Auricular Medicine

What is it? how does it work? and is it right for you?

What is auricular medicine?

To begin I would just like to clarify that I am not an acupuncturist nor have I had training in Traditional Chinese Medicine. I am a practitioner of auricular medicine, and while we use many of the same tools, (needles, microcurrent electrostimulation, lasers,) what we do is not "acupuncture" in the traditional sense.

Auricular medicine also referred to as "German auricular medicine" was discovered in the 1950s by a French medical doctor named Paul Nogier. Doctor Nogier began noticing a scar on the ears of a number of patients, when he asked about the scar he was told that a woman in one of the villages had been taught by her grandfather, a technique to fix lower back pain, she would heat a pin until red hot and then burn a specific point on the ear. and It worked! every person that received the treatment reported that their back pain was gone.

This piqued Dr. Nogiers interest, he began to think "if there's a lower back point there should be a neck point and if there's a neck point there should be a liver point." having been trained in acupuncture he was aware that there were acupuncture points on the ears but the Chinese had only a handful of points on their maps, and those were primarily supportive and not used alone as a treatment method, there may have been a system using only the ears within Chinese medicine acupuncture at some point in the past but if there was it has either been lost or completely discarded. Doctor Nogier was not going to let this discovery go, he began to study everything he could find on the subject but ultimately couldn't find a concrete system of medicine using the ears, so he decided he would create one. This is the birth of auricular medicine, over the years he would continue to work diligently on his system of auricular medicine mapping points and treatment methods, eventually being joined by his son Dr. Raphael Nogier, and began to take on students like German doctors Frank R.Bahr and Dr. Beate Strittmatter. who would go on to write the first practice manuals and create the first school for auricular medicine in Germany.

How it woks.

Auricular medicine is a form of neuro modulation, what that means is we aren't treating the body part itself but rather the brains idea of the body part. when there is a problem the brain itself projects the point onto the ear kind of like a call for help. Auricular points aren't always active, just because you have an elbow doesn't mean you have an active elbow point, if you hurt your elbow the reflex point for the elbow will become active, this makes auricular medicine not only an amazing tool for healing but an amazing assessment tool as well. Dr Nogier discovered that active points have increased electrical conductivity so practitioners can use electronic devices like the pointoselect that has a pin in the center surrounded by a ring, this device measures the difference in conductivity of the point compared to the tissue around the point and assigns the point a numerical value from 0-16 the lower the number the more active the point, allowing the practitioner to prioritize and treat only the most important points, while there may be ten to twenty active points on the ear treating all of them in one session would be overwhelming to the brain resulting in a complete lock out and shut down so we generally only treat the most active and most important points at a maximum only eight points will be treated in one session. A trained practitioner can also use the Vascular Autonomic Signal (VAS) to find and treat points. The VAS is an incontrollable response of the autonomic nervous system that takes place when any new information is introduced to the body either internally or peripherally, the practitioner monitors the radial pulse of the patient while introducing new information to the body a change in the pulse indicates an active point, additionally the practitioner can introduce substances and frequencies to the body while monitoring the VAS to further prioritize points, uncover links and blockages to healing.

" I've tried EVERYTHING "

Overcoming obstacles to healing.

Another unique aspect of auricular medicine is the ability to detect and clear focus activity. In 1925 brother Doctors Ferdinand and Walter Huenke, developed a technique called neural therapy while trying to cure their sisters migraine headaches, they tried everything they knew and weren't able to rid her of her affliction. on one particular occasion they happened to notice her absentmindedly scratching at a scar on her arm, they thought maybe it has something to do with her migraines, its unlikely but why not try we've tried everything else, so they injected the scar with procaine, a surgical numbing agent, and to their surprise her migraine stopped immediately. This approach while not the most practical is still used today by some doctors. What is now known is that old injuries, traumas, dental work, and surgeries, can cause problems years down the road. Basically what happens is the injury doesn't heal properly, it heals but the cells in that area don't repolarize properly, they never get the message to stop healing they keep sending out signals calling for help, calling for more nutrients, more white blood cells, the brain loves patterns it loves repetition so the brain gets caught in this infinite loop. Initially this isn't that much of a problem, but as time goes on that old injury is still getting a lot of attention and energy is being focused on that spot, as more injuries occur there is less energy and fewer nutrients available to heal those illnesses and injuries, it takes longer and longer for the body to heal and the immune system is being drained by an injury that no longer needs all of that attention, this is called a FOCUS. Its kind of like running too many programs on your computer at the same time, eventually the cpu just says enough and locks up, you can turn your computer off and then back on and that usually fixes the problem but you can't do that with your body. A focus or in pleural foci (foseye) can prevent your body from absorbing essential nutrients, it can weaken the immune system, it can prevent proper healing and can rob a person of their ability to live a productive life. Dr Nogier took the work of the brothers Huenke and built on it developing a system to identify focus activity and clear the message allowing the body to return to a state of homeostasis. This is seldom a one and done treatment, it can take weeks and even months to identify and treat all of the foci present, symptom points have to be treated first in order to clear the symptoms caused by the foci in order to ensure complete healing and then the foci can be treated ensuring complete healing and relief from all the symptoms and conditions attached to the foci. While it does take time this aspect of auricular medicine gives hope to the suffering that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel.

Auricular medicine can also be used as a support treatment on your journey of:

Weight loss
Addiction recovery
Smoking cessation
Anxiety
Stress reduction

Is it right for you?

If you have ears the answer is yes. Thousands of people have turned to auricular medicine when everything else has failed and found relief. Today auricular medicine is at the forefront of holistic medicine with more studies being done and more tools being introduced. Today practitioners are not just using needles they are using microcurrent electronic stimulation devices, lasers, and ear seeds, ear seeds are being used by TCM practitioners, Chiropractors, Naturopaths, and even MDs because they allow treatment to continue for days after the patient leaves the office. The use of microcurrent and lasers also allows practitioners to use specific frequencies in their treatments, which increases the effectiveness of the treatment.