What Can Acupuncture Help?

Hamilton Ancaster Meadowlands Ontario

W.H.O. Acupuncture and The NIH Consensus Study

In 2003, the World Health Organization published a landmark study, titled “Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials”. A summary of their findings is quoted below. Diseases and disorders that can be treated with 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:

1. Adverse reactions to chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy
2. Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
3. Biliary colic
4. Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
5. Dysentery, acute bacillary
6. Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
7. Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
8. Headaches & Migraines
9. Hypertension, essential (high blood pressure)
10. Hypotension, primary (low blood pressure)
11. Knee pain
12. Leukopenia
13. Low back pain
14. Menstrual Cramps (Dysmenorrhoea, primary)
15. Morning sickness
16. Nausea and vomiting
17. Neck pain
18. Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and TMJ temporomandibular dysfunction)
19. Periarthritis of shoulder (frozen shoulder)
20. Postoperative pain
21. Renal colic
22. Rheumatoid arthritis
23. Sciatica
24. Sprain
25. Stroke
26. Tennis elbow

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

1. Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
2. Acne vulgaris
3. Alcohol dependence and detoxification
4. Bell’s palsy
5. Bronchial asthma
6. Cancer pain
7. Cardiac neurosis
8. Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
9. Cholelithiasis
10. Competition stress syndrome
11. Craniocerebral injury, closed
12. Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
13. Earache
14. Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
15. Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
16. Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
17. Female infertility
18. Facial spasm
19. Female urethral syndrome
20. Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
21. Gastrokinetic disturbance
22. Gouty arthritis
23. Hepatitis B virus carrier status
24. Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
25. Hyperlipaemia
26. Hypo-ovarianism
27. Insomnia
28. Labour pain
29. Lactation, deficiency
30. Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
31. Ménière disease
32. Neuralgia, post-herpetic
33. Neurodermatitis
34. Obesity
35. Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
36. Osteoarthritis
37. Pain due to endoscopic examination
38. Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
39. Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein-Leventhal syndrome)
40. Postextubation in children
41. Postoperative convalescence
42. Premenstrual syndrome
43. Prostatitis, chronic
44. Pruritus
45. Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
46. Raynaud syndrome, primary
47. Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
48. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
49. Retention of urine, traumatic
50. Schizophrenia
51. Sialism, drug-induced
52. Sjögren syndrome
53. Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
54. Spine pain, acute
55. Stiff neck
56. Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
57. Tietze syndrome
58. Tobacco dependence
59. Tourette syndrome
60. Ulcerative colitis, chronic
61. Urolithiasis
62. Vascular dementia
63. Whooping cough (pertussis)