A traditional therapy is modern uses

Photos of Mia Aigotti for The New York Timespressure points Laura Soncrant, in Chicago, it has seeds of ear prints to treat his insomnia.

Quit smoking cigarettes has always been agony by Michele Fenzl, a team of 55 years of Denver operator. Pregnancy had to stop for a while. But in 35 years of smoking a pack a day, nothing else gave him a break.

To seed by ear.

Last June, his acupuncturist, Karen Kurtak of the Medical Institute of border, began to place small black seed of a plant of Vaccaria to specific points in their ears, to suppress cravings between sessions twice a week with needles.

It is difficult to say what aspect of the multifaceted program helped Ms. Fenzl quit, but she attributes her success to the seeds in their ears that she calls "protectors of life".

Part long traditional medicine China, "auricular therapy", as it is called, involves stimulating key points of the outer ear (corresponding to functions and parts of the body) with traditional Acupuncture needles or seeds. The practice is now used again at the national level to deal with a number of ailments.

Seed by ear for a long time have used United States for the treatment of addiction. But today, with the growing demand for alternative therapies, there has been an increase in the practice of using the ear seeds (or metallurgical equivalents, acubeads and ear magnets) to health issues of anxiety to the pain to insomnia.

"Are used for people in situation of trauma, for example in the continuation of the 9/11, Katrina, wildfires in California,", said Cynthia Neipris, an acupuncturist in New York and the director of education of the community and outreach for Pacific College of Oriental medicine, that train students to use seed by ear. "And because the seeds are used at home, it is an additional plus because it involves the patient in their own healing process."

No one knows exactly how ear seeds work nor has been sufficient research to test what ailments that help to alleviate. But recommended them by acupuncturists with a license, as well as doctors from hospitals in international level.

Dr. p. Grace Harrell, an anesthesiologist and an acupuncturist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who uses seeds and acubeads to help treat back pain, suggests that they can stimulate the activity in the brain.

But it is an assumption. "We don't know exactly what the seeds of the ear," he said. "What I do know is that more people use them." "I have patients in and asking for the seeds".

Acupuncturists in personnel in rehabilitation centres as a Centre for treatment of promises in Malibu, California, for a long time have recommended ear seeds to help alleviate "physiological symptoms, associated with addiction," says Donna Markus, the executive director. They have been helpful for anxiety and depression, he said.

Does the conspicuous seeds attention unwanted? "Never nobody has commented,", said Laura Soncrant, 32, who carries the seeds of his insomnia. He said that to put pressure on them during the whole day has improved his dream to the point that she can not live without them now. "Already took them between acupuncture sessions, and my sessions are once every two weeks, there are even those days when the seeds have fallen and want to go to the acupuncturist for them".