What conditions can you address with acupuncture?

In China, acupuncture and oriental medicine is often the first option for the treatment of various ailments. This elegant system of medicine has been helping individuals, families, and communities for thousands of years.

In 1997 the U.S. National Institute of Health published a Consensus Statement on the use and effectiveness of acupuncture for a variety of conditions. Their conclusions were as follows:
"Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely practiced in the United States. While there have been many studies of its potential usefulness, many of these studies provide equivocal results because of design, sample size, and other factors. The issue is further complicated by inherent difficulties in the use of appropriate controls, such as placebos and sham acupuncture groups.

However, promising results have emerged, for example, showing efficacy of acupuncture in adult post-operative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in post-operative dental pain. There are other situations such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofacial pain, osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma where acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful."

Acupuncture is recognized by the World Health Organization to be effective treatment supported with clinical trials for the following conditions:

- Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
- Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
- Biliary colic
- Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
- Dysentery, acute bacillary
- Dysmenorrhoea, primary
- Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
- Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
- Headache
- Hypertension, essential
- Hypotension, primary
- Induction of labour
- Knee pain
- Leukopenia
- Low back pain
- Malposition of fetus, correction of
- Morning sickness
- Nausea and vomiting
- Neck pain
- Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)?
- Periarthritis of shoulder?
- Postoperative pain
- Renal colic
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sciatica
- Sprain
- Stroke
- Tennis elbow

The following consists of conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but further clinical trials are needed:

- Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)

- Acne vulgaris

- Alcohol dependence and detoxification

- Bell's palsy

- Bronchial asthma

- Cancer pain

- Cardiac neurosis

- Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation

- Cholelithiasis

- Competition stress syndrome

- Craniocerebral injury, closed

- Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent

- Earache

- Epidemic haemorrhagic fever

- Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)

- Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection

- Female infertility

- Facial spasm

- Female urethral syndrome

- Fibromyalgia and fasciitis

- Gastrokinetic disturbance

- Gouty arthritis

- Hepatitis B virus carrier status

- Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)

- Hyperlipaemia

- Hypo-ovarianism

- Insomnia

- Labour pain

- Lactation, deficiency

- Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic

- Ménière disease