About Electro Acupuncture (EAP)

In General

Electro Acupuncture according to Voll (EAV), also called "Biological Functional Diagnostics" (BFD), has not yet been accepted by mainstream medical practice (allopathy) as a means of diagnosis. EAV tries to combine old knowledge of traditional acupuncture with the electrical resistance measurement at the acupuncture point. The main figure who did much research on this more than 50 years ago was the German medical scientist Dr Voll. To him we owe the knowledge of the existence of more than 700 acupuncture points which are claimed to have a direct relation to certain organs.

The search for and measurement of points are performed by applying a special measuring stylus which is formed according to the anatomy of the acupuncture points. Thus it is possible to supply a diagnosis by measuring the electrical resistance of the acupuncture points on the surface of the skin utilizing a special table providing the relation between points and organs. Under normal circumstances a linear meter shows a needle deflection of about 50 scale lines, assumed 100 is the maximum. Values clearly above this, eg 80 scale lines meaning high conductivity or low electrical resistance, are associated with inflammatory processes. A needle position of clearly less than 50 (eg 20 scale lines) - indicating high electrical resistance - is related to chronic degenerative processes. Extremely low values are believed to be an indication of functional organic degeneration.

Electro acupuncture enables the diagnostic to identify complex dysfunctions. Furthermore, insight is gained into disturbed regulatory processes of the organism. Therapists can apply this technique to recognize interfering fields, environmental diseases and allergies, to diagnose individual organs or organic dysfunctions, as well as for medicament testing, or for current stimulation therapy at the acupuncture points of individual body segments.

Needle Drop as a Means of Diagnosis

If there is continuous downward change of the position of the needle during measurement, that is, towards higher electrical resistance, the term needle drop is used. On the other hand, there may be a needle rise in certain situations. Both can be valuable criteria and diagnostic hints for the therapist.

Medicament Testing

This technique is also owed to observations of Voll. If a patient is instructed to hold a sample of a contemplable medicament in his / her hand, the measured value at the preliminarily measured acupuncture point re-normalizes after applying another point measurement. Thus it is possible to draw conclusions regarding medications a patient may react sensitively to. Nowadays a test honeycomb connected to the EAP machine contains the samples. A so-called medicament (group) scanner may be used to roughly preselect individual medications.

Therapy

Stimulation current therapy (called TENS = transcutane electrical nerve stimulation) is a physiological method of stimulating the acupuncture points. Here, an electrical alternate voltage is applied. In doing so, the voltage form (curve), the intensity, and the frequency can be varied as required. This stimulation primarily produces a therapeutic effect in the related organs, but also enables a diagnostic conclusion / statement about regulatory processes. If after a stimulation of a certain point, the measurement value in a subsequent measurement clearly varies, this is an indication of the regulatory performance of the organism or the respective organ. (One could say that a kind of bio feedback takes place.)

Effectiveness

Fundamental research as well as double blind studies show the effectiveness of EAP by objectively reproducible tests.
See:

R. van Wijk, Homoeopathic medicines in closed phials tested by changes in the conductivity of the skin: a critical evaluation. Blind testing and partical elucidation of the mechanism (1992)

This study at the University of Utrecht seems to be the most comprehensive approach of a scientific validation and verification of medicament testing as suggested by EAV.

Recommended Literature:

Dr. med. H. Leonhardt, Grundlagen der Elektroakupunktur nach Voll. Ein Leitfaden zur Einführung in die Elektroakupunktur. (5. Auflage) ML-Verlag 1998.
Dr. med. Reinhold Voll, Topographische Lage der Meßpunkte der Elektroakupunktur nach Voll (EAV). Bildband 1 bis 3, 1986..1994 (ML Verlag)
Dr. med. Reinhold Voll, Supplementband zum vierbändigen Werk Band 1..4: Topographische Lage der Meßpunkte der Elektroakupunktur, 1978 (ML Verlag)
Dr. med. Reinhold Voll, Die Meßpunkte der Elektroakupunktur nach Voll (EAV) an Händen und Füßen, 1995 (ML-Verlag)
Dr. med. Reinhold Voll (Hrsg), Neue Forschungsergebnisse der Elektroakupunktur nach Voll. 30 Jahre Elektroakupunktur nach Voll (EAV) und Medikamententestung (MT), Jubiläumskongreßbericht 1986 der Internationalen Medizinischen Gesellschaft für Elektroakupunktur nach Voll (ML- Verlag 1987)
Dr. med. Reinhold Voll, Topographische Lage der Meßpunkte der Elektroakupunktur. Bildband I und II, sowie Bild-und Textband III

Many of the above mentioned books are also available in English language.
Link to the ML publishing company which has specialized in EAV (external link)

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