Acupuncture is used for health, by the insertion of needles at specific acupuncture points on various parts of the body for the condition presenting. Acupuncture needles are hair-fine and patients may experience numbness, heaviness, warmth or tingling. Many patients find acupuncture treatments very soothing and fall asleep.
The following summarises the effectiveness of acupuncture for various conditions.*
Conditions with strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture
Reviews with consistent statistically significant positive effects and where authors have recommended the intervention. The quality of evidence is rated as moderate or high quality.
• Allergic rhinitis ( perennial and seasonal )
• Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting ( with anti-emetics )
• Chronic low back pain
• Headache ( tension-type and chronic )
• Knee osteoarthritis
• Migraine prophylaxis
• Postoperative nausea and vomiting
• Postoperative pain
Conditions with moderate evidence supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture
Reviews reporting all individual RCTs or pooled effects as positive, but the reviewers deeming the evidence insufficient to draw firm conclusion. The quality of evidence is rated as moderate or high quality.
• Acute low back pain
• Acute stroke
• Ambulatory anaesthesia
• Anxiety
• Aromatose-inhibitor-induced arthralgia
• Asthma in adults
• Back or pelvic pain during pregnancy
• Cancer pain
• Cancer-related fatigue
• Constipation
• Craniotomy anaesthesia
• Depression ( with antidepressants )
• Dry eye
• Hypertension ( with medication )
• Insomnia
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Labour pain
• Lateral elbow pain
• Menopausal hot flushes
• Modulating sensory perception thresholds
• Neck pain
• Obesity
• Perimenopausal and postmenopausal
• Plantar heel pain
• Post-stroke insomnia
• Post-stroke shoulder pain
• Post-stroke spasticity
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Prostatitis pain/chronic pelvic pain syndrome
• Recovery after colorectal cancer resection
• Restless leg syndrome
• Schizophrenia ( with antipsychotic s)
• Sciatica
• Shoulder impingement syndrome ( early stage ) (with exercise )
• Shoulder pain
• Smoking cessation ( up to 3 months )
• Stroke rehabilitation
• Temporomandibular pain
Heat therapy by the burning of the Chinese Herb Ai Hao (Artemisia Vulgaris) to warm the patient long-term from the inside.
Creating a vacuum in a cup to lift the skin in order to massage the muscle deeply.
Sometimes used as part of Acupuncture treatment.