Body of Research

Dr. Jihong Liu, MD, at the Preventative Treatment Center of the Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Foshan, China, et al. have studied the auricular stomach point of rabbits with acute and chronic gastritis to observe the changes in histological and ultrastructure of the auricular point against those in control groups. Results showed histological changes, including mast cells infiltration, hyperplasia of epidermis and dermis and loosed dense connective tissue, were observed in ...

The American Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launched a national initiative to train providers in Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA) treatment as a non-pharmacological approach to pain management, and performed a research project over a 2 year period (2016-2018) to evaluate its effectiveness on immediate pain relief. This project took place at 57 VHA medical centers in the United States. A total of 11,406 veterans were treated with BFA at least once, in some cases 3 times.  More than 75% expe...

In the context of an alarmingly high prevalence of albuminuria — rates indicating there will be 300 million diabetic patients in the year 2025 — this study assesses the effectiveness of simple, standardized protocol-based auricular acupressure for quality of life improvement in these patients with kidney disease. Results of this study indicated that auricular acupressure significantly helped patients with chronic kidney diseases to improve their quality of life outcomes.  Wang S, Chen Z,...

Beyond the use of needles, auricular treatments are applied using Low Level Laser. In a review article lead by Regina Round in conjunction with the Frank Bahr Research Group “Auriculomedicine and Pharmacopuncture,” scientific findings on auricular acupuncture with laser are described and critically discussed. Results of studies have shown evidence of the effect of auricular laser acupuncture. However, a comparison of these studies was impossible due to their different study designs. Details o...

Auricular stimulation has been applied for medical treatment for thousands of years, and became popularized on the developments of Dr. Paul Nogier, the “father” of auriculotherapy and auriculomedicine. In the present study, the relationship between the auricular acupuncture and the vagal regulation has been reviewed. It is shown that auricular acupuncture plays a role in vagal activity of autonomic functions of cardiovascular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems. Mechanism studies sugge...