Internal Medicine

 

Traditional Chinese Medicine has been used to effectively treat a wide variety of conditions and diseases for 2500 years till the present day. In the last two decades, there was an extensive amount of research studies in the form of clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture. In 2003 the World Health Organization (WHO) released an official report on the use of acupuncture for treatment of more than 100 indications. The list of indications is divided into four groups based on the strength of the existing evidence.

Please note that the 2003 WHO report only includes published data collected up till 1999 and is not up-to-date with the current research. Please contact us so we can address your specific condition that may or may not be listed below.

 

World Health Organization on Acupuncture

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proven to be an effective treatment:

  1. Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy

  2. Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)

  3. Biliary colic

  4. Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)

  5. Dysentery, acute bacillary

  6. Dysmenorrhoea, primary

  7. Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)

  8. Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)

  9. Headache

  10. Hypertension, essential

  11. Hypotension, primary

  12. Induction of labour

  13. Knee pain

  14. Leukopenia

  15. Low back pain

  16. Malposition of fetus, correction of

  17. Morning sickness

  18. Nausea and vomiting

  19. Neck pain

  20. Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)

  21. Periarthritis of shoulder

  22. Postoperative pain

  23. Renal colic

  24. Rheumatoid arthritis

  25. Sciatica

  26. Sprain

  27. Stroke

  28. Tennis elbow

 

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

  1. Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
  2. Acne vulgaris
  3. Alcohol dependence and detoxification
  4. Bell’s palsy
  5. Bronchial asthma
  6. Cancer pain
  7. Cardiac neurosis
  8. Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
  9. Cholelithiasis
  10. Competition stress syndrome
  11. Craniocerebral injury, closed
  12. Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
  13. Earache
  14. Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
  15. Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
  16. Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
  17. Female infertility
  18. Facial spasm
  19. Female urethral syndrome
  20. Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
  21. Gastrokinetic disturbance
  22. Gouty arthritis
  23. Hepatitis B virus carrier status
  24. Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
  25. Hyperlipaemia
  26. Hypo-ovarianism
  27. Insomnia
  28. Labour pain
  29. Lactation, deficiency
  30. Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
  31. Ménière disease
  32. Neuralgia, post-herpetic
  33. Neurodermatitis
  34. Obesity
  35. Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
  36. Osteoarthritis
  37. Pain due to endoscopic examination
  38. Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
  39. Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome)
  40. Postextubation in children
  41. Postoperative convalescence
  42. Premenstrual syndrome
  43. Prostatitis, chronic
  44. Pruritus
  45. Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
  46. Raynaud syndrome, primary
  47. Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
  48. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
  49. Retention of urine, traumatic
  50. Schizophrenia
  51. Sialism, drug-induced
  52. Sjögren syndrome
  53. Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
  54. Spine pain, acute
  55. Stiff neck
  56. Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
  57. Tietze syndrome
  58. Tobacco dependence
  59. Tourette syndrome
  60. Ulcerative colitis, chronic
  61. Urolithiasis
  62. Vascular dementia
  63. 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:

  1. Chloasma
  2. Choroidopathy, central serous
  3. Colour blindness
  4. Deafness
  5. Hypophrenia
  6. Irritable colon syndrome
  7. Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury
  8. Pulmonary heart disease, chronic
  9. Small airway obstruction

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment:

  1.  Breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
  2. Coma

  3. Convulsions in infants

  4. Coronary heart disease (angina pectoris)

  5. Diarrhoea in infants and young children

  6. Encephalitis, viral, in children, late stage

  7. Paralysis, progressive bulbar and pseudobulbar

 Source: World Health Organization Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trial