Introduction

Ear acupuncture is an effective method for treating acute and chronic diseases without producing side effects. It therefore represents one of the most important complementary additions to conventional medicine today. Its main indication is certainly the treatment of pain, but a number of functional, organic, and mental disorders may be treated as well. Fortunately, this applies also to a number of diseases for which conventional medicine still has no cures to offer, for example, migraine and hay fever.

The origins of ear acupuncture can be traced back to the 4th century BC when Hippocrates tried to cure impotence by bloodletting at the ear. It is also known that pain has been treated in ancient Egypt by means of ear points. Throughout the centuries we find notes on similar treatments. The best-known document in the European region is certainly the painting “The Garden of Lust” by Hieronymus Bosch (17th century) which shows the Sciatica Point being pierced by a needle. A second needle held by the Satan pricks the two points known as External Genitals Point and Libido Point.

Ear acupuncture enjoyed a certain popularity also in China, but it fell into oblivion during the last centuries. Approximately 20 anterior and posterior ear points were known during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The procedure then probably spread to Persia, Africa, India, and the Mediterranean area.

However, there is no evidence that a comprehensive reflex system on the auricle, complete with representations of the entire body, existed. We owe it to the French physician Paul Nogier that ear acupuncture has been rediscovered and that this happened in a way that provided astonishing opportunities for both diagnosis and therapy.

Nogier has been able to demonstrate that all organs of the body are represented as reflex zones on the outer ear (auricula or auricle).

The history of this rediscovery is as exciting as the entire therapeutic method itself. Around 1950, Nogier discovered in some of his patients certain scars at a specific site on the ear. The patients told him that they had been “treated” for back pain by applying a red-hot needle to this site of the ear, with the result that the pain disappeared. We owe it to Nogier’s unreserved objectivity that he followed up on this phenomenon and studied it. He was able to reproduce the phenomenon successfully and interpreted the site on the ear as reflex localization L5/S1.

Shortly thereafter he realized that, apart from this body area, all other sites or organs of the body must be projected on the ear. He also discovered how to demonstrate these sites: they showed an increased sensitivity to pressure if the corresponding region of the body was diseased. Subsequently, he recognized that active ear acupuncture points—those reflex points that indicate a pathological change in the body or are produced on the ear by such a pathology—have changed electrically (reduced resistance and increased conductance of the skin). This allows for objective measurements that are independent of the patient (electrical point finders with a double-ring electrode).

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