Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating filiform needles into various points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes. The word acupuncture comes from the Latin acus, “needle”, and pungere, “to prick”.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi (a “life energy”), flows. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice and continue to inform the practice of acupuncture. The earliest written record of acupuncture is the Chinese text Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) with elaboration of its history in the second century BCE medical text Huangdi Neijing (English: Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon).
Different variations of acupuncture are practiced and taught throughout the world. Acupuncture has been the subject of active scientific research since the late 20th century. Reports from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the American Medical Association (AMA) and various government reports have studied and commented on the efficacy of acupuncture. There is general agreement that acupuncture is safe when administered by well-trained practitioners using sterile needles.
In 2003, the World Health Organization’s Department of Essential Drugs and Medicine Policy published a report on acupuncture that listed a series of diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been demonstrated as an effective treatment:
- Acute bacillary dysentery
- Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
- Allergic rhinitis
- Biliary colic
- Depression
- Essential hypertension
- Headache
- Induction of childbirth and correction of the malposition of fetus
- Inflammation of the tissues surrounding the shoulder
- Leukopenia
- Nausea and vomiting including morning sickness
- Pain in the epigastrium, face, neck, tennis elbow, lower back, knee,
- during dentistry and after operations
- Primary dysmenorrhea
- Primary hypotension
- Renal colic
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sciatica
- Sprains
- Strokes