What Can Acupuncture Treat?

Recent research concerning the effects of Acupuncture has demonstrated its effectiveness in treating a wide variety of disorders.

Report From the National Institute of Health

Findings from basic research have begun to elucidate the mechanism of action of acupuncture. There is sufficient evidence of the value of acupuncture to expand its use into conventional medicine and to encourage further studies of its physiology and clinical value. Promising results have emerged showing the efficacy of acupuncture in the following ways:

  • postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting
  • postoperative dental pain
  • alcohol and drug addiction
  • stroke rehabilitation
  • headache
  • menstrual cramps
  • tennis elbow
  • fibromyalgia
  • myofascial pain
  • osteoarthritis
  • low back pain
  • carpal tunnel syndrome
  • asthma

Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.


--The NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture. 1997

Additional References and Readings on Effectiveness of Acupuncture

"A randomized, controlled trial in obese patients attending a general practice clinic in Australia followed the same diet and exercise regimen. The acupuncture group lost an average of 72kg after 5 weeks compared to the 36kg average weight loss in the control group. The difference was statistically significant (p=0.06)."

--Medical Acupuncture, A Journal By Physicians Volume17. Number 2(Jan. 2006)

"The fertility index increased significantly (p< 0.05) following improvement in total functional sperm fraction, percentage of viability, total motile spermatozoa per ejaculate, and integrity of the axonema (p< 0.05), which occurred upon treatment."

--Male Fertility Lab, Bar-Ilan Univ. of Israel. Archives of Andrology 39:155-161.1997

"Acupuncture increases the pregnancy rate significantly (p= 0.03) in patients who undergo assisted reproduction therapy."

-- Journal of Fertility and Sterility 77 (4). April 2002

"The mean net photosynthesis rate of plants subjected to acupuncture increased by about 25%. In addition, treated plants flowered three days earlier and had 14.4% more fruit than the untreated control plants."

--Institute of Human Genetics, Univ. of Minnesota. American Journal of Chinese Medicine 25 (2):135-142. 1997

"Moxibustion (stimulate acupoints with heat) for I to 2 weeks increased fetal activity during the treatment period and cephalic presentation after the treatment period and at delivery."

--Randomized controlled trial on correction of breech presentation using acupuncture point, Journal of American Medical Association 280 (18):1580-1584. 1998

"Acupuncture is being used to treat depression. Until recently, no one had devised an effective means of conducting rigorous, controlled trials for acupuncture, but a University of Arizona neuroscientist appears to have overcome this obstacle. The innovative study shows acupuncture promising as a depression treatment."

--Clinical Psychiatry News. 1998

"Acupuncture leads to persisting, clinically relevant benefits for primary care patients with chronic headaches, particularly migraine. Expansion of NHS acupuncture services should be considered."

--British Medical Journal 2004; 3-8:744(27 March)

"A randomized, controlled trial shows acupuncture provides improvement in function and pain relief for osteoarthritis of the knee. The true acupuncture group experiences significantly greater improvement than the sham group in WOMAC function score, WOMAC pain score, and patient global assessment."

--Annals of Internal Medicine Volume141. Number 12 (21 Dec. 2004)

  • Common Disorders Treated by Acupuncture

    Acupuncture can be helpful for treating alcohol and smoke addiction; appetite and weight control; pain management; stress reduction; enhancing immunity and energy; slowing aging; relief of weakness, stiffness, pain, and fatigue from chronic illnesses such as arthritis, migraine, fibromyalgia, allergies, asthma, even AIDS or cancer, and more.

  • The Common Women’s Conditions Treated by Acupuncture

    • menstruation related conditions
    • PMS, dysmenorrhea, endometriosis, fibroids and cysts
    • pregnancy-related conditions
    • infertility
    • morning sickness
    • fatigue
    • back and joint pain
    • breech presentation
    • overdue delivery, postpartum exhaustion/depression, postpartum overweight

  • The World Health Organization of the United Nation’s Recognition

    43 conditions in which acupuncture has proven successful, including:

    • Infections: colds, bronchitis, etc.
    • Dermatological: eczema, acne, herpes 
    • Mental and emotional anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia
    • Internal conditions include hypoglycemia, asthma, high blood pressure, ulcers, indigestion, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, constipation, diabetes
    • Genito-urinary & reproduction impotence, infertility, pre-menstrual syndrome, pelvic inflammatory disease, vaginitis, irregular periods of cramps, morning sickness, menopause symptoms, urinary tract infections, and ovarian cysts
    • Eyes, ears, nose & throat, hearing loss, ringing in the ear, earache, poor eyesight, dizziness, sinus infection, sinusitis, rhinitis, eye pain, sore throat, hay fever, toothache, and nosebleed
    • Musculoskeletal & neurologic arthritis, neuralgia, sciatica, back pain, bursitis, tendonitis, stiff back, Bell's palsy, trigeminal neuralgia, headache, stroke, cerebral palsy, polio, sprains, muscle cramps, foot problems, carpel tunnel syndrome, TMJ, and whiplash

What to Expect From Acupuncture?

  • Treat the Underlying Cause

    A consultation with a medical acupuncturist consists of three parts: history, examination, and treatment. In order to decide the underlying cause of the symptom, using the Chinese medical differential diagnostic system, carefully listening to the patient's description of the problem and related history, and asking the patient questions to clarify the specific details of the complaint and the patient's overall conditions are very important. The examination form, specific to acupuncture and Chinese medicine, includes pulse-taking and tongue inspection. A discussion with the patient about the diagnosis and treatment plan will be followed. This is also the time to answer the patient's questions.

  • Painless and Relaxing

    We use individually packed, sterile, and disposable needles. The needles are very thin, not much thicker than a hair (about 0.18 mm in diameter). The needles are inserted a fraction of an inch into the specific areas on the skin, called acupoints. You will not feel pain or might not feel anything when the needle is going in. Usually, no more than six needles are used at one time. The treatment usually takes about 30 to 40 minutes.

  • Natural but Powerful With No Side Effects

    Acupuncture "awakes your body's intelligence" -it facilitates the body's self-repair and healing mechanism. Acupuncture sends signals to the body through special channels called meridians, which connect the acupoints on the skin to the internal organ and nerve system and trigger a series of specific responses/changes on the cellular and biochemical level to start the healing process. No side-effect but it could be as powerful as chemical drugs. That is why Chinese anesthesiologists use acupuncture anesthesia in surgeries for patients who are allergic to chemical drugs. Further research has found that under acupuncture anesthesia, the body's central nervous system can produce more naturally occurring endorphin, which is many times more powerful than the chemical morphine.

  • Unconventional but Widely Accepted

    "It has been reported that more than I million Americans currently received acupuncture each year..." reported by The NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture in 1997. The number of people who have discovered acupuncture has kept growing since then. According to the Arthritis Foundation, acupuncture treatment has become one of the most popular unconventional therapies in the U.S. today, with about 15 million Americans having tried acupuncture so far.

Contact us at (617) 975-3813 and schedule your session today to revitalize your well-being.