What does acupuncture treat?
According to The World Health Organization (WHO) in a report entitled; Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials the following lists of conditions have been effectively treated with acupuncture.
The diseases or disorders for which acupuncture therapy has been proven through controlled clinical 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, gastrospasm, acute and chronic gastritis)
- 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 WHO report also contains three other categories of conditions not listed here:
- Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed
- 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
- Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment
Click here to visit the WHO website for the full report.