Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an ancient form of healthcare that has been practiced throughout the Asian world for 5000 years. Historically and up until this very day, Chinese medicine is perhaps the most widely used form of medicine throughout the world, as billions of people have used it as their primary form of care.
TCM incorporates the use of:
Traditional Chinese Diagnosis
Acupuncture
Auricular (Ear) Acupuncture
Acupressure
Cupping
Herbs
Lifestyle & Diet Therapies
The most common use of acupuncture in North America is for pain-relief or healing injuries. Acupuncture helps promote the body’s natural healing mechanisms and studies show it is effective for reducing pain plus a number of other health concerns.
Acupuncture has been studied in case-controlled clinical studies for the following diseases, symptoms or conditions:
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Biliary colic (abdominal pain from gallstones)
Depression
Dysentery (intestinal infection)
Dysmenorrhoea (menstrual pain/cramping)
Upper GI pain including peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis
Facial pain (including TMJ disorders)
Headache
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Hypotension (low blood pressure)
Induction of labor
Knee pain
Leukopenia (low white blood cell count)
Low back pain
Malposition of fetus, correction (i.e. breech, etc)
Morning sickness
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Dental pain
Periarthritis of shoulder (limited range of motion and inflammatory issues, such as ‘frozen shoulder’)
Post-operative pain
Renal colic (abdominal pain from kidney stones)
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Sprain
Stroke
Tennis elbow
(this is not an exhaustive list)
As you can see, there certainly are a number of pain syndromes that have been deemed by research to be treatable with acupuncture, but a variety of non-pain conditions as well. Here is a summary document of accumulated evidence for Acupuncture: Acupuncture Evidence Project.
Please note: Dr. Tara Guzzo, N.D., R.Ac. is both a registered naturopathic doctor and a registered acupuncturist in Ontario.