Acupuncture is an extremely versatile treatment method. It treats the body as a whole (mind, body and spirit) and as a result is able to treat everything from pain to anxiety to headaches to digestive complaints to infertility. The World Health Organization has a list of over 200 conditions that it recommends acupuncture for. This lists includes:
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
This a pretty extensive list of things acupuncture helps with, so what can’t it do?!? Acupuncture cannot cure cancer. It cannot cure infections. Often it cannot cure diseases but can be very helpful in treating symptoms of disease.
