🌿 Folk Prescriptions

In various weight-loss methods, auricular acupuncture and auricular acupressure are commonly used in acupuncture-based weight reduction, with auricular seed pressing being the preferred choice due to its painlessness, lack of side effects, and ability to simultaneously improve certain comorbidities such as insomnia, habitual constipation, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, and arthritis.
Why does auricular seed pressing aid weight loss? Traditional Chinese medicine holds that all parts of the body—five zang organs, six fu organs, skin, orifices, limbs, and joints—are closely connected via meridians to the earlobe, hence the saying “the ear is where all meridians converge,” and “all twelve regular meridians and three hundred sixty-five collateral vessels send their qi and blood upward to the face and enter the ear orifices.” Auricular seed pressing aims to unblock meridians, promote circulation of qi and blood, clear lung turbidity, resolve dampness, and reduce lipids. The ear has abundant blood vessels, especially stimulation of nerves in the triangular fossa which regulates metabolic imbalance. Particularly stimulating the vagus nerve affects insulin levels, suppresses appetite, thus achieving weight loss.
Auricular Acupressure Common Prescriptions and Procedures
(1) Select auricular points: Endocrine, Thalamus, Ovary, Brain Point, Hunger Point, Thirst Point, Shenmen (HT7), Stomach. Choose 4–6 points each time, press half a mung bean-sized seed, secure with adhesive tape, once every 1–2 weeks. This treatment easily adjusts multiple metabolic functions, promotes fat breakdown, and achieves weight and lipid reduction. After pressing, gastrointestinal motility is suppressed and gastric acid secretion reduced, alleviating hunger, accelerating metabolism, continuously consuming energy, and helping re-establish physiological balance. A typical course lasts 30 days; those sensitive to this therapy may lose about 5 kg after one course.
(2) Select Stomach, Spleen, and Endocrine points. Press with medicinal Vaccaria seeds onto the auricular points, then fix with adhesive tape. Press the selected points for 2–3 minutes 30 minutes before each meal, aiming for a sensation of warmth.
(3) Main points: Lung, Spleen, Kidney, Triple Burner, Endocrine. Supplementary points may include Liver, Stomach, Shenmen (HT7), Cortex Subcortical, Hunger Point. Use all main points each time, select 2–3 supplementary points. Before operation, disinfect the auricular area with 75% alcohol. Place Vaccaria seeds at the center of 0.8 cm × 0.8 cm zinc oxide plaster, then press firmly on the selected auricular points. Instruct patients to press each point 4–8 times daily, 5 minutes per session, with mild discomfort as ideal. Apply for 6 days, rest 1 day, then repeat for a second application. Four applications constitute one course.
Source: Health Daily, by Wang Weiheng