What is Acupuncture?

Dr. Eric N. Stulc, D.C., Dipl. Ac.

Acupuncture is a branch of health sciences that is used to treat a variety of patient conditions including pain and body dysfunction.

How does Acupuncture work? The goal of Acupuncture is to restore the body's energy to a normal balance. This is accomplished by using a variety of Acupuncture points located on the twelve meridians.

What conditions does Acupuncture work for? The World Health Organization (WHO) has compiled a list of symptoms and conditions in which acupuncture has been proven effective through controlled trials.

  • Low back pain

  • Neck pain

  • Sciatica

  • Tennis Elbow

  • Knee pain

  • Periarthritis of the shoulder

  • Sprain

  • Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)

  • Headache

  • Dental pain

  • Tempromandibular (TMJ) dysfunction

  • Rheumatoid arthritis

  • Postoperative pain

  • Induction of labour

  • Correction of malposition of fetus (breech presentation)

  • Morning sickness

  • Nausea and vomiting

  • Post operative pain

  • Stroke

  • Essential hypertension

  • Primary hypotension

  • Renal colic

  • Leucopenia

  • Adverse reactions to radiation or chemotherapy

  • Allergic rhinitis including Hay fever

  • Biliary colic

  • Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)

  • Acute bacillary dysentery

  • Primary Dysmenorrhea

  • Acute epigastralgia

  • Peptic Ulcer

  • Acute and Chronic gastritis

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.

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

  • Sciatica

  • Sprain

  • Stroke

  • Tennis elbow

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the 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

  • 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

  • Meniere's 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)

  • 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

  • Sjogren's 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)

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:

  • Chloasma

  • Choroidopathy, central serous

  • Colour blindness

  • Deafness

  • Hypophrenia

  • Irritable colon syndrome

  • Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury

  • Pulmonary heart disease, chronic

  • Small airway obstruction

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture may be tried provided the  practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment:

  • Breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

  • Coma

  • Convulsions in infants

  • Coronary heart disease (angina pectoris)

  • Diarrhea in infants and young children

  • Encephalitis, viral, in children, late stage

  • Paralysis, progressive bulbar and pseudobulbar

Reference: Dynamic Chiropractic, Oct 21, 2004 Amaro, John