All about acupuncture.

Acupuncture literally means to puncture using a needle. Having said that, the use of needles is usually in combination with moxibustion (the burning above the skin of specific herbs) and may also involve the use of other kinds of stimulation to selected points. In this publication “acupuncture” is used in a way to include traditional body needling, moxibustion, electric acupuncture, photo-acupuncture, microsystem acupuncture such as hand and scalp acupuncture, and application of pressure at selected sites. Acupuncture originally started in China many centuries ago and later spread to Japan, the Korean peninsula and elsewhere in Asia. Acupuncture is widely applied in health care systems in the countries of this part of the world. It is officially recognized by governments and well received by the general public. Although acupuncture was introduced to Europe as long ago as the early seventeenth century, uncertainty about its effectiveness is still here in countries where scientific medicine is the foundation of health care system, especially in those where acupuncture has not yet been widely practised. Public questions whether acupuncture has a true therapeutic effect. There is as a result a need for scientific research that evaluate the usefulness of acupuncture. Many clinical trials have been performed to examine the effectiveness of acupuncture. Some of these research have offered incontrovertible scientific evidence that acupuncture is more successful than placebo treatments in many conditions. For example, the proportion of chronic pain relieved by acupuncture is generally in the range 55-85%, comparing favourably with that of potent drugs such as morphine and far outweighs the placebo effect of 30-35%. Furthermore, the effect of acupuncture analgesia have been evaluated widely since the late 1970s, revealing the role of neural factors. The availability of acupuncture is also an important element to think about. The advantages of acupuncture inlude that it is convenient and has few side effects. Although the success rate of acupuncture treatment in managing kidney stones, for example, is established by comparative studies with other therapies, it is by no means as high as that of surgery. However, acupuncture treatment of kidney stones is still worth mentioning because of its simplicity, making it more acceptable to patients. There are also cases when acupuncture is not more practicable than regular treatment. For instance, the usefulness of acupuncture treatment of acute bacillary dysentery has been known to be comparable with that of furazolidone, however oral administration of furazolidone or other antidysenteric drugs is more convenient. The conditions of the health service in a given country should also be considered when evaluating acupuncture practice. In developing countries, where medicines are still lacking, the need for acupuncture can be substantial; proper use of acupuncture practice could benefit a large number of patients. On the other hand, in developed countries, where the health care system is well established, with sophisticated technology and a well-equipped infrastructure, acupuncture might be of great value in only a limited number of diseases. It could still serve as a valuable alternative therapy for many diseases or conditions. It is particularly of value in situations when the patient is frightened of the potential adverse effects of conventional treatments. As a matter of fact, in certain developed countries, the diseases for which patients seek help from acupuncturists tend to be beyond the scope of orthodox medicine.

The website of Britannia Acupuncture Clinic will provide you with more information on this topic.