This is a basic requirement