Acupuncture is believed to balance yin and yang, keep the normal flow of energy unblocked, and restore health to the body and mind. A western interpretation would be that the acupuncture points stimulate the central nervous system, releasing chemicals into the muscles, spinal cord, and brain, promoting the body's natural healing abilities. An NIH consensus panel of scientists, researchers, and practitioners in 1997 determined that acupuncture has been clinically proven to be effective against nausea from surgery and chemotherapy, addiction, headaches, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, lower back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma, and to assist in stroke rehabilitation. Since then, other studies have looked at pain, ADHD, pregnancy complications, and other diseases and conditions. In 1996, the FDA approved acupuncture needles for use by licensed practitioners.
Needles are either new or sterilized.
Relatively few complications have been reported to the FDA, but bad results can happen from improper sterilization of needles and improper treatments. The needles are hair thin and don't cause the kind of pain associated with hollow hypodermic needles. In 1998, the NIH's Office of Alternative Medicine funded a study at the University of Arizona. Working with acupuncturist Rosa Schnyer, John Allen PhD devised a 16-week trial on 34 seriously depressed women. Then they devised a dummy treatment calling for needles in nonspecific places.