Benefits of Acupuncture and East Asian medicine
“The therapy of acupuncture has a long history. In its 2500 years of development, a wealth of experience has been accumulated, attesting to the wide range of diseases and conditions that can effectively be treated with its approach. In the past (several) decades, there have been extensive studies on acupuncture and great efforts have been undertaken to conduct controlled clinical trials.”1
Traditional East Asian medicine was originally developed to serve as a complete medical system, founded upon functional and holistic principles, capable of both preventing and treating disease and dysfunction in the human body whether originating from an imbalance in the physical, mental and or spiritual experience. Today, the medicine represents timeless wisdom with modern significance and application.
Traditional East Asian medicine, within the context of the United States is an interdisciplinary and dynamic field, incorporating both traditional and modern approaches to “prevent or modify the perception of pain, to normalize physiological functions, or for the treatment of diseases or dysfunctions of the body.” Practitioners often partner and collaborate with various specialists in related healthcare fields to better serve patients.
What conditions are commonly treated by acupuncture?
“Hundreds of clinical studies on the benefits of acupuncture show that it successfully treats conditions ranging from musculoskeletal problems (back pain, neck pain, and others) to nausea, migraine headache, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and infertility.”2
Case-controlled clinical studies have shown that acupuncture has been an effective treatment for the following diseases, symptoms or conditions:
- Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
- Anxiety
- 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 labor
- Knee pain
- Leukopenia
- Low back pain
- Malposition of fetus, correction
- 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 diseases, symptoms or conditions have limited but probable evidence to support the therapeutic use of acupuncture:
- 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
- InsomniaLabour pain
- Lactation, deficiency
- Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
- Ménière disease
- Neuralgia, post-herpetic
- Neurodermatitis
- Obesity
- Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
- Osteoarthritis
- Pain due to endoscopic examination
- Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
- Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein-Leventhal syndrome)
- Post-extubation in children
- Postoperative convalescence
- Premenstrual syndrome
- Prostatitis, chronic
- Pruritus
- Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
- Raynaud syndrome, primary
- Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
- Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
- Retention of urine, traumatic
- Schizophrenia
- Sialism, drug-induced (excessive salivation)
- Sjögren syndrome
- Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
- Spine pain, acute
- Stiff neck
- Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
- Tietze syndrome
- Tobacco dependence
- Tourette syndrome
- Ulcerative colitis, chronic
- Urolithiasis
- Vascular dementia
- Whooping cough (pertussis)
References
1. World Health Organization. Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trial. WHO Press; 2002.
2. UC SanDiego School of Medicine. About Acupuncture. Accessed May 12, 2020. https://medschool.ucsd.edu/som/fmph/research/cim/clinicalcare/Pages/About-Acupuncture.aspx