To put a bit of validity and science behind all of the lofty claims of my TCM teachers that I’ve reposted here and my too resounding (as some suggested) endorsement of acupuncture/TCM, here is the global expert’s opinion.
The World Health Organization (UN-WHO) prepared the following list of diseases, conditions, symptoms, and/or disorders that are improved with acupuncture. The list is based on their reviews of controlled trials posted in recent medical literature. There are 4 different levels:
- proved effective,
- effective but requiring further proof,
- some therapeutic evidence, but no better alternatives, making it worth trying,
- potentially effective if performed by a skilled doctor.
I will not recopy the whole list; you can see the full list here. I will only highlight more interesting conditions, ones I’ve talked about in this blog, and/or patient types I’ve seen in clinical practice.
(The numbered links are to my topical posts, whether or not discussing acupuncture as the therapy of choice. Please note: the WHO list does not include use of herbs or other TCM therapies.)
Acupuncture has been proved to be an effective treatment:
- Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
- Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever) [1]
- Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke) [1] [2]
- Dysentery, acute bacillary
- Dysmenorrhoea, primary
- Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
- Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
- Headache
- Hypertension, essential [1]
- Hypotension, primary
- Induction of labour
- Knee pain
- Low back pain [1] [2]
- Malposition of fetus, correction of
- Morning sickness
- Nausea and vomiting
- Neck pain
- Periarthritis of shoulder
- Postoperative pain
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sprain
- Stroke
- Tennis elbow
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
- Bronchial asthma
- Cancer pain
- Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent [1] [2]
- Earache
- Female infertility
- Facial spasm
- Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
- Gastrokinetic disturbance
- Hepatitis B virus carrier status
- Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
- Hyperlipaemia
- Insomnia [1]
- Labour pain
- Lactation, deficiency
- Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
- Obesity [1] [2] [3]
- Osteoarthritis
- Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein-Leventhal syndrome)
- Premenstrual syndrome
- Sore throat (including tonsillitis) [1]
- Spine pain, acute [1] [2]
- Stiff neck [1] [2]
- Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
- Tobacco dependence
- Ulcerative colitis, chronic
Some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult:
Acupuncture may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment:
- Coma
- Convulsions in infants
- Coronary heart disease (angina pectoris)
- Diarrhoea in infants and young children
- Paralysis, progressive bulbar and pseudobulbar
