History
All systems of acupuncture began originally in China with the Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine compiled in 500 B.C. In this text, the six yang meridians wereB.C. connected to the auricle of the ear. Whereas the six yin meridians were indirectly connected to the ear by its corresponding yang meridian. These ancient Chinese ear acupuncture points were scattered over the auricle of the ear. Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome between 500 B.C. and 100 A.D.. had recorded clinical uses of earring's and other forms of ear stimulation for various problems particularly in the treatment of sexual and menstrual disorders which Hypocrite's and Galen recorded. After the fall of Rome approximately 200 A.D.. ancient medical records were found in Persia where the medical treatment for sciatic pain was cauterization on the ear.
From 1500-1700 the Dutch East Indian Company, while merchant trading in China brought many Chinese acupuncture procedures back to Europe including the use of ear acupuncture. It was the Dutch East Indian Company that saw acupuncture being used in the orient where medicine was placed next to the needle site and they then developed the Western hypodermic needle from Chinese acupuncture needles. Sporadic clinical reports in Europe were discussed with the use of ear cauterization to relieve sciatic pain.
Then in 1957, Dr. Paul Nogier, a physician from Lyon, France observed the occurrence of scars on the ears of a patient who were successfully treated for sciatic pain by French lay practitioners. Dr. Nogier then developed a somatatopic map of the ear based upon the inverted fetus concept. His work was first presented in France and then published by a German acupuncture society and then finally translated into Chinese. In 1958, a massive study was initialed by Nanking Army Ear acupuncture research team which verified the clinical accuracy of Dr. Nogier's inverted man concept of the little man on the ear. During the cultural revolution, the "barefoot doctors" were taught the easy techniques of ear acupuncture to bring healthcare to the Chinese masses.
In 1980, a double blind experimentally controlled research study at UCLA Pain Management Center department of anesthesiology UCLA School of Medicine conducted a research study by Richard J. Kroeuning M.D., Ph.D and Terry D. Oleson Ph.D. This study reported in PAIN verified the scientific accuracy of auricular diagnosis. There is a statistically significant level of 75% accuracy achieved in diagnosing musculoskeletal pain problems in 40 pain patients. Specific areas of height and tenderness and increased electrical activity on the ear predicted specific areas of the body where some pain or dysfunction would be identified whereas the body free of pathology corresponded to non-active points on the ear.
Research that followed throughout the United States utilized both the Chinese and the French Auricular acupuncture points for the treatment of chronic pain problems and the withdrawal from narcotic, alcohol and nicotine. International meetings of the World National Organization in 1990 culminated in a standardization of names of auricular anatomy in location of ear reflex points.
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