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Beating Addiction - Auriculotherapy

Classical Chinese medicine describes five ear points which produce beneficial results. However working with new information about the energetics and neurology of the ear, Dr. Holder has identified three new treatment points for all addictions. These derive from the fact that there are four cranial nerves that have nerve endings throughout the ear.

Dr. Holder practices a form of ear acupuncture that uses a microcurrent rather than needles with about 20% of his patients. Auriculotherapy helps relax patients, which opens addicted persons to the therapy program and encourages compliance. It also enables them to feel less apathetic and more highly motivated to stay off drugs. It reduces drug cravings and their sense of physical and emotional withdrawal.

Dr Holder also uses a device of his own invention–the Stim-Plus Pro, which is a small hand-held probe that delivers between five and 20 Hz in microcurrent to specific ear points for 15 to 30 seconds per point. This compares to needle-delivered ear acupuncture that requires anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes of stimulation. This microcurrent probe is painless, efficient and specific, and helps release the pleasure-producing brain chemicals called endorphins more quickly and thoroughly than needle treatment.

Like falling dominoes, brain chemicals must be released in the right sequence for you to feel a sense of pleasure. If that release, or neurotransmitter “cascade,” is interrupted, you don’t experience enjoyment.