Conditions Treated with Acupuncture

• How Can Acupuncture Help?
• List of Commonly Treated Conditions
• The World Health Organization's "Acupuncture: Disorders and Diseases that Can Be Treated with Acupuncture"

How can Acupuncture help?

Acupuncture can be helpful in a wide variety of health conditions. Performed by a licensed professional, acupuncture is a safe, non-toxic therapy. Below is a list of the most commonly treated conditions. I also provide the World Health Organization's extensive list of "Diseases and disorders that can be treated with acupuncture," which is categorized by effectiveness based on reviews of clinical trials.

List of Commonly Treated Conditions

Allergies / Asthma

Anxiety / Depression

Arthritis / Joint Problems

Back Pain

Bladder / Kidney Problems

Constipation / Diarrhea

Colds / Influenza

Cough / Bronchitis

Dizziness

Drug / Alcohol / Smoking Addiction

Fatigue

Gastrointestinal Disorders

Gynecological Disorders

Headache / Migraine

Heart Problems / Palpitations

High Blood Pressure

Immune System Deficiency

Knee Pain

Menopausal Discomfort

Musculoskeletal Injuries

Pre-menstrual Syndrome

Paralysis / Numbness

Rhinitis

Sciatica

Sexual Dysfunction

Side Effects of Chemotherapy

Sinusitis

Skin Problems

Stress / Tension

Stroke Rehabilitation

Tendonitis

The World Health Organization's "Acupuncture: Disorders and Diseases that Can Be Treated with Acupuncture"

1. 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

2. 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

Ménière 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

Sjögren 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)

3. 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

4. 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)

Diarrhoea in infants and young children

Encephalitis, viral, in children, late stage

Paralysis, progressive bulbar and pseudobulbar

View the WHO
Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials

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