By Staff Writer - February, 3rd 2014

Auricular acupuncture was first used in France in 1956 by Dr. Paul Nogier. He noticed that patients' backache was cured when they received a burn on the ear. Intrigued, he started mapping the ear, pinpointing the spots that correlate to various organs or systems in the body.

Natural Health News — A new study shows that ear acupuncture can help shed the pounds.

What’s more, the small study published online in Acupuncture in Medicine found that using continuous stimulation of five acupuncture points may be better at reducing abdominal fat  than single point stimulation.

Auricular acupuncture therapy is based on the understanding that the outer ear represents all parts of the body. It was first used in France in 1956 by Dr Paul Nogier who noticed that a patient’s back-ache was cured after s/he sustained a burn on the ear.

Since then the approach has been used to treat drug addiction and help people give up smoking and lose weight.

The Korean researchers compared acupuncture of five points on the outer ear: shen-men (divine gate); spleen, stomach, hunger, and endocrine – and on just one point (hunger) – with sham treatment on 91 overweight adults (BMI of 23 or more).

Participants were asked …

It is important to note that ear acupuncture treatments must be administered by a qualified acupuncturist. For the best results, these treatments should be combined with a reduced calorie diet and appropriate physical exercise. The critical point to be made here is that acupuncture should be viewed as a support system not a sole modality.

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