“Can Acupuncture treat <______>?,”

is a question I hear and answer a lot even living in Boulder, CO. Many people are surprised to hear that acupuncture is part of a complete system of medicine with the ability to diagnose and treat almost any malady or disease. It may sound too good to be true, however given over 365 acupuncture points which work with all of the different organ systems including the nervous system, the immune system, and the musculoskeletal system, it’s not that surprising. Fortunately, there is a growing body of research and evidence to support these claims. Below is the comprehensive list of disease that acupuncture can treat according to the World Health Organization. In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be discussing each of these diseases and how acupuncture and Chinese medicine work to resolve them.

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 (including fatigue and nausea)

• Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)

• Biliary colic

• Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)

• Dysentery, acute bacillary

• Dysmenorrhoea, primary

• Epigastralgia, acute (aka stomach pain) (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)

• Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders and trigeminal neuralgia)

• Headache

• Hypertension, essential

• Hypotension, primary

• Induction of labour

• Knee pain

• Leukopenia

• Low back pain

• Malposition of fetus (aka Breech)

• 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

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 (gallbladder inflammation)

• Cholelithiasis (gallstones)

• Competition stress syndrome

• Craniocerebral injury, closed (including Traumatic Brain Injuries or TBI's)

• 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 (PMS)

• 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)

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