What Acupuncture Treats
Acupuncture treats people who complain of a deficiency or breakdown in their health. It can focus on physical, psychological, emotional or even spiritual disorders with equal effect.
Acupuncture can be used alone or in combination with other treatment methods of TCM as well as alongside western medical treatment.
Conditions That Can Benefit From Acupuncture
Research into acupuncture as a medical treatment has grown exponentially in the past 20 years, increasing at twice the rate of research into conventional biomedicine. A wide-variety of clinical areas have been studied, including pain, cancer, pregnancy, stroke, mood disorders, sleep disorders and inflammation, to name a few.
Recently the Acupuncture Evidence Project* reviewed the effectiveness of acupuncture for 122 treatments over 14 clinical areas. They found evidence of effect for 117 conditions “with stronger evidence for some conditions than others”:
“The World Health Organisation has compiled a huge list of medical conditions that are amenable to treatment with acupuncture, including chronic respiratory problems, such as sinusitis and asthma, neurological and musculoskeletal disorders, such as headaches and low back pain, digestive disorders, such as colitis and gastritis, and chronic menstrual problems. This is apart from the treatment of mental and emotional disturbances and certain behavioural problems, such as addictive habits.”
The Natural Family Doctor. A. Stanway, Century Publishers, London.
- Allergic Rhinitis
- Cancer pain
- Plantar heel pain
- Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
- Cancer-related fatigue
- Post-stroke insomnia
- Chronic low back pain
- Constipation
- Post-stroke shoulder pain
- Headache (twnsion type and chronic)
- Craniotomy anaesthesia
- Post-stroke spasticity
- Knee osteoarthritis
- Depression (with antidepressants)
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Migraine prophylaxis
- Dry eye
- Prostatitis pain / chronic pelvic pain
- Postoperative nausea & vomiting
- Hypertension (with medication)
- Recovery after colorectal cancer resection
- Postoperative pain
- Insomnia
- Restless leg syndrome
- Acute low back pain
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Schizophrenia (with antipsychotics)
- Acute stroke
- Labour pain
- Sciatica
- Ambulatory anaesthesia
- Lateral elbow pain
- Shoulder impingement syndrome, early stage (with exercise)
- Temporomandibular pain
- Anxiety
- Menopausal hot flushes
- Shoulder pain
- Aromatose-inhibitor-induced arthralgia
- Neck pain
- Smoking cessation (up to 3 months)
- Asthma in adults
- Obesity
- Stroke rehabilitation
- Back or pelvic pain during pregnancy
- Perimenopausal & postmenopausal insomnia