Is there scientific evidence that acupuncture is effective?
I have to admit, I’m a data geek. I have nearly 30 years of experience in market research. Designing research, gathering data, analyzing thousands of pages of information, distilling it to make sense and writing about it.. these things make me happy. I can’t draw a picture, or build anything, or play the guitar, or bake cakes—but I have spent a lot of time working with data—and much of that data has been related to healthcare.
Acupuncture gives practitioners like me the chance to straddle Eastern and Western medicine, the old ways and the new. We have acupuncture texts that go back to ~200 BC, and we have modern data that looks at whether acupuncture works, and if so, how. The “how” piece is still being tackled—although we are getting some good information in recent studies. I’ll save that for another post.
As someone who has spent decades entrenched in data, it makes me happy to see there is a lot of evidence showing that acupuncture is effective. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends acupuncture for over 100 conditions. Controlled trials have shown acupuncture works for a wide range of conditions and ailments, including headaches, allergies, pain, high and low blood pressure, chemo side effects, sciatica, gastritis, stroke and more. it even helps to turn breech babies!
The WHO also recognizes that acupuncture has therapeutic benefits for drug, tobacco and alcohol dependence, infertility, fibromyalgia, insomnia, shingles, TMJ, PCOS, PMS and much more—the list is extensive!
There is a growing body of proof from modern research that acupuncture works, and there are many trials that are ongoing. After thousands of years of use, we now have scientific back-up. As trials become better-designed and more sophisticated, the evidence will continue to grow.
The most important thing about providing acupuncture as part of a person’s healthcare is that the patient sees results. As a data geek, I stay up-to-date on data trends and immerse myself in the findings. With that knowledge under my belt, I can treat patients with confidence and do my very best to help you on your healthcare journey.