The World Health Organization published a list of conditions that have responded well to Acupuncture in controlled clinical trials.
While this list is not complete, it does show the great range of concerns that can be successfully treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Our Practitioners treat each person individually. Treatment plans may include acupuncture as well as Chinese Herbal Remedies, Moxibustion, Cupping and more. We treat the whole person, not just their symptoms. Individualized treatments are significantly more effective than controlled trials for this reason.
In any case, this list from The World Health Organization (WHO on acupuncture) is helpful in showing a broad range of conditions that were effectively treated with Acupuncture.
The Findings of The World Health Organization (WHO on Acupuncture)
The diseases or disorders for which acupuncture therapy has been tested in controlled clinical trials reported in the recent literature can be classified into four categories as shown below.
1. 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
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Acupuncture: review and analysis of controlled clinical trials
Sciatica Sprain Stroke Tennis elbow
2. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown
but for which further proof is needed: ( WHO on 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
Insomnia
Labour pain
Lactation, deficiency
Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
Ménière disease
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3. Disease and disorders that can be treated with acupuncture ( WHO on Acupuncture )
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)
3. 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: ( WHO on Acupuncture )
Chloasma
Choroidopathy, central serous
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Acupuncture: review and analysis of controlled clinical trials
Colour blindness
Deafness
Hypophrenia
Irritable colon syndrome
Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury Pulmonary heart disease, chronic
Small airway obstruction
4. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment: (WHO on Acupuncture)
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