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Acupuncture
Acupuncture involves stimulating specific anatomic points in the body for therapeutic purposes. Puncturing the skin with fine needles is the usual method,
but practitioners also use heat, pressure, friction, suction, or impulses of electromagnetic energy to stimulate the points.
Background:
In the past 40 years, acupuncture has become a well-known, reasonable available treatment in developed and developing countries. Acupuncture is used
to regulate or correct the flow of energy to restore health.
Uses/Research Base: Acupuncture is one of the most thoroughly
studied of the so-called complementary therapies. A series of controlled studies has shown
evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of a variety of
conditions, including osteoarthritis, chemotherapy induced nausea, asthma,
back pain, painful menstrual cycles, bladder instability, and migraine
headaches. Studies on acupuncture have also shown positive results in the
areas of chronic pain management and in the management of drug addiction,
two areas where conventional Western medicine has had only modest success.
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Content courtesy of
National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine.
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