Ear acupoints are also dynamic

The third experience occurred when using ear acupoints in a treatment. At first, he applied the treatment according to the theory regarding the set positions and indications of the several dozen ear acupoints. For example, selecting ‘throat’ and ‘tonsil’ points for needling in the treatment of acute tonsillitis, which will obtain a certain treatment effect.

On one occasion he encountered a patient with acute tonsillitis for whom this treatment did not work. In a new approach, he tried searching for sensitive points in the outer ear by applying pressure with a matchstick, and after choosing 2-3 points, pressed about 100 times on each point. The patient immediately felt a reduction in the pain in his throat, and after continuing this treatment once every 5 hours or so, the inflammation was quickly brought under control, the redness and swelling of the tonsils went away, and 4 days later the patient had basically recovered.

After this experience, no matter the type of disease pattern, if the treatment was to include ear acupoints he would use this method, and the results consistently out performed using ‘static points’ on the ear. He realized that using dynamic points on the ear was also highly clinically significant, and at the same time it saved a lot of unnecessary time and energy spent in memorizing and locating points. This experience also strengthened his suspicions about the practicality and scientific nature of the pre-existing ear point theory*.

*see《对‘穴标’和耳穴的思考》中医药通报 2007年6月 第6卷 第3期