Auriculotherapy | |
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Alternative therapy |
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Auriculotherapy (also auricular therapy, ear acupuncture , and auriculoacupuncture) is a form of alternative medicine based on the idea that the ear is a micro system and an external organ, which reflects the entire body, represented on the auricle, the outer portion of the ear. Conditions affecting the physical, mental or emotional health of the patient are assumed to be treatable by stimulation of the surface of the ear exclusively. Similar mappings are used by several modalities, including the practices of reflexology and iridology. These mappings are not based on or supported by any Western medical or scientific evidence, and are therefore considered to be pseudoscience. [1] [2] [3] [4]
French neurologist Paul Nogier invented auriculotherapy in 1957. [5] [6] Nogier developed a phrenological method of projection of a fetal Homunculus on the ear and published what he called the "Vascular Autonomic Signal" which measured a change in the amplitude of the pulse. [6] That mechanism would only produce a signal upon the introduction of new information to the electromagnetic field of the patient. [6] Nogier cited a 'principle of matching resonance' which he could use the vascular autonomic signal to detect the active points of the auricular microsystem. [6]
Nogier's Auricular acupuncture was introduced to China in 1958. [7] [8]
A variation of auriculotherapy called "ear stapling" involves the long-term insertion of a medical staple in the conchal bowl of the ear. [9] Advocates variously claim that the procedure aids in losing weight, stopping smoking, and managing stress. [10]
In 2001 Richard Niemtzow developed a procedure he called "battlefield acupuncture", in an attempt to research more efficient relief for phantom limb pain and chronic pain for veterans. [3] [11] Battlefield Acupuncture involves placing gold aiguille semi-permanent needles at up to five sites in the ears. In 2018, the United States Department of Defense, the Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management, and the Veterans Health Administration National Pain Management Program office completed a 3-year, $5.4 million acupuncture education and training program, which trained over 2800 providers in Battlefield Acupuncture. [12] Retired U.S. Air Force flight surgeon Harriet Hall characterized the Department of Defense's use of acupuncture and auriculotherapy as an embarrassing "infiltration of quackery into military medicine", a waste of tax dollars, and a potential harm to patients. [13]
The principles of auriculotherapy are contrary to known anatomy and physiology of the human body. [14] According to Nogier, the relevant structures include: [15]
Nogier claims that various points located on the ear lobe are related to the head, and facial region, those on the scapha are related to the upper limbs, those on the antihelix and antihelix crura to the trunk and lower limbs and those in the concha are related to the internal organs. [15]
"Auricular acupuncture therapy is an important part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which is ascribed to a kind of micro-needle system. It has been considered to be a valuable asset in the treasure house of Chinese medicine". [16] There are many Chinese medical classics that have the inclusion of Auricular points to tread illness as defined by Chinese medical theory. But it was not until the French neurologist Paul Nogier systematically referenced and chartered the points of the ear in the late 1950's, was this form of treatment extensively researched, developed and practiced as its own modality in East Asia and in the West.
A controlled crossover study of 36 patients failed to find any difference in two experiments. The study concluded that auriculotherapy is not an effective therapeutic procedure for chronic pain. [17]
The first experiment compared the effects of stimulation of auriculotherapy points versus control points. [17] A second experiment compared the stimulation of these points with a placebo control of no-stimulation. [17] Using the McGill Pain Questionnaire, pain was not decreased at the points compared to the controls. Patients' reports of pain relief after auriculotherapy are due to placebo effects. [17]
Also, during electrical stimulation, patients sometimes reported new pain in an unrelated part of the body. [17] These referred sensations reinforce the pain relief produced by the placebo effect and may be part of the reason why the belief in auriculotherapy persists. [17]
Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientific knowledge, and it has been characterized as quackery.
Acupressure is an alternative medicine technique often used in conjunction with acupuncture or reflexology. It is based on the concept of life energy, which flows through "meridians" in the body. In treatment, physical pressure is applied to acupuncture points, or ashi trigger points, with the aim of clearing blockages in these meridians. Pressure may be applied by hand, by elbow, or with various devices.
The outer ear, external ear, or auris externa is the external part of the ear, which consists of the auricle and the ear canal. It gathers sound energy and focuses it on the eardrum.
Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy which consists of burning dried mugwort on particular points on the body. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Mongolia. Suppliers usually age the mugwort and grind it up to a fluff; practitioners burn the fluff or process it further into a cigar-shaped stick. They can use it indirectly, with acupuncture needles, or burn it on the patient's skin.
Pain management is an aspect of medicine and health care involving relief of pain in various dimensions, from acute and simple to chronic and challenging. Most physicians and other health professionals provide some pain control in the normal course of their practice, and for the more complex instances of pain, they also call on additional help from a specific medical specialty devoted to pain, which is called pain medicine.
The auricle or auricula is the visible part of the ear that is outside the head. It is also called the pinna, a term that is used more in zoology.
