Acupuncture is widely-known as a method of treating pain and chronic disorders by positioning needles in prescribed points of the body. One of the subsets of acupuncture is auricular acupuncture which uses acupoints found on the ear instead of using the points along the back and limbs used by other schools of acupuncture.

Why the Ear?

Over the course of centuries, acupoints have been pinpointed and assigned according to the type of relief of they are supposed to afford. The ear lobe, or auricle, has the highest density of acupoints. This is in spite of the fact that the auricle does not have any important nerves or blood vessels. It has been noted by practitioners of both Eastern and Western medicine that the shape of the ear lobe is related to wellness throughout the body. Malformations of the ear lobe can indicate any number of syndromes and pediatric textbook say that an anomaly of the ear lobe requires a search for other physical problems.

Eastern medicine takes the connection one step further. It indicates that the shape of the ear resembles the shape of a late term fetus. The auricular acupoints correspond to the parts of the body of the corresponding fetus. For example, auricular acupuncture assigns the ear lobe to the head since a person waiting to be born is in the head down position. The auricular acupuncture points for tonsils, throat, sinuses and so forth are all in the ear lobe. Moving up the ear and the body, major organs are found in the well of the ear and helpful points for the lower limbs are at the top of the ear.

The theory behind auricular acupuncture is that the hundreds of points on the ear, when treated with a needle or electro acupunctoscopes trigger the healing electrical impulses from the ear through the brain to the connected part of the body. Auricular acupuncture treats most chronic problems with a rate of success near 100 per cent. Pain such as back ache, migraine, sciatica, tendonitis, tennis elbow as well as conditions like anxiety, asthma, depression, smoking addition, obesity, hiatus hernia, and hey fever are within the treatment range of auricular acupuncture.

The auricular acupuncture theory of ear shape is different from theories of chi flow and the balance of yin and yang of other schools of acupuncture. For the sufferer who is considering acupuncture, the important consideration is the skill and experience of the auricular acupuncture practitioner.