Ear Seeds – with your acupuncture treatment – what?

Acupuncturists, trained in TCM acupuncture, are fortunate to have many simple and elegant ways to support your body/mind heal yourself, even between treatments. Ear seeds are one of those powerful yet unassuming tools we use. (The seeds don’t grow)!

Ear seeds are small vaccaria seeds (or clay or metal balls) applied (after alcohol swabbing) with surgical tape to your external ear. They act as small acupressure devices to trigger a healing response that sends signals to one or more of over 200 specific point locations on each ear!

How can this work?

For over a thousand years, Traditional Chinese Medicine has used a detailed knowledge of the body/mind system to create ‘microsystems’ as alternate ways to treat pain and other conditions. Some of those micro systems include the ear, feet (think reflexology), and hand.

In the 1950’s, French and Germans also began developing extremely detailed maps of the ear, using imaging that showed what areas in the brain responded and changed when specific ear points were stimulated, and their body correspondences.

Some of the most common conditions we treat using ear seeds in clinic include:

○ Anxiety/Stress

○ Back pain

○ Shoulder pain

○ Allergies

○ Jaw pain

○ Headaches

○ Hot flashes,

○ Insomnia

○ Addictions

For Pain:

Your acupuncturist will press (with their fingers, a probe or electrical device) locations on your ear – most of the time, the corresponding area (say your low back, ankle, neck or shoulder, say) will be surprisingly tender for you, and the seed will be applied there.

For anxiety, stress, hormone imbalances, addictions or poor sleep:

Your acupuncturist also will locate specific spots/combinations on your ear to apply the ‘seeds’ that work with your body’s nervous system, they may not be as tender. You may be surprised about how calm it is possible to feel with this support.

Using these ear seeds is often something your acupuncturist applies to you after your full treatment (which may include any of needling, tuina, cupping, heat therapy, acupressure, electroacupuncture, etc), so they have diagnosed what systems in your body will benefit from reinforcing. The ear seeds can be effective alone, but in conjunction with your treatment, your chances of improvement are increased.

These simple ear seeds are safe for most people, (caution in pregnancy), and all you need to do is gently press them 4-5x/day; they stay on for several days, and you can remove them carefully yourself with tweezers.

At home – if you are feeling stressed out or in pain, just sit for a minute, close your eyes, and gently tug your ears – up, down, and towards the back, making sure to breath deeply while doing so. This is not precise, but should send the message to your system to calm down a bit.

Don’t forget – in addition to helping your body heal when something is wrong, acupuncture and ear seeds can be a great preventive health care option.

If you are interested in learning more about drug-free options to manage persistent pain, anxiety, poor sleep, allergies, hormone imbalances or addictions, contact your acupuncturist at Integrative Physiotherapy to book and initial appointment, or arrange a 15 min free phone consultation, too see if TCM acupuncture and/or auricular therapy may be a good option for you.

Written By: Susan Paterson

References:

Oleson, Terry. Auricultheraphy Manual, Fourth Edition. Chinese and Western Systems of Ear Acupuncture. Churchill Livinston, Elseiver, 2014.

https://www.webmd.com/balance/ear-seeds-what-to-know

Dr. Jeremy Steiner, various continuing education courses.