Conditions Acupuncture Treats

The World Health Organization indicates acupuncture has a therapeutic effect through clinical trials in treating the following conditions:

Respiratory: allergic rhinitis, asthma, post-extubation in children, whooping cough

Ear, nose, and throat, eye and mouth: eye pain, epistaxis (nose bleeds), herpes zoster, Menier’s disease, sore throat, Sjogren syndrome

Gastrointestinal: biliary colic, dysentery, epigastralgia (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis and gastrospasm), morning sickness, nausea and vomiting, cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, gastrokinetic disturbance, hepatitis B carrier status, ulcerative colitis

Neuro-psychiatric: anxiety, Bell’s palsy, depression, facial spasm, neuralgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, dementia, schizophrenia, Tourette syndrome

Pain: facial pain, headache, knee pain, low back pain, neck pain, dental and temporomandibular pain, periarthritis of the shoulder, postoperative pain, rheumatoid arthritis, sciatica, sprain, tennis elbow,abdominal pain, cancer pain, earache, fibromyalgia, gouty arthritis, osteoarthritis, radicular pain, spinal pain, pain due to endoscopic examination, stiff neck, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, Tietze syndrome

Skin: acne vulgaris, neurodermatitis, pruritus

Gynaecological/Renal: colic, primary dysmenorrhoea, induction of labour, correction of malposition of fetus, female infertility, female urethral syndrome, hypoovarianism, labour pain, overactive bladder, polycystic ovary syndrome, premenstrual syndrome, urinary tract infections

Cardiovascular: hypertension, hypotension, stroke

Psychiatric: depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)

Male sexual dysfunction: cardiac neurosis, hyperlipidemia, pain in thromboangiitis, Raynaud’s syndrome

General: adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, leukopenia, alcohol dependence, competition stress syndrome, craniocerebral injury, diabetes (non-insulin dependent), haemorrhagic fever, obesity, insomnia, lactation deficiency, opium, cocaine and heroin, dependence, post operative convalescence, tobacco dependence