Traditional Chinese or Eastern Medicine (TCM) treatments are complex and one of the major components is acupuncture.

 

Acupuncture - as component of reflex therapy – is one of the most effective and well-known therapeutic methods Traditional Chinese (or Eastern) medicine. The therapeutic effect of acupuncture treatment is achieved through the introduction of special needles to acupuncture points on the body surface.

 

The main canons of acupuncture treatments are based on an elegant systematic relationship of "bioactive points - the energy channels - the circulation of vital force - to maintain ultimate balance," and the doctrine of the two opposing principles of Yin and Yang. Interruptions of this energy flow, due to an illness or an injury, eventually leads to various failures in the body’s function.

 

Acupuncture – is a method that allows the physician to adjust the overall function of the body and systems in particular, by influencing biologically active points that manifest in the specific areas on the skin. Moreover, all internal organs have an “active point” on the surface of our skin. Thus, by stimulating these biologically active points with needles, pressure, heat or micro-current, the TCM physician can restore the proper circulation of the vital force, which in turn leads to a cure.

 

In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) has published an “Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials”, 87 page long document which summarizes acupuncture research findings to date including the list of ailments that can be successfully treated with acupuncture.

 

 

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved—through controlled trials—to be an effective treatment:

 

• 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 (among the few)

 

 

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is 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

• 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)

• Postextubation 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

• 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)

 

 

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult:

 

 

• Chloasma

• Choroidopathy, central serous

• Colour blindness

• Deafness

• Hypophrenia

• Irritable colon syndrome

• Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury

• Pulmonary heart disease, chronic

• Small airway obstruction

 

 

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment:

 

 

• Breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

• Coma

• Convulsions in infants

• Coronary heart disease (angina pectoris)

• Diarrhoea in infants and young children

• Encephalitis, viral, in children, late stage

• Paralysis, progressive bulbar and pseudobulbar

 

 

Visit WHO homepage to read the full report: http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Js4926e/