If you suffer from any of the conditions below you should seek suitably qualified medical advice in the first instance.
Some conditions where naturopathic therapies can help:
• Digestive disorders, e.g. constipation, diarrhea, IBS, gastritis, gastric reflux, bloating
• Respiratory disorders, e.g. asthma, sinusitis, colds and flu
• Urinary, menstrual and reproductive disorders
• Addictions, e.g. smoking (helping to quit)
• Sleep problems, e.g. insomnia, fatigue
• Emotional problems, e.g. ‘feeling stuck in life’, depression, anxiety
• Skin problems (Acne, Eczema, Psoriasis, aging)
- read an interview I gave with the online magazine optiderma here
Some of the conditions acupuncture can help (see also additional
fact sheets and
research reviews by the British Acupuncture Council - BAcC):
• Dental pain (ASA) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Nausea and vomiting (ASA) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Tension as well as migraine type headache (ASA) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Osteoarthritic knee pain (ASA) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Lower Back pain (ASA, CR, NICE) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Migraine (CR) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Tension headaches (CR) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Skin problems (Acne, Eczema, Psoriasis -
fact sheets by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Neck and arm pain (CR)
• Shoulder pain (CR) - (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Non-seasonal allergic rhinitis (CR) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Labour induction (CR)
• Labour pain relieve (CR)
• Assisted conception (CR) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
• Period pain (Dysmenorrhoea) (CR)
• Perennial allergic rhinitis (Witt et al. 2010 - systematic review)
• Anxiety (Pilkington et al. 2007 - systematic review) (
fact sheet by the Brit Acupuncture Council)
ASA: Approved by the Advertising Standards Authority (Implies that large scale double blind placebo controlled trials have found evidence that acupuncture is effective)
CR: Where Cochrane reviews have found evidence for positive outcomes with acupuncture (The Cochrane Collaboration, established in 1993, is an independent international network of people providing reviews on healthcare studies to help the formation of decisions about human healthcare. It is used by the NHS and the World Health Organisation)
www2.cochrane.org/reviews/
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, NICE, has recommended the use of acupuncture for lower back pain within their patient management recommendations (July 2009 – updated May 2010).
guidance.nice.org.uk/CG88/NICEGuidance/pdf/English
Evidence and references for above mentioned conditions:
Cochrane reviews:
Migraine: “…there is consistent evidence that acupuncture provides additional benefit to treatment of acute migraine attacks only or to routine care. There is no evidence for an effect of 'true' acupuncture over sham interventions, though this is difficult to interpret, as exact point location could be of limited importance. Available studies suggest that acupuncture is at least as effective as, or possibly more effective than, prophylactic drug treatment, and has fewer adverse effects. Acupuncture should be considered a treatment option for patients willing to undergo this treatment.”
[Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Manheimer E, Vickers A, White AR. Acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD001218. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001218.pub2]
Tension Headaches: “…the authors conclude that acupuncture could be a valuable non-pharmacological tool in patients with frequent episodic or chronic tension-type headaches.”
[Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Manheimer E, Vickers A, White AR. Acupuncture for tension-type headache. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD007587. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007587]
Neck tension and arm pain: “There is moderate evidence that those who received acupuncture reported less pain at short term follow-up than those on a waiting list. There is also moderate evidence that acupuncture is more effective than inactive treatments for relieving pain post-treatment and this is maintained at short-term follow-up.”
[Trinh K, Graham N, Gross A, Goldsmith CH, Wang E, Cameron ID, Kay TM, Cervical Overview Group . Acupuncture for neck disorders. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2006, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD004870. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004870.pub3]
Low Back Pain: "The data suggest that acupuncture and dry-needling may be useful adjuncts to other therapies for chronic low-back pain."
[Furlan AD, van Tulder MW, Cherkin D, Tsukayama H, Lao L, Koes BW, Berman BM. Acupuncture and dry-needling for low back pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD001351. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001351.pub2]
Shoulder pain: From the little evidence that there is, acupuncture may improve pain and function over the short term (2 to 4 weeks).
