Healthy Living: Auricular therapy

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 person can be alleviated by stimulation of the surface of the ear using either your fingers or tiny seeds. Similar mappings are used by several modalities, including the practices of reflexology,shiatsu, meridian therapy and iridology.

Ear seeds are a form of auriculotherapy in which acupressure is applied to pressure points located in the ear to treat a variety of conditions. The concept of auriculotherapy was pioneered in the 1950s by Dr. Paul Nogier, a French physician. He wrote a piece describing how points in the ear were connected to the nervous system, according to research published in 2018 in the journal Medical Acupuncture.

Various points in the ear represent different parts of the body's anatomy and the patient's psyche, including its traumas, according to research published in 2019 in Medical Acupuncture.

Without puncturing the skin, ear seeds provide stimulation to those pressure points. Wearing ear seeds, people can receive low-level continuous stimulation to associated reflex points.

So, you can either massage your ears or add to the intensity of the stimulation by applying light pressure to the ear bead several times a day. Applying light pressure further activates the treatment provided by the beads. So, if you place a bead on a pressure point aimed at reducing headaches, for instance, it may help manage the pain during a flare-up.