According to traditional Chinese medical practices, acupuncture is a complete health technique that is used by trained professionals, stimulating certain points of the body by inserting needles into the skin. Today this practice is one of the most popular practices in the west. This approach of health was first originated in ancient China more than 2,000 years ago and has been evolving since.

It is used to treat a range of diseases, mostly stress and pain-related symptoms. The use of acupuncture and other Chinese techniques are gaining popularity in the Western countries over the past several decades. Acupuncture is able to treat the following conditions:
- Chronic pain and back problems.
- Muscle pain and spasms.
- Neck pain.
- Knee Pain.
- Digestive and gastric problems.
- Osteoarthritis etc.
Acupuncture Safe or Not
The World Health Organisation (WHO) consider acupuncture to be considered safe only if performed by the trained and experienced practitioner using sterile needles. Therefore, it is very important to go to an experienced and well-trained professional who act carefully about using clean needles. For this very reason, the FDA in the USA has regulated the needles of acupuncture as medical devices and also regulated to use sterile needles, till date, no other country posed regulations for this purpose.
The Ways it Helps
- Reducing Migraines and Headaches: According to a research, acupuncture is a valuable but non-pharmacological tool in the patients with regular chronic tension-type headaches. After multiple clinical trials, the researcher found out that this treatment is effective for headaches and migraine.
- Improves Arthritis Pain, Chronic Pain, and Neck Pain: Acupuncture proves to be effective against chronic back pain. In Berlin, many patients with chronic back pain are treated with acupuncture and a significant difference in pain is reported after eight weeks of treatments in the patients.
- Insomnia Treatment: A report from Chinese Medicine University shows a beneficial effect of acupuncture in reducing the symptoms of insomnia, compared with no treatment. The overall analysis founds out that patients who are taking herbal treatments of medications to help with the sleep showed much better effects after taking acupuncture treatment.
- Chemotherapy Recovery: According to many studies, acupuncture can help in boosting immunity and speeding up the recovery process after chemotherapy. It is also by a researcher that the treatment of acupuncture improves the platelet count and immunity.
- Prevent Cognitive Decline: Studies on the topic also claimed that acupuncture is effective at reducing Parkinson’s disease. Studies also suggest that acupuncture can also relieve the symptoms of age-related cognitive decline as it creates a neural response in certain areas of the brain such as the thalamus, and putamen.
- Labor & Pregnancy: Many of the doctors are now suggesting acupuncture as a treatment to reduce the pain of labor and pregnancy, balance hormones, and reduce stress. It is considered to be a safe treatment in pregnancy because it reduces emotional strain and physical symptoms experienced by mother.
Whether acupuncture is a treatment of the pathways and nerve systems, it proves to be a very viable treatment option in most of the studies.