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The WHO lists

   The World Health Organization recognized 28 diseases, conditions, and symptoms in which acupuncture has been ‘proved (through controlled trials) to be an effective treatment’. These are:

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  1. Rheumatoid arthritis

  2. Sciatica

  3. Headache

  4. Low back pain

  5. Knee pain

  6. Hypertension, essential

  7. Hypotension, primary

  8. Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)

  9. Stroke

  10. Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)

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

  12. Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy

  13. Biliary colic

  14. Dysentery, acute bacillary

  15. Dysmenorrhoea, primary

  16. Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)

  17. Induction of labour

  18. Leukopenia

  19. Malposition of fetus, correction of

  20. Morning sickness

  21. Nausea and vomiting

  22. Neck pain

  23. Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)

  24. Periarthritis of shoulder

  25. Postoperative pain

  26. Renal colic

  27. Sprain

  28. Tennis elbow

   In addition to this, the World Health Organization stated that there are 63 other conditions and diseases that could get relief from acupuncture because its therapeutic effect has been shown.

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

  2. Acne vulgaris

  3. Alcohol dependence and detoxification

  4. Bell’s palsy

  5. Bronchial asthma

  6. Cancer pain

  7. Cardiac neurosis

  8. Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation

  9. Cholelithiasis

  10. Competition stress syndrome

  11. Craniocerebral injury, closed

  12. Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent

  13. Earache

  14. Epidemic haemorrhagic fever

  15. Epistaxis, simple (without generalised or local disease)

  16. Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection

  17. Female infertility

  18. Facial spasm

  19. Female urethral syndrome

  20. Fibromyalgia and fasciitis

  21. Gastrokinetic disturbance

  22. Gouty arthritis

  23. Hepatitis B virus carrier status

  24. Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpes virus 3)

  25. Hyperlipaemia

  26. Hypo-ovarianism

  27. Insomnia

  28. Labour pain

  29. Lactation, deficiency

  30. Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic

  31. Ménière disease

  32. Neuralgia, post-herpetic

  33. Neurodermatitis

  34. Obesity

  35. Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence

  36. Osteoarthritis

  37. Pain due to endoscopic examination

  38. Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans

  39. Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome)

  40. Postextubation in children

  41. Postoperative convalescence

  42. Premenstrual syndrome

  43. Prostatitis, chronic

  44. Pruritus

  45. Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome

  46. Raynaud syndrome, primary

  47. Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection

  48. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy

  49. Retention of urine, traumatic

  50. Schizophrenia

  51. Sialism, drug-induced

  52. Sjögren syndrome

  53. Sore throat (including tonsillitis)

  54. Spine pain, acute

  55. Stiff neck

  56. Temporomandibular joint dysfunction

  57. Tietze syndrome

  58. Tobacco dependence

  59. Tourette syndrome

  60. Ulcerative colitis, chronic

  61. Urolithiasis

  62. Vascular dementia

  63. Whooping cough (pertussis)

Acupuncture and the WHO

  Acupuncture has been in the interest of the World Health Organization for many decades. This organization has a series of meetings in the 80s, in which it has tried to put acupuncture on a firm scientific basis and create standards that would be accepted worldwide.

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