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Acupuncture for Hyperosmia?

By Archived User | Updated: Dec 31, 2021 | Published: Dec 31, 2021

Hello, everyone!
I have been doing research in acupuncture treatments for hyperosmia (a heightened sense of smell, the ability of smelling even the slightest odors very strongly) but so far I have only seen references to treatment of anosmia, which is the exact opposite: The loss of smell, or a reduced ability to smell. This is treated by using LI20…
So, my question is: Is there an acupuncture point for the opposite effect that can be used to treat hyperosmia?
Thanks in advance for your comments.

Archived Comments

Comment by Archived User

In general acupuncture points are auto regulatory. You can use the same point to help lower high blood pressure or increase low blood pressure. So LI 20 can certainly be used to treat both hyperosmia and anosmia.

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

Ultimately acupuncture is not a point to condition modality. So trying to use single acupuncture points for single conditions will generally lead to extremely poor results. For more on that I suggest you read both “Treating the cause and not the symptoms” and “Acupuncture point treatment plan” to understand more about the proper design and application of acupuncture.

With particular regards to hyperosmia, the underlying tcm diagnosis (and western for that matter) is critical as this issue can be a precursor to fairly serious conditions such as brain tumors, parkinson’s disease, alzheimer’s disease, etc. It may also be related to other digestive issues or any number of other issues. To treat correctly you need to diagnose correctly and treat comprehensively.

In general what @Stephen added about autoregulation is correct. Again, however, it’s only a small part of the overall story.

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