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eCAM 2007 4(Supplement 1):13-16; doi:10.1093/ecam/nem106
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© 2007 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ear Acupuncture in European Traditional Medicine

Luigi Gori and Fabio Firenzuoli

Center of Natural Medicine, S. Giuseppe Hospital, Empoli, Italy

Auricular acupuncture is a diagnostic and treatment system based on normalizing the body's dysfunction through stimulation of definite points on the ear. Rudimentary forms of acupuncture which probably arose during the Stone Age have survived in many parts of the world right down to present day. It was used in the ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece and all the Mediterranean area. It is a microacupuncture technique similar to reflexology, and was first described in France in 1950 by Paul Nogier who is considered the Father of modern ear acupuncture. It was speculated that the technique works because groups of pluripotent cells contain information from the whole organism and create regional organization centers representing different parts of the body. Nevertheless stimulation of a reflex point in the ear seems relieve symptoms of distant pathologies. Modern research is confirming the efficacy of ear acupuncture for analgesia and anxiety related disease, while tobacco dependence and other substance abuse still need confirmation. Actually main methodological problems with auricular acupuncture are that exist too many maps with little agreement regarding point location in the ear, and that the correspondence or reflex systems does not correlated with modern knowledge of anatomy and physiology.

Keywords: auricolotherapy – ear acupuncture – Nogier – reflexology

For reprints and all correspondence: Luigi Gori, Service of Auricolotherapy, Center of Natural Medicine, S. Giuseppe Hospital, via Paladini, 40 – 50053 Empoli, Italy. Tel: +39-0571-702601; Fax: +39-0571-702639; E-mail: l.gori{at}usl11.toscana.it


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