The many benefits of Acupuncture

Over its 2,500 years of development, a wealth of experience has accumulated in the practice of acupuncture, attesting to the wide range of diseases and conditions that can be effectively treated with this approach. Acupuncture has been used throughout the world, particularly since the 1970s.  In recognition of the increasing worldwide interest in the subject, the World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted a symposium on acupuncture in June 1979 in Beijing, China.

The past two decades have seen extensive studies on acupuncture, and great efforts have been made to conduct controlled clinical trials that include the use of “sham” acupuncture or “placebo” acupuncture controls. In addition, experimental investigations on the mechanism of acupuncture have been carried out.

In 1996, a draft report on the clinical practice of acupuncture was reviewed at the WHO Consultation on Acupuncture held in Cervia, Italy.  The objective of this publication is to provide a review and analysis of controlled trials of acupuncture therapy with a view to strengthening and promoting the appropriate use of acupuncture in health care systems throughout the world.

Acupuncture literally means to puncture with a needle. However, the application of needles is often used in combination with moxibustion and may also involve the application of other kinds of stimulation to certain points.

Generally speaking, acupuncture treatment is safe if it is performed properly by a well-trained practitioner. Unlike many drugs, it is non-toxic, and adverse reactions are minimal. This is probably one of the chief reasons why acupuncture is so popular in the treatment of chronic pain in many countries. As mentioned previously, acupuncture is comparable with morphine preparations in its effectiveness against chronic pain, but without the adverse effects of morphine, such as dependency. 

To date, modern scientific research studies have revealed the following actions of acupuncture:

● Inducing analgesia

● Protecting the body against infections

● Regulating various physiological functions.

In reality, the first two actions can also be attributed to the regulation of physiological functions.  The therapeutic effects of acupuncture are thus brought about through its regulatory actions on various systems, so that it can be regarded as a nonspecific therapy with a broad spectrum of indications, particularly helpful in functional disorders.

In recent decades, numerous clinical trials have been reported; however, only formally published articles that meet one of the following criteria are included in this review:

● Randomised controlled trials (mostly with sham acupuncture or conventional therapy as control) with an adequate number of patients observed;

● Nonrandomised controlled clinical trials with an adequate number of patients observed and comparable conditions in the various groups prior to treatment.

The various conditions in which Acupuncture has been found to be effective include:

Pain: The effectiveness of acupuncture analgesia has already been established in controlled clinical studies. As mentioned previously, acupuncture analgesia works better than a placebo for most kinds of pain, and its effective rate in the treatment of chronic pain is comparable with that of morphine.

Because of the side-effects of long-term drug therapy for pain and the risks of dependence, acupuncture analgesia can be regarded as the method of choice for treating many chronically painful conditions.

The analgesic effect of acupuncture has also been reported for the relief of eye pain due to subconjunctival injection.

Head and Face:  The use of acupuncture for treating chronic pain of the head and face has been studied extensively. For tension headache, migraine and other kinds of headache due to a variety of causes, acupuncture has performed favourably in trials comparing it with standard therapy, sham acupuncture or mock transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). The results suggest that acupuncture could play a significant role in treating such conditions.

Chronic facial pain, including craniomandibular disorders of muscular origin, also responds well to acupuncture treatments.

To be continued...

The author is acupuncturist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Write in at kapuracu@airtelmail.in (The 15th National Conference of the AAI is being held from 6th to 9th December, 2012, in New Delhi. All practitioners of acupuncture in India and abroad are invited to attend this conference.  For details, visit: www.aaicon.in)