Chinese medicine has a history reaching back as far as several thousand years. Acupuncture has been a part of that history, with the first recordings found in the ancient Chinese medical text: Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine), from about 100 BCE.

There are more than 2,000 acupuncture points on the body which are all connected by 20 different channels, or meridians. Within these channels flows qi ("chi") between the surface of the body and the internal organs. Each point has a unique influence on the qi that flows through it, and using solid, sterile, single-use needles, the intention of acupuncture is to restore balance, relieve pain, increase blood circulation, and reduce inflammation. Diagnosis of patterns is based on ancient Chinese medical theories that use eight principles: yin/yang, internal/external, excess/deficiency, hot/cold. 

Thanks to extensive research conducted for over the past 60 years, the mechanisms for understanding how acupuncture relieves pain is better understood. The analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects associated with acupuncture have been shown to involve several classes of naturally produced opioid neuropeptides, as well as non-opioid neuropeptides. Additionally, many biochemical and signaling pathways have been identified as playing a direct role in how acupuncture achieves its clinical effects. (1)

Studies have demonstrated the effects of acupuncture on the central nervous system, such as with spinal reflexes, stimulating muscle relaxation and changes in visceral organs. Acupuncture has been shown to change functional connectivity in the brain, decreasing activity in limbic structures linked with stress and illness while also improving regulation of the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal axis, which is the primary system the body uses for regulating hormones and the physiological stress response. (2)

Acupuncture has also been shown to modulate parasympathetic activity, which is the branch of the autonomic nervous system associated with rest, relaxation, digestion and tissue healing. (3) (Read more about how acupuncture regulates the parasympathetic nervous system HERE.)

In an official report, Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials, the World Health Organization listed the following symptoms, diseases and conditions that have been shown through controlled trials to be treated effectively by acupuncture:

• 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

To view the official report, Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials by the World Health Organization, download the pdf.