During an acupuncture treatment, the patient is treated with thin special needles that are inserted into the skin at specific points. These acupuncture points are located along certain lines, called meridians (pathways), which allow them to be associated with specific organs. The selection of the points and the type of needles (their size and weight) is the responsibility of the therapist. In addition to acupuncture treatment, which takes place in the doctor’s office – usually while lying down – small needles can also be applied with plasters in such a way that they can be worn for a longer period of time (permanent needles).
Stimulation by electrical currents
In addition, stimulation of the acupuncture point beyond simply inserting the needle is possible by rotating the needle or by electrical currents. The patient feels a dull heavy or warm sensation in the treated areas after a slight initial puncture pain, sometimes a kind of electrical tingling at the puncture sites.
Traditional or nonspecific acupuncture?
Pricking and warming/burning, this is roughly how the Chinese term zhen jiu can be translated into German. It probably stems from the fact that originally acupuncture was always performed together with moxibustion. But even when only “needling”, the patient almost always feels warmth after one of the acupuncture needles has been inserted. The initial slight pain usually disappears, but the warmth remains. To intensify the effect, doctors and alternative practitioners often heat, laser or sonicate the needles.
As a patient, you trust that the therapist knows exactly where to place the needles. This is still true. But studies show: it does not depend so much on the fact that correctly at certain points is pricked, an effect shows up also with “coincidental pricking”.
- According to traditional Chinese acupuncture, the body is crisscrossed by energy pathways, the meridians. Body qi – a form of life force or excitation, often referred to as vital energy – flows in these. At several points, these meridians open through the skin, at acupuncture points. By pricking with needles, the physician attempts to affect the flow of energy in the meridians and balance an excess or deficiency of qi. 361 acupuncture points are known, but only about half are pricked with needles.
- In nonspecific acupuncture – also called minimal acupuncture or sham acupuncture – the needles are not inserted directly into the skin at the relevant therapy points. In the study conducted by Techniker Krankenkasse, classical acupuncture was compared with non-specific acupuncture in a group of 900 patients. There were no differences for lower back pain and migraine, both variants helped. Similar results provide the studies also to the ear acupuncture.
Ear acupuncture
This special form of acupuncture is an independent method that also uses needles, but assumes that different regions of the ear are associated with certain organs of the body and ultimately so the whole body is projected onto the auricle. Since the more than 100 acupuncture points of the ear are very close to each other and are very sensitive, precise pricking with extra-thin needles is necessary.
Numerous doctors and trained alternative practitioners use ear acupuncture. In its current form is just 40 years old and goes back to the French doctor Dr. P. Nogier. But already in China in the 1st century B.C. about 20 acupuncture points on the auricle were mentioned for the first time. Hippocrates also knew individual reaction points on the auricle.
Ear acupuncture usually has a more intensive and faster effect than conventional acupuncture. It is used for acute diseases and as a pain therapy, as well as for addictions and mental disorders. However, internal and especially chronic diseases are more difficult to treat with ear acupuncture than with body acupuncture.
