Pain Therapy

Possibilities and Limitations of Ear Acupuncture

In ancient Egypt, physical pain with identifiable causes was differentiated from pains of unknown genesis. The latter were attributed to supernatural forces or to ghosts. Magical numbers among other things (e.g. the number 7) were applied to counteract such inexplicable pains. In the case of headaches, a string with seven knots and other magical objects was tied around the head. And then the pain went away – or it remained as the case may be.

Hippocrates (around 400 B.C.) considered pain to be an attribute of the soul. He treated pain as a problem that could be managed through logic and rational thinking.

Galen (Galenus, Roman physician in the first century A.D.) assigned endogenous (inner) pains to faulty composition of body juices.

Descartes (around 1580) concluded that pain resulted from body and soul functioning independently of each other, and pain was thus reduced to purely physical symptoms.

Last but not least, the Christian ethic of suffering defines pain as being God-inflicted. Pain means redemption of body and soul.

Contemporary school medicine again refers to pain of unknown origin or genesis (the so-called “pain disease”). Pains without identifiable cause? Spirits? Are we back to the state of knowledge of the old Egyptians?

When viewed from the perspective of TCM and contemporary naturopathy, pain is due to lack of energy flow. This understanding has now been valid for over 2,000 years. Pain manifests itself because too little energy reaches a given area in the body which is then undernourished energetically; or vice versa, too much energy is received, thus causing blockage. Thus in general terms, pain is a signal symptomatic of disturbance in body areas.

Our patients experience pain as a complex, sensory perception of varying qualities and quantities, e.g. as strong, light, tearing, throbbing, burning, jerking, etc. Pain may occur suddenly after being struck physically for example, or it may become chronic after we have “dragged” it along for quite some time.

Basic causes of pain that are generally well known include the following:

• Localised structural lesions (for example, being hit on the knee) resulting in a contusion or wound-pain;
• Functional disturbances which lead to headaches, aching joints, etc. and are always accompanied by metabolic problems, either as causative or resulting factors;
• Emotional/socio-psychological events which may impact the system (for example as back pains – cave: According to Chinese teaching, personal and unattended social problems manifest themselves in the spinal area!).

Some people have difficulty perceiving such inter-connectedness. Many persons find it difficult to acknowledge the fact that pain is often caused by fields of disorder.

To quote the tenets of the Huneke Brothers (neural therapy):

• Every chronic illness can be caused by fields of disorder!
• A sphere of disorder can develop in any area of the body!

This means that every scar, each fractured bone (even one healed long ago), every chronic inflammation (for example, those originating from the teeth, frontal sinuses, tonsils or others that may have resulted from vaccinations) can become spheres of disturbance leading to system irritation. In short, areas of disorder can cause disease which involves pain.

For example: Stomach pains that had existed for years vanished after “flooding” scars which had remained on the stomach meridian after a leg operation. Scars remaining after Caesarean sections or other operations on the womb lead to disturbances of sexual behaviour (frigidity) in women if scar tissues should harden. Another example: Tooth foci represent serious fields of disturbance. According to Professor Bucek, about 90 per cent of the population has at least one tooth-related focus which often results from root-canal treatments or other dental incursions. Chronic diseases then evolve such as rheumatism, circulatory problems and neuralgia according to Professor Bucek. In other words, not only the immune system is affected, but the nervous system and the energy system as well.

In my opinion (my convictions stem from daily practice and from the TCM teachings previously mentioned), pain is never an accidental symptom but rather an integral and essential component of existing illnesses. Whether causes can then be recognized becomes a question of the observer’s own personal range of knowledge.

An additional and objective condition comes into play at this point which is nevertheless seldom discussed. Unregulated disorders that have existed in the body for longer periods of time are accepted by our system at some point in time as being systemic, (for example, a pain that we have been suppressing for some time – an Indian knows no pain, right?!). The system now behaves as though the pain were an integral part of itself. Not only is the pain no longer managed, but on the contrary the system begins to defend the pain similar to other vital elements that provide for normal bodily functioning.

• All chronic pains are so-called ‘adopted relatives’. One gets used to their presence and finds it difficult to get rid of them.

As far as pains are concerned, this means that they may well be suppressed with any given pain killer and treated as a ‘pain disease’. However, the system itself can only be healed when the pain is treated as being symptomatic of an organic disorder. It will vanish by itself when the functional agent has been removed (i.e. elimination of the actual cause of pain).

Several options exist to ease and heal pains from a naturopathy standpoint (for example phyto-therapy, acupuncture and homeopathy). All are based upon implementing acute stimuli that prompt both movement and flow within the system.

Ear acupuncture has proven to be especially effective in this context.

Functional pains can be influenced, eased and often completely removed through ear treatment. These range from traumatic pain (e.g. after accidents) through neuralgia, headaches of any type and genesis, sciatic pain, amputations and phantom pain, pain occurring from rheumatic attacks or Claudicatio intermittens, Herpes zoster etc. etc. etc.

Examples:

• When a person once asked whether ear acupuncture was worthwhile, I asked in return whether he possibly had some minor pain which I would then remove immediately with ear acupuncture. Such a demonstration would be more convincing and would limit excessive talking. He did have a pain - in his elbow. I placed a needle at the point reflecting the elbow and the pain disappeared instantly!
• During a course at Koetzingen hospital, a patient was presented with ‘post-herpes zoster pain’ that had been tormenting her for over nine years. She confirmed that after just one treatment, 80 per cent of the pain had disappeared.

Ear acupuncture is also incredibly valuable for treating all conditions having to do with the central nervous system: fear, agoraphobia, obsession, concentration deficiencies, nausea, stammering, etc. These are just a few examples of a long list of indications that can be effectively treated. The treatment of addictions is especially important in this respect. Various withdrawal programmes designed to treat alcohol and drug or medication addictions, or for smoking withdrawal, or for obesity control coupled with food craving allow the therapist to directly confront the individual situation of an addicted person.

Treatment basically starts with a causal approach (work ray, correspondence points, etc.) where localized pain treatment incorporating additional organ points is complementary in nature, or in acute situations (accidents, etc.)  where the pain is treated directly, i.e. organo-trophically at the respective representation of the pain in the ear. Even pseudo-acute situations, (i.e. situations in which disturbances manifest acutely, similar to a sciatic attack, yet are not entirely caused by an acute event), require an organo-trophic approach as a first step. Causal factors should then be included in the treatment regimen at a later point.

A fellow healing practitioner whom I know had 1) a permanent toothache and septic jaw and 2) an insurmountable fear of dentists. For a long time she ‘needled the pain away’ until necrosis of the jaw developed and the poor woman required surgery.

One advantage of ear acupuncture is that treatment results are immediately verifiable. The patient can actually report what is happening. “The pain in my forehead is gone,” he might say, “but now the top of my skull is hurting.” Thereupon, the therapist can place an additional needle at the reflection point on top of the skull.

Of course limits do exist as in any discipline. In the case of irreversible organic damages and/or lack of energy, only limited success is possible utilizing energy-regulating therapy. One interesting observation is that a conspicuous lack of energy can be detected when patients come for treatment immediately after ingesting a rich meal.