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Benefits
Oriental medicine is
used worldwide as preventive and curative treatment for a broad range of
conditions. Applications also include enhancement of one's
lifestyle and appearance, in areas such as facial aging, acne, weight
loss, habit control, and sports or artistic performance.
The World Health
Organization (WHO) lists the following as diseases that lend
themselves to acupuncture treatment:
Upper Respiratory Tract
- Acute sinusitis
- Acute rhinitis
- Common cold
- Acute tonsillitis
Respiratory System
- Acute bronchitis
- Bronchial asthma
(most effective in children and in patients without
complicating diseases)
Disorders of the Eye
- Acute
conjunctivitis
- Central retinitis
- Myopia (in
children)
- Cataract (without
complications)
Disorders of the Mouth
- Toothache,
post-extraction pain
- Gingivitis
- Acute and chronic
pharyngitis
Gastro-intestinal Disorders
- Spasms of
esophagus and cardia
- Hiccough
- Gastroptosis
- Acute and chronic
gastritis
- Gastric
hyperacidity
- Chronic duodenal
ulcer (pain relief)
- Acute duodenal
ulcer (without complications)
- Acute and chronic
colitis
- Acute bacillary
dysentery
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Paralytic ileus
Neurological and Musculo-skeletal
Disorders
- Headache and
migraine
- Trigeminal
neuralgia
- Facial palsy
(early stage, i.e., within three to six months)
- Pareses following
a stroke
- Peripheral
neuropathies
- Sequelae of
poliomyelitis (early stage, i.e., within six months)
- Meniere's disease
- Neurogenic
bladder dysfunction
- Nocturnal
enuresis
- Intercostal
neuralgia
- Cervicobrachial
syndrome
- "Frozen
shoulder," "tennis elbow"
- Sciatica
- Low back pain
- Osteoarthritis
American Journal of
Acupuncture, Vol. 8, No. 3, July-September 1980
Originally published in World Health -
The Magazine of the World Health Organization, December
1979. |
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In 1996, WHO
published a follow-up
study entitled Acupuncture: Review and
Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials. Following
is an excerpt:
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
-
Meniere
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
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)
-
Diarrhea in
infants and young children
-
Encephalitis,
viral, in children, late stage
-
Paralysis,
progressive bulbar and pseudo-bulbar
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