It is the time of the year when many people develop colds and sinus issues. Recently, I’ve had an earache and began a series of treatments for myself. Here are three points I’ve been using, in addition to the Yintang Point shared last Wednesday. All of these points are on the ear.
I’ll start at the top with the Apex of Ear. One study in 2011 on acupuncture suggested that “auricular” pressure point stimulation was an effective migraine treatment (see citation below). The apex of the ear is located where your ear comes to its highest point. It’s a good point to use for earache, migraine, and tension headache.
The second location is the Ear Gate, also know as ermen. It is located just in right in front of where the earlobe begins. The Ear Gate point can relieve pressure that builds up around your jaw and in your ears (describes my current difficulty well!) and is used for alleviating head pain, earache, tinnitus (which I also experience), ear infections, tension headache, and migraines.
The third point is known as Wind Screen, which is located on the back of your earlobe. Rubbing or holding this point helps relieve ears that feel stuffy (again – that’s me!) and can also help with tinnitus and migraine.
Traditional chinese medicine associates the ears with Kidneys and Heart, as they supply essential energy and blood to the ears.
These are just a few of the techniques I use, and I use ALL of them. I wake up with the earache, use these and a few others and the earache will be gone until around noon. So I do them again, and then again in the evening.
Zhao, L., Guo, Y., Wang, W. et al. Systematic review on randomized controlled clinical trials of acupuncture therapy for neurovascular headache. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 17, 580–586 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-011-0709-z