〖医山夜话〗之二“耳针”

转自正见网
李德孚
在上篇文章中，我谈到针灸能治疗急症。其实，对大部份病人来说，都是因为急症才来求医的，如急性腰扭伤、惊厥抽搐、中暑昏迷、三叉神经痛、偏头痛、牙痛、面瘫，等等。这些症状都很严重，是等不得的，也不会自愈，病人感到十分痛苦，所以不得已前来投医。在以后的文章，我会举出大量类似的医案。
上次我举了一例，说的是用耳尖放血的疗法使一位高烧不退病人的体温在5分钟内降到正常，令其家人称奇。为什么这一针下去就能立竿见影呢？这是因为此刻在耳尖放血，犹如打开了一扇天窗，立即换进新鲜空气，从而将体内湿热毒气释放出去。这不起眼的耳朵与身体内脏腑的关系可不一般。
出于职业的缘故，我对人的耳朵特别留意，有时会因为太注意别人的耳朵，竟忘了听他说了什么。人的这两只耳朵啊，真是绝了，犹如一所展览馆，把人的一切，心肝五脏、性命、历史一一展示在外面，一眼望去，尽收眼底。真的不想再问什么了。对我来说就看病人说不说实话了。
耳穴在耳廓上的分布似一个倒置的胎儿，头部朝下，臀部朝上。身体各部位在耳朵上皆有相应的位置。因此，在耳朵上可以观察到身体任何部位的病理变化也就不足为奇了。如：冠心病人可以看到耳垂斜皱纹；肝癌病人可以观察到在耳廓肝区周围的环形凹陷，梅花样改变；精神分裂症病人的耳甲压痕；就是掉一颗牙，在耳朵上都暴露无疑。
耳廓是一个独特的能反应整体的全息的微观世界。人体的十二经都直接或间接上达于耳，故《灵枢•口问》篇云：“耳者，宗脉之所聚也。”在《素问•金匮真言论篇》中有：南方赤色，入通于心，开窍于耳，藏精于心。”因此从耳的颜色、位置高低、厚薄、扁圆、硬软可知其人先天的体质，从形态和长相可知后世的病理。
怎么通过观察耳朵的颜色、形态、厚薄来判断内脏的虚实呢？《灵枢•本脏》篇中指出：(耳)黑色小者则肾小，粗者则肾大，耳高者肾高，耳后陷者肾下，耳坚者肾坚，耳薄者肾脆。肾小既安难伤。坚则肾不受病。肾大，大则虚，虚则肾虚，耳聋或鸣。
大家可能不知道，耳穴治疗的一个最大特点是可以用来止痛，而且有明显的疗效。
有一天，一位患牙痛的病人来找我，他说：“医生，我这几年花在牙医上的钱，足可以买一栋楼房了……”耳针一穴，立即止痛，他从此再也没有牙痛过。
Tales from the Practice of Medicine: (Part II) Ear-acupuncture
Illustration on All the Acupuncture Points on the Ear
[PureInsight.org] In the previous article, I mentioned that acupuncture is able to treat acute diseases. In fact, most patients come to see doctors because of acute diseases, such as acute sprains, convulsive twitches, heat-stroke stupor, trifacial neuralgia, migraine, tooth pain, facial paralysis, and the like. These are serious diseases, which require immediate treatment and will not get better on their own. Patients are in so much pain that they need to see the doctor. I will list a large number of similar cases in articles to follow.
I gave an example last time, which talked about the treatment of bloodletting at the tip of the ear. It returned a patient’s high fever back to normal in five minutes. That surprised the family very much. How come this acupuncture achieved such a quick result? It is because bloodletting at the tip of the ear is just like opening a window; it shifts the fresh air and releases the hot and humid poisonous gasses from the body. The ear does not look very remarkable, but its relationship to the body’s internal organs is quite important. Due to my occupation, I always pay extra attention to ears. Sometimes because I am so concentrated on looking at someone’s ears I forget to listen to them. The human ear is just like an exhibition hall, which shows everything, such as the true condition of a human’s heart, liver, internal organs, life, and history. I get a panoramic view with just one glance. I don’t need to ask the patient questions anymore. To me, that just tells me if the patient is telling everything.
The distribution of acupuncture points on the ear auricle is like an inverse embryo with the head down and the hip up. The various positions on the body have corresponding points on the ear. So it is not surprising to see the pathological changes of any position in the body from the ear. For example, a slanting wrinkle on the earlobe can be seen on a person with coronary disease, a ring-like hollow around the ear auricle, called a plum pattern, can be found on a lung cancer patient’s ear, a person with schizophrenia has indentation on the pinna of the ear. Without a doubt, even losing a tooth will be shown on the ear.
The auricle of the ear is a unique microcosm that can display complete information about the whole body. The human body’s twelve yin and yang channels on the hands and feet all reach the ear either directly or indirectly. In “The Chapter of Verbal Enquiries” in Ling Shu (Spiritual Junctures), it says, “In the ear, all of the energy channels are put together.” In “The Chapter of Essays on Words of Gold and Truth” in Su Wen (Questions of Simplicity), it says, “Red from the south goes to the heart, opens on the ear, hides spirit in the heart.” So, we can tell one’s congenital physique from one’s ear color, high or low position, thickness, flat or round shape, and firmness. We may even be able to tell the pathologies of many generations from the ear’s shape and appearance.
So, how do we judge the actual situation of the internal organs by observing the ear’s color, shape, or thickness? In “The Chapter of Organs” in Ling Shu it says, “If the ear is black and small, the kidney is small. If the ear is thick, the kidney is big. If the ear is high, the kidney is high. If the back of the ear falls then the kidney is low. If the ear is firm, the kidney is firm. If the ear is thin the kidney is weak. If the kidney is small then it is safe and difficult to be injured. If it is firm, it does not get sick. If the kidney is big, big means empty and an empty kidney causes deafness or tinnitus.”
Most of us may not know that one of the major characteristics of ear acupuncture treatment is stopping pain with obvious curative effectiveness.
One day, a patient with tooth pain came to see me. He said, “Doctor, the money I spent on dentists over these past years could buy a house….” After one ear of acupuncture treatment, the pain stopped and he didn’t have tooth-pain anymore.