One or Both Sides?

There are a few different protocols to use for smoking cessation and which one you use depends on your training and the patients set of signs and symptoms. This also holds true for choosing to needle on one side or bilaterally.

That said, many practitioners will use the NADA Protocol which almost always uses the same points and is nearly always needled bilaterally. The NADA protocol is unique, however, in that it is one of the few protocols in Chinese Medicine that is so fixed. As I stated before, there are no hard and fast rules in what points to use or in whether to needle bilaterally or not. This is the power of Chinese Medicine, to adapt each treatment to each individual. Fixed protocols generally deny this principle and lead to inferior results. With smoking for example there may be underlying issues with depression, a more general addiction, dietary issues, weight issues, etc. and each person has a combination that needs to be treated appropriately to stop the smoking urges.

Yin Yang House Acupuncture & Energy Healing Clinic

Is 'body' acupuncture more effective than auricular acupuncture? If so, why is ear acupuncture used in cases where the points on the body that can be easily reached as well. When I studied acupuncture from my (martial arts) instructor, he said ear and hand acupuncture was developed because some of the high society people/officials wouldn't want to expose their bodies. But how effective is it compared to using the body points?

Also, can I combine points on the ear and the body? For example in the case of the NADA points for stop smoking, can I needle L2 and Shen Men on the body and wrist and the other points on the ear?

Thank you,
Blade~

I think I learned a lot from one mentor who kept coming up with new ways to treat. I&#39d ask him why and he simply wanted to know if treating that way would work as well. He had a busy enough practice to check it out and plenty of patients with great results.

I guess over time I&#39ve emulated much of his inventiveness. Like for allergies I started off with what I felt was good for the patient in both ears. Then I used the allergy point in both ears with a different underlying treatment in both ears. Then I used only one ear at times. And I would place viticaria seeds in the opposite ear on the way out.

Personally, I like to mix body and ear points but complete what I consider a full treatment on the ear or ears. It is my patients who define back to me what works and they will actually say, "hey -- I need that ear treatment, don&#39t forget it! My allergies are better by using the ear treatment", for example. Amazing!

I think that is what I like about this field ... it is what gets results that stands out -- not the names of the points or the names of the herbs or the exact tecniques. Finding right combinations that work on people is like solving a puzzle.