Perhaps the most common question asked is “can acupuncture/herbal medicine treat X”, where X is something that they have, or a relative has, or someone else they know has.
We want to stress to these people that acupuncture, and East Asian medicine more generally, is a medical system in its own right and has been developing for a couple thousand years. No matter where a person is with their health, acupuncture and herbal medicine can be useful in some way, whether it is management of pain, regulation of stress or emotions, or bringing about a cure.
So a better question to ask might be “what can we expect when using acupuncture/herbal medicine for X”?
The best answer for this is to please schedule a consultation, as we want to look at each case individually to assess any potential for change.
If you want to know some of the things that acupuncture is widely considered suited for treating, then below is a list of conditions that the World Health Organization offers as suitable for treatment by acupuncture. This is a portion of their full list, so if you would like to see their original comments, please go here.
Acupuncture is good for treating:
Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
Acne vulgaris
Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
Alcohol dependence and detoxification
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Bell’s palsy
Biliary colic
Bronchial asthma
Cancer pain
Cardiac neurosis
Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
Cholelithiasis
Competition stress syndrome
Craniocerebral injury, closed
Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
Dysentery, acute bacillary
Dysmenorrhoea, primary
Earache
Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
Facial spasm
Female infertility
Female urethral syndrome
Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
Gastrokinetic disturbance
Gouty arthritis
Headache
Hepatitis B virus carrier status
Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
Hyperlipaemia
Hypertension, essential
Hypo-ovarianism
Hypotension, primary
Induction of labour
Insomnia
Knee pain
Labour pain
Lactation, deficiency
Leukopenia
Low back pain
Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
Malposition of fetus, correction of
Morning sickness
Ménière disease
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Neuralgia, post-herpetic
Neurodermatitis
Obesity
Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
Osteoarthritis
Pain due to endoscopic examination
Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
Periarthritis of shoulder
Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein-Leventhal syndrome)
Postextubation in children
Postoperative convalescence
Postoperative pain
Premenstrual syndrome
Prostatitis, chronic
Pruritus
Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
Raynaud syndrome, primary
Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
Renal colic
Retention of urine, traumatic
Rheumatoid arthritis
Schizophrenia
Sciatica
Sialism, drug-induced
Sjögren syndrome
Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
Spine pain, acute
Sprain
Stiff neck
Stroke
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
Tennis elbow
Tietze syndrome
Tobacco dependence
Tourette syndrome
Ulcerative colitis, chronic
Urolithiasis
Vascular dementia
Whooping cough (pertussis)