[Green S, Buchbinder R, Hetrick SE. Acupuncture for shoulder pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD005319. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005319]
Labour induction: “ Fewer women receiving acupuncture required use of induction methods compared with standard care.”
[Smith CA, Crowther CA. Acupuncture for induction of labour. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2004, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD002962. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD002962.pub2]
Labour pain relief: “ The review of 13 trials, with data reporting on 1986 women, found that acupuncture or acupressure may help relieve labour pain. Single or limited numbers of trials reported less intense pain, increased satisfaction with pain relief and reduced use of analgesic drugs with acupuncture compared with placebo or usual care. Acupressure also reduced pain intensity."
Smith CA, Collins CT, Crowther CA, Levett KM. Acupuncture or acupressure for pain management in labour. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2011, Issue 7. Art. No.: CD009232. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD009232
Nausea and vomiting: "We included 40 trials involving 4858 participants; four trials reported adequate allocation concealment. Twelve trials did not report all outcomes. Compared with sham treatment P6 acupoint stimulation significantly reduced: nausea, vomiting and the need for rescue antiemetics."
[Lee A, Fan LTY. Stimulation of the wrist acupuncture point P6 for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD003281. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003281.pub3]
Assisted conception: "There is evidence of benefit when acupuncture is performed on the day of embryo transfer (ET) on the live birth rate (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.29 to 2.77) but not when it is performed two to three days after ET (OR 1.79, 95% CI 0.93 to 3.44). There is no evidence of benefit on pregnancy outcomes when acupuncture is performed around the time of oocyte retrieval."
[Cheong YC, Hung Yu Ng E, Ledger WL. Acupuncture and assisted conception. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD006920. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006920.pub2]
Period pain (Dysmenorrhoea): Several trials were assessed. The studies found improvement in pain relieve (placebo control), reduction of menstrual symptoms (for example nausea, back pain) compared with medication and improvement in quality of life (control: usual care). The authors concluded: "Acupuncture may reduce period pain, however there is a need for further well-designed randomised controlled trials."
[Smith CA, Zhu X, He L, Song J. Acupuncture for primary dysmenorrhoea. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2011, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD007854. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007854.pub2]
Other systematic reviews:
Perennial allergic rhinitis: “There is some evidence that acupuncture might have specific effects in patients with PAR”
[Witt CM, Brinkhaus B.2010. Efficacy, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of acupuncture for allergic rhinitis - An overview about previous and ongoing studies.
Auton Neurosci. 157(1-2):42-5. Review]
Anxiety: “Positive findings are reported for acupuncture in the treatment of generalised anxiety disorder or anxiety neurosis but there is currently insufficient research evidence for firm conclusions to be drawn.”
[Pilkington K, Kirkwood G, Rampes H, Cummings M, Richardson J. 2007 Acupunct Med. 25(1-2):1-10. Acupuncture for anxiety and anxiety disorders--a systematic literature review.
The following conditions have presently limited evidence as evaluated by Cochrane reviews groups, which means mostly that the studies lack the methodological requirements, i.e. randomized double-blind controlled trials. However it is highly debatable whether this methodology developed for drug therapy is applicable to physical therapies such as acupuncture.
Chronic Asthma
Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis - hayfever (under review)
Nausea and vomiting (post-operative)
Uterine fibroids
Rheumatoid arthritis (inconclusive)
Female subfertility (under review)
Tennis elbow
Menopausal hot flushes (under review)
Parkinsons Disease
Restless leg syndrome
IBS (Acupuncture is as good as sham acupuncture and as other pharmacological treatments and better than psychotherapy)
PCOS (under review)
Knee pain (under review)
Pain in labour (under review)
Turning a breech baby (under review)
Depression (inconclusive, unclear whether acupuncture is just placebo effect)