History of auriculotherapie

Early traces of auriculotherapy go back to 3500 B.C. The knowledge of auriculotherapy was passed on orally, from master to pupil. In those days, auriculotherapy was mainly known for its potential to ease pain, to improve the state of mind, to enhance fertility and even to improve eyesight.

There are also traces of the use of auriculotherapy in old China, the time of Hippocrates, the age of the pirates, the painter Jerome Bosch, king Henry III (France) and many others.

In the 20th century, there was a major breakthrough under the impulse of the genius of the French doctor Paul Nogier. By coincidence he was able to observe patients who were treated succesfully for low backpain by a Ms.Barin Casalta, who was taught this technique by her father, a world traveller. Because of these observations, Dr.Nogier was able to draw up a cartography of points on the auricle. This map had the shape of an inversed foetus.

The inverted foetus

The inverted foetus, ingenious insight of Dr. Paul Nogier

This  period can be seen as the birth of modern auriculotherapy. The term AURICULOTHERAPY was given to the technique by Dr.Nogier himself in the years 1950.

But auriculotherapy continued to evolve and has since then never ceased to evolve. Great names in France like Dr.René Bourdiol, Dr.René Kovacs, Prof.Jean Bossy and others brought forward more and more evidence, neurophysiological arguments sustaining the functionality of auriculotherapy.

The last two decades, it is mainly the work of Dr. David Alimi, and more specifically his studies involving the use of functional MRI, that has boosted the knowledge of the action of auriculotherapy, to a whole new level. To this day, auriculotherapy is the subject of hundreds of randomised clinical studies, performed by researchers all over the world. It is Dr.Alimi who demonstrated the presence of the localisations on the human ear. In other words, he proved the existence of the mutual relationships between body, ear and brain.

Meanwhile, auriculotherapy is well known in numerous countries, but it is important to stress that this technique is performed by a medically qualified person. Training of reference is a 2-year formation in France, that already has been successfully followed by a number of Belgian doctors, like Dr. Rini Verpraet and Dr. Jozef Heindryckx.

Cauterisation

Cauterisation with the Turcs, a reproduction from the XIIIth century.

Did you know that…?

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Did you know that...

in ancient Turkey, auriculotherapy was used by cauterising certain points of the ear?
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Did you know that...

Hippocrates already used auriculotherapy to treat impotence?
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Did you know that...

many beautiful Egyptian women had their ears treated on well defined points to avoid pregnancy?
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Did you know that...

in ancient China, auriculotherapy was used to treat symptoms and consequences of hepatitis?