The most frequent question I get from someone that has never experienced acupuncture is “What things can acupuncture treat?” my response is always the same- “You name the issue and it can probably be treated with acupuncture.” Most people have heard about acupuncture and back pain, but most have no idea that there is so much more that can be treated with acupuncture.
Here are some that you may not be familiar with:
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)
• Biliary colic
• Depression
• Dysentery, acute bacillary
• Dysmenorrhoea, primary
• Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
• IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)
• 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 hemorrhagic 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
• 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
• 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)
As you can imagine many people are surprised when they learn acupuncture can help with more than just back pain.
Researchers at Pu’er People’s Hospital (Yunnan, China) conclude that warm needle acupuncture is clinically effective against type-D (diarrhea predominant) IBS. A six-month follow-up after completion of acupuncture treatments confirms lasting improvements.
The acupuncture group experienced significantly greater relief, with a total effective rate of 97.96%, compared with 83.67% in the drug control group.
Read the full study details here:
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