Acupuncture Research: What Science Shows

Acupuncture has been helping people for more than 3,000 years, and modern science keeps catching up. Hospitals, universities and the National Institutes of Health now study how it works and what it helps, and here are some of the studies I love sharing with my patients.

Doctors have noticed too. A review published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (1998) found that 51% of medical doctors believed acupuncture works, and acupuncture had the highest referral rate of all the therapies studied, with 43% of doctors sending patients for it.

Curious how it actually works in the body? Read How Acupuncture Works.

Pain

• Acupuncture for chronic pain: data from nearly 18,000 patientsArchives of Internal Medicine, 2012
• Acupuncture for chronic pain: the 2018 update, with more than 20,000 patientsThe Journal of Pain, 2018
• NIH review: drug-free approaches, including acupuncture, help common pain conditionsNational Institutes of Health, 2016
• German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC) for chronic low back painArchives of Internal Medicine, 2007
• Chinese medicine for neck pain and low back pain: a meta-analysisPLoS One, 2015
• Pain management with acupuncture in osteoarthritis: a meta-analysisBMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2014
• Acupuncture and stretching for neck trigger-point painComplementary Therapies in Medicine, 2014
• Gua sha for migraineForschende Komplementarmedizin, 2007
• Gua sha and acupuncture for neck problems from cervical spondylosisChinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, 2014

Sleep, Mood and Anxiety

• Acupuncture compared with zolpidem (Ambien) for insomniaAsian Journal of Psychiatry, 2012
• Acupressure for anxiety: a meta-analysisAcupuncture in Medicine, 2015
• Acupuncture for long-term anxiety that had not responded to other treatmentAcupuncture in Medicine, 2015
• Acupuncture for depression and its effect on serotonin levelsChinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, 2015

Digestion, Eyes, Skin and Allergies

• Korean hand acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)Gastroenterology Nursing, 2012
• Acupuncture worked better than artificial tears for dry eye: a meta-analysisEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2015
• Ear acupuncture for flat wartsInternational Journal of Dermatology, 2012
• Cupping at the navel point for allergic rhinitisChinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, 2014

Trusted Resources

Want to dig deeper? These are the places I trust for research and good information.

• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH)Acupuncture research from the National Institutes of Health
• Evidence Based AcupunctureClear, referenced reviews of acupuncture research
• Acupuncture Now FoundationStudy summaries for patients and doctors
• Society for Acupuncture ResearchThe leading research society in the field
• PubMedSearch thousands of published acupuncture studies