Most people know that Chinese medicine and acupuncture offers pain relief, but many diseases are treatable with this form of alternative healthcare. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and their latest compilation of research, the following diseases and conditions are treatable with acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

1. Diseases, symptoms or conditions which are treatable by acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (TCM) and have been proved—through controlled trials—to be an effective treatment:

• Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
  http://www.sc.edu/usctimes/articles/2003/2003-10/acupuncture_research.html

• Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever), allergic disease

• Biliary colic

• Depression/anxiety (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
  http://my.webmd.com/content/article/75/89739.htm

• Dysentery, acute bacillary

• Dysmenorrhoea, primary
  http://www.update-software.com/abstracts/ab002123.htm

• Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)

• Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)

• Glaucoma
  http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Health-problems/Glaucoma - researchAltTherapies.htm

• Headache

• Hypertension, essential
  Acupuncture and Hypertension

• Hypotension, primary

• Induction of labour

• Knee pain
  http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2004/acu-osteo/pressrelease.htm
  http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/acupuncture.rm (Video)

• Leukopenia

• Low back pain

• Malposition of fetus, correction of

• Menopause

• 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

2. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which are treatable and the therapeutic effect of acupuncture and Chinese medicine (TCM) has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

• Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)

• Acne vulgaris
  http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Health-problems/Acne - researchAltTherapies.htm

• Alcohol dependence and detoxification
  http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Health-problems/Alcoholism - researchAltTherapies.htm#Acupuncture

• Bell’s palsy
  http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Therapies/acup-bells.htm

• Bronchial asthma

• Cancer pain
  Acupuncture for Neck and Shoulder Pain Following Neck Surgery in Cancer Patients

• Cardiac neurosis
  http://www.acupuncture.com/Research/ResInd.htm#2

• Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation

• Cholelithiasis

• Competition stress syndrome

• Craniocerebral injury, closed

• Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent

• Earache

• Epidemic haemorrhagic fever

• Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)

• Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection

• Female infertility

• Facial spasm

• Female urethral syndrome

• Fibromyalgia and fasciitis

• Gastrokinetic disturbance

• Gouty arthritis

• Hepatitis B virus carrier status

• Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)

• HIV
  Acupuncture and Moxa- A RCT for Chronic Diarrhea in HIV Patients

• Hyperlipaemia

• Hypo-ovarianism

• Insomnia

• Labour pain

• Lactation, deficiency

• Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic

• Ménière disease

• Neuralgia, post-herpetic

• Neurodermatitis

• Obesity

• Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence

• Osteoarthritis
  http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2004/acu-osteo/pressrelease.htm
  http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/acupuncture.rm (Video)

• Pain due to endoscopic examination

• Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans

• Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome)

• Postextubation in children

• Postoperative convalescence

• Premenstrual syndrome

• Prostatitis, chronic

• Pruritus

• Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome

• Raynaud syndrome, primary

• Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection

• Reflex sympathetic dystrophy

• Retention of urine, traumatic

• Schizophrenia

• Sialism, drug-induced

• Sjögren syndrome

• Sore throat (including tonsillitis)

• Spine pain, acute

• Stiff neck

• Temporomandibular joint dysfunction

• Tietze syndrome

• Tinnitus

• Tobacco dependence

• Tourette syndrome

• Ulcerative colitis, chronic

• Urolithiasis

• Vascular dementia

• Whooping cough (pertussis)

3. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture and Chinese medicine (TCM) is worth trying because they are not easily treatable by conventional therapies:

• Chloasma

• Choroidopathy, central serous

• Colour blindness

• Deafness

• Hypophrenia

• Irritable colon syndrome
  Acupuncture for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

• Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury

• Pulmonary heart disease, chronic

• Small airway obstruction

4. Treatable diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture or Chinese medicine (TCM) may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment:

• Breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases

• Coma

• Convulsions in infants

• Coronary heart disease (angina pectoris)

• Diarrhoea in infants and young children

• Encephalitis, viral, in children, late stage

• Paralysis, progressive bulbar and pseudobulbar

Other TCM and acupuncture research links.
http://nccam.nih.gov/
http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Therapies/Acupuncture-Research.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/archive/20040823/pubs/cbm/acupuncture.html