Resolving Unsuccessful Ear Acupuncture by Treating Focus Obstacles: A Review of the Advantages of European Ear Acupuncture

摘要

Introduction: Sometimes it is important to recapitulate the fundamental basics of European ear acupuncture. Standard protocols from an auriculotherapeutic manual are not always sufficient to treat patients successfully. If a treatment shows little or no effect, it is unlikely to fail because a patient does not believe in it. Acupuncture works in animals. It is not a placebo. However, there are obstacles to diagnosis and treatment, so-called foci, which impede the effect of an otherwise good acupuncture treatment. Those blockages to healing, as Strittmatter has described them, prevent improvement by any treatment, be it by conventional biomedicine or complementary medicine. Therefore, there is no patient, no living being, that does not respond to acupuncture; however, some patients have foci that are too strong or too numerous. Every human being is as unhealthy as the number of his or her foci. Objective: This article shows how to remove obstacles to diagnosis and treatment and at the same time how to improve the results.Methods: This article discusses the three pillars of European ear acupuncture according to Nogier/Bahr: (1) the somatotopy; (2) the vascular autonomous signal or Nogier reflex; and (3) the focus theory. Conclusions: Integration of these three pillars of European ear acupuncture into whatever methods that are usually applied to help patients is recommended.