Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a modality in which very thin, stainless steel needles are inserted into specific points of the body with the intention of rebalancing the internal environment, re-establishing homeostasis, and thus resolving the disharmony in the body which is the root cause of the patient’s complaint.

Traditional Chinese Medicine tells us that by stimulating certain points on the body, we can influence the vital force, or Qi, of the body, which animates every cell and organism on the planet.

Western medicine has shown that acupuncture works by regulating many body systems, especially by stimulating the endocrine and nervous systems.

World Health Organization (WHO)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the following is a list of diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proven— 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

  • Morning sickness

  • Nausea and vomiting

  • Neck pain

  • Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)

  • Peri-arthritis of shoulder

  • Postoperative pain

  • Renal colic

  • Rheumatoid arthritis

    -World Health Organization.  Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2003.