History of auricular acupuncture

Auricular therapy, treating the ear, has, and still is, used in different cultures all over the globe. It was widely used in traditional Chinese folk medicine, in the form of massaging and kneading of the ear, and pricking the apex of the ear to cause bleeding.

Examples of these treatments, have been recorded since the first written books on acupuncture, over two thousand years ago, and have also been found in many different societies throughout history, including Ancient Egypt, Greece, and India.

Interestingly the most popular uses were for treatment of sciatica, by cauterisation, or as a contraceptive tool. Auricular therapy has two very clear and distinctive roots, French and Chinese.

As a complete system, auricular acupuncture is quite recent, only starting in the 1950s in Europe, and later in China. From the 1970s it spread from Hong Kong to the rest of the world.