Could placing a tiny needle in your earlobe help relieve an eye disorder?
Auriculotherapy, a type of acupuncture focused on the ear, is based on the belief that the interconnected systems of the body can be treated by stimulating specific points on the ear.
Auriculotherapy — or ear acupuncture — is an alternative medicine practice that involves placing tiny needles in very specific places in the outer ear (auricle). The placement of the needles is intended to stimulate different parts of the body and help relieve a variety of health conditions.
Acupuncture — including auriculotherapy — is based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which holds that “qi” (life force or energy) flows throughout the body, connecting certain points along “meridians”. When an acupuncture needle is placed in a certain spot, it is intended to stimulate another point along the meridian that is experiencing a problem, helping to treat the issue.
In the 1950s, French physician Paul Nogier conducted groundbreaking research on the practice and gave it the name “auriculotherapy”. His work was based on knowledge of TCM but also integrated examples of historic European treatments that were focused on the ears and expanded with new discoveries. Today, auriculotherapy incorporates the work of Nogier and his colleagues, TCM principles and practices, and ongoing research into the ways the ears are connected (via nerves or other pathways) to other parts of the body.
Despite being concentrated in a small part of the body, there are as many as 200 ear acupuncture points. Needles (or ear seeds — learn more in the next section) may be placed in a single point or in combinations to treat various aspects of a person’s condition. The acupuncture points of the ear relate to the rest of the body in an interesting way — many practitioners point to the example of an upside-down person to illustrate the connections. For example, the lobe of the ear is related to the head, the central part is related to various internal organs, and the upper part of the ear is related to the legs and feet.
Auriculotherapy practitioners memorize these points and, in their training, learn how they interrelate. When you talk to a practitioner about your symptoms, they can make an assessment about which points need to be included in your therapy.
Auriculotherapy is a complex practice that needs to be performed by trained practitioners to ensure safety. You may find auriculotherapy services at Traditional Chinese Medicine practices, acupuncturists, chiropractic offices or alternative medicine centers. Miracle-Ear does not perform auriculotherapy services.
Before getting started, you’ll meet with a practitioner to talk about the issues and symptoms you’re experiencing and your goals for the auriculotherapy. Once the practitioner determines the plan, you’ll start treatment, likely over the course of multiple sessions. In a session, the practitioner will clean your outer ear and then proceed to place either needles or ear seeds to stimulate the ear acupuncture points. Depending on your specific treatment, you may need to rest in the office with the needles in place, or be sent home with ear seeds in place.
Read more about the differences between ear seeds and needles for auriculotherapy/ear acupuncture below.
In acupuncture, ear seeds are small adhesive stickers with a “seed” at the center that are placed to put pressure on various points. The stickers might have a literal seed on them (from the Vaccaria hispanica plant, also known as cowherb or cowcockle), or a small metal or ceramic pellet. Patients are sent home with the ear seeds in place and advised to gently massage the ear seeds.
Ear seeds-style acupuncture does not pierce the skin in the same way an acupuncture needle does, which some people may prefer. However, some ear seed treatments involve small needles that stay in the skin until they are removed at a later appointment or fall out.
Ear acupuncture side effects are generally recognized as mild and not long-lasting.1 The most commonly reported side effects of ear acupuncture among patients include: soreness at the needle site, dizziness, bleeding at the needle site, nausea, headache and irritation at the needle site.
Risks are also relatively low, but could include infection. Studies show that this is more likely with the type of ear seeds that use a needle that stays in the ear for a longer period of time.2
Both auriculotherapy3 and acupuncture4 have been and continue to be scientifically studied to explain their effects — but it is not fully accepted as scientifically proven at present. The results of studies vary, but some findings do point to acupuncture’s effectiveness as a therapy for certain conditions, including back or neck pain, osteoarthritis, sciatica, migraines and more.5
Talk to a doctor who has a full understanding of your health conditions before starting acupuncture or auriculotherapy treatments.
A number of conditions show benefits, either scientifically or anecdotally, from auriculotherapy, including:
More studies are ongoing, exploring the potential that auriculotherapy might hold for treating other health issues. Let’s explore a few conditions for which research has shown promise.
1 Tan JY, Molassiotis A, Wang T, Suen LK. Adverse events of auricular therapy: a systematic review. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2014;2014:506758. doi: 10.1155/2014/506758. Epub 2014 Nov 10. PMID: 25435890; PMCID: PMC4241563.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4241563/.
2 Arya Nielsen, Sezelle Gereau, Heather Tick, Risks and Safety of Extended Auricular Therapy: A Review of Reviews and Case Reports of Adverse Events, Pain Medicine, Volume 21, Issue 6, June 2020, Pages 1276–1293, https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnz379 https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/21/6/1276/5840965.
3 Asher GN, Jonas DE, Coeytaux RR, Reilly AC, Loh YL, Motsinger-Reif AA, Winham SJ. Auriculotherapy for pain management: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Altern Complement Med. 2010 Oct;16(10):1097-108. doi: 10.1089/acm.2009.0451. PMID: 20954963; PMCID: PMC3110838. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3110838/.
4 Liu, S., Wang, Z., Su, Y. et al. A neuroanatomical basis for electroacupuncture to drive the vagal–adrenal axis. Nature 598, 641–645 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04001-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04001-4.
5 Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, Lewith G, MacPherson H, Foster NE, Sherman KJ, Witt CM, Linde K; Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration. Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2012 Oct 22;172(19):1444-53. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3654. PMID: 22965186; PMCID: PMC3658605. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3658605/.
6 Munhoz OL, Morais BX, Santos WMD, Paula CC, Magnago TSBS. Effectiveness of auriculotherapy for anxiety, stress or burnout in health professionals: a network meta-analysis. Rev Lat Am Enfermagem. 2022 Oct 17;30:e3708. doi: 10.1590/1518-8345.6219.3708. PMID: 36287403; PMCID: PMC9580986. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9580986/.
7 Yang LH, Duan PB, Hou QM, Du SZ, Sun JF, Mei SJ, Wang XQ. Efficacy of Auricular Acupressure for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:6383649. doi: 10.1155/2017/6383649. Epub 2017 Jul 18. PMID: 28804504; PMCID: PMC5539928.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5539928/.
8 Yang Y, Wen J, Hong J. The Effects of Auricular Therapy for Cancer Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 May 25;2020:1618767. doi: 10.1155/2020/1618767. PMID: 32565846; PMCID: PMC7267873.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7267873.
9 Deepika O, Mooventhan A, Mangaiarkarasi N, Manavalan N. Efficacy of Needling at Sympathetic Point (an Auricular Acupuncture Point) in Migraine Patients: A Randomized Controlled Study. J Acupunct Res 2024;41:115-120. https://doi.org/10.13045/jar.24.0006 https://www.e-jar.org/journal/view.html?uid=2614.
10 Heather C. King, Dennis L. Spence, Anita H. Hickey, Paul Sargent, Ronald Elesh, Cynthia D. Connelly, Auricular Acupuncture for Sleep Disturbance in Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Feasibility Study, Military Medicine, Volume 180, Issue 5, May 2015, Pages 582–590, https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00451 https://academic.oup.com/milmed/article-abstract/180/5/582/4161830.
11 Hyun S, Huh H, Kang NG. Effectiveness of auricular acupuncture combined with nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation. Tob Induc Dis. 2018 Sep 10;16:40. doi: 10.18332/tid/94328. PMID: 31516439; PMCID: PMC6661847 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6661847/.
12 Schlee W, Simoes J, Pryss R. Auricular Acupressure Combined with Self-Help Intervention for Treating Chronic Tinnitus: A Longitudinal Observational Study. J Clin Med. 2021 Sep 16;10(18):4201. doi: 10.3390/jcm10184201. PMID: 34575312; PMCID: PMC8466364 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8466364/.
13 Ito H, Yamada O, Kira Y, Tanaka T, Matsuoka R. The effects of auricular acupuncture on weight reduction and feeding-related cytokines: a pilot study. BMJ Open Gastroenterol. 2015 Feb 9;2(1):e000013. doi: 10.1136/bmjgast-2014-000013. PMID: 26462269; PMCID: PMC4599151. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4599151/.
14 Hou Z, Xu S, Li Q, Cai L, Wu W, Yu H, Chen H. The Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Cervical Vertigo: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:7597363. doi: 10.1155/2017/7597363. Epub 2017 May 9. PMID: 28659989; PMCID: PMC5474245. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28659989/.