Tui na is form of alternative medicine similar to shiatsu. As a branch of traditional Chinese medicine, it is often used in conjunction with acupuncture, moxibustion, fire cupping, Chinese herbalism, tai chi or other Chinese internal martial arts, and qigong.
Cauliflower ear is an irreversible condition that occurs when the external portion of the ear is hit and develops a blood clot or other collection of fluid under the perichondrium. This separates the cartilage from the overlying perichondrium that supplies its nutrients, causing it to die and resulting in the formation of fibrous tissue in the overlying skin. As a result, the outer ear becomes permanently swollen and deformed, resembling a cauliflower, hence the name.
Otoplasty denotes the surgical and non-surgical procedures for correcting the deformities and defects of the pinna, and for reconstructing a defective, or deformed, or absent external ear, consequent to congenital conditions and trauma. The otoplastic surgeon corrects the defect or deformity by creating an external ear that is of natural proportions, contour, and appearance, usually achieved by the reshaping, the moving, and the augmenting of the cartilaginous support framework of the pinna. Moreover, the occurrence of congenital ear deformities occasionally overlaps with other medical conditions.
Ear pain, also known as earache or otalgia, is pain in the ear. Primary ear pain is pain that originates from the ear. Secondary ear pain is a type of referred pain, meaning that the source of the pain differs from the location where the pain is felt.
The auricular branch of the vagus nerve is often termed the Alderman's nerve or Arnold's nerve. The latter name is an eponym for Friedrich Arnold. The auricular branch of the vagus nerve supplies sensory innervation to the skin of the ear canal, tragus, and auricle.
The superior ganglion of the vagus nerve, (jugular ganglion) is a sensory ganglion of the peripheral nervous system. It is located within the jugular foramen, where the vagus nerve exits the skull. It is smaller than and proximal to the inferior ganglion of the vagus nerve.
Dry needling, also known as trigger point dry needling and intramuscular stimulation, is a treatment technique used by various healthcare practitioners, including physical therapists, physicians, and chiropractors, among others. Acupuncturists usually maintain that dry needling is adapted from acupuncture, but others consider dry needling as a variation of trigger point injections. It involves the use of either solid filiform needles or hollow-core hypodermic needles for therapy of muscle pain, including pain related to myofascial pain syndrome. Dry needling is mainly used to treat myofascial trigger points, but it is also used to target connective tissue, neural ailments, and muscular ailments. The American Physical Therapy Association defines dry needling as a technique used to treat dysfunction of skeletal muscle and connective tissue, minimize pain, and improve or regulate structural or functional damage.
The anterior auricular branches of the superficial temporal artery are distributed to the anterior portion of the auricula, the lobule, and part of the external meatus, anastomosing with the posterior auricular. They supply the external acoustic meatus and the visible part of the ear.
Macrotia refers to an ear that is larger than would be expected. The normal auricular axis length is 58–62 mm (2.3–2.4 in) among females and 62–66 mm (2.4–2.6 in) among males. The average width of an adult ear, specifically the distance between the helix root and the posterior auricle, is between 30 and 40 mm.
An accessory auricle is considered a developmental anomaly resulting from the persistence of a structure which variably recapitulates the normal external ear.
The German acupuncture trials were a series of nationwide acupuncture trials set up in 2001 and published in 2006 on behalf of several German statutory health insurance companies because of a dispute as to the usefulness of acupuncture. They consisted of one observational study on acupuncture side effects, and four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating acupuncture treatment for low back pain, knee osteoarthritis, migraine prophylaxis, and tension-type headache. The trials are considered to be one of the largest clinical studies in the field of acupuncture.
The Mustardé technique is an otoplastic surgery (otoplasty) for pinning protruding ears. The method belongs together with the Stenström and Converse methods to the traditional otoplasties. It is antihelix plastic surgery performed with the suturing technique.
Vitaly Napadow is a Ukrainian-born American neuroscientist and acupuncturist. He is a full professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Radiology at Harvard Medical School. He is also the Director of the Scott Schoen and Nancy Adams Discovery Center for Recovery from Chronic Pain at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Director of the Center for Integrative Pain NeuroImaging at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a former president of the Society for Acupuncture Research. He has been a pain neuroimaging researcher for more than 20 years. Somatosensory, cognitive, and affective factors all influence the malleable experience of chronic pain, and Dr. Napadow’s Lab has applied human functional and structural neuroimaging to localize and suggest mechanisms by which different brain circuitries modulate pain perception. Dr. Napadow’s neuroimaging research also aims to better understand how non-pharmacological therapies, from acupuncture and transcutaneous neuromodulation to cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness meditation training, ameliorate aversive perceptual states such as pain. In fact, his early career was known for researching acupuncture and its effects on the brain. He has also researched the brain circuitry underlying nausea and itch. He is also known for developing a novel approach in applying measures of resting state brain connectivity as potential biomarkers for spontaneous clinical pain in chronic pain disorders such as fibromyalgia.
Paul Nogier was a French neurologist and physician who invented auriculotherapy", a version of acupuncture, which is a pseudoscientific practice.