporting Auriculotherapy and Acupuncture
Several studies have been done since the 70’s and 80’s to find out whether auriculotherapy and acupuncture was effective in the treatment of substance addiction. An online MEDLINE search revealed more than 9,770 studies were done that dealt with the use of all forms of acupuncture for SUD including smoking behavior, binge eating, stimulant abuse, heroin addiction, and alcoholism. Most of the findings were derived from the most palpable uses of acupuncture: in the relief of ailments and pain related to opiate addiction.
Numerous studies in 1977 done by Wen in favor of acupuncture revealed substantial alleviation of withdrawal symptoms within 15 minutes at the onset of treatment. A year after, during the interval, follow up treatment led by Schuckit showed that 51 of the subjects haven’t used drugs. Oieson and Kroening discovered in 1985 that the sharp decrease of narcotic withdrawal was a success, with 85 percent of the subjects withdrawing with minimum side effects within five days to a week. The literature recently shows numerous studies favoring auriculotherapy, auricular acupuncture, , or acupuncture that includes cocaine addiction, alcohol addiction, and smoking addiction using the five point NADA protocol established and approved by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association.
The comments from patients have been extremely positive. Some of these comments include among others: “Now actually sleeping,” “Headache is cured,” “No more violent mood swings,” “Feeling good from within,” “Feel calmer now,” “Feel less stress,” “Restored my natural energy,” “Lessened my craving for alcohol, “Even though I was clean I never once stopped craving drugs prior to acupuncture,” “I’ve stopped the craving since acupuncture,” “This was the quickest I kicked heroin,” and “A change in attitude.”
Drug court counselors state, “These people are becoming more balanced physically, mentally, and emotionally and for my patients, acupuncture in Walla Walla has led to amazing results.”
Clinical Trials Prove Auricular Acupuncture Can Help People Lose Weight
What if you could melt away the pounds, burn fat, and lessen your BMI or body mass index by merely activating a few acupuncture points on your ear? According to a published study in the British Medical Journal, that process of losing weight is possible and that simple.
While people have been performing auricular acupuncture for thousands of years, this research is of certain interest due to the fact that scientists may have pinpointed the exact mechanisms for weight loss.
Healing with Auricular Acupuncture
Ear acupuncture or auricular acupuncture works by stimulating some of the pressure points on the auricle to treat certain mental and physical maladies. Being an alternative form of treatment, auricular acupuncture is frequently utilized to address more than a hundred fifty conditions including the problems of obesity, mood disorders, and pain. In resolving nicotine and smoking addictions, its rate of success is about 75 to 80 percent. It has a similar high chance of success when it comes to weight loss.
Sixty years ago, after discovering that the back pain of a patient got cured when his ear got burned accidentally, French doctor and acupuncturist Paul Nogier published a chart of auricular acupuncture points he named Nogier’s map. He also published an ear map of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is still used today by modern acupressure practitioners and acupuncturists to activate pressure points in the outer ear. These healers use ear magnets, pellets, lasers, and manual stimulation to stimulate acupoints.
Your Auricle: A Great Way to Lose Weight
When it comes to losing weight, auricular acupuncture in Overland Park is clearly the way to go as gleaned by Korean researchers who proved whether constant stimulation of five acupoints was much better than constant stimulation of just one acupoint. They classified 90 obese individuals, who had a BMI of 24 and above into three groups:
Thirty of those individuals were given the Five-point treatment – This involved sticking acupuncture needles 2 mm deep into five points: the endocrine, hunger, stomach, spleen and shenmen points. For a week, the needles remained in the points using a surgical tape. A week after the same treatment was administered this time on the other ear which was continued alternately on each ear for eight weeks.
Thirty people were treated with the one-point therapy: one acupuncture needle was inserted in the hunger acupoint. The needle remained in place for a week and then relocated to the other ear a week after. Two weeks after treatment shifted to the other ear and so on and so forth for eight weeks.
Thirty people were treated with fake acupuncture: Upon insertion researchers removed immediately the needles while telling the subjects that the needles remained stuck in their ears with a surgical tape.
The subjects from each group followed a therapeutic diet and not a weight loss diet. During the eight weeks they were in treatment, they were advised to not do any exercise than normal.
At the onset, middle, and end phase of the trial, the subjects’ blood pressure, body fat, waist circumference, weight, and BMI were measured. Four weeks after, the outcomes were compelling and clear in favor of auricular acupuncture:
1. A 6.1 percent decrease in BMI for subjects given the Five -point treatment.
2. Subjects who were treated with the one-point therapy experienced a 5.7 percent decrease.
3. The group treated with sham acupuncture did not show a decrease in their weight, body fat, or BMI.
4. There was a decrease in body fat and waist circumference in the group given the Five-point treatment.
Regardless of type of treatment, the blood pressure of all the subjects remained the same.
At the end of the trial, the researchers stated: “In the short term, one-needle treatment at the hunger point and the five-needle acupuncture therapy widely used in clinics in Korea seemed to work well in lowering body weight.”
People can use auricular acupuncture without the need for needles. They can also heal themselves using just a gentle touch of their fingertips.