Auriculotherapy: an option to heal

Abstract

By nature, human being seeks feeling good or not feeling ill. Diseases, no matter what, are always there. Ways to diagnose, cure and prevent them can be different according to each era or country in which every man gets sick. During the XXth Century, in western countries the so called western medicine or allopathic medicine; nevertheless, in this century, the National Survey of Health, applied in the United States of America in 2007, reports that close to the 65% of United States population has used methods of complementary medicine. In Africa, approximately the 80% of the population employs traditional medicine to solve their health problems (BERENZON, 2006). In Latin America, there is only data available for Chile, Colombia, Bolivia and Cuba (OPS, 1999). Viesca (1986) estimated that in Latin American Countries, more than 50% of the population perceived their health issues according to the traditional medicine patterns.
Within the complementary medicine, besides the traditional medicine, it is located the auriculotherapy, a treatment that is applied in the patient’s ear, no matter their sex or age. It employs seeds, tacks, needles or even electrical stimulation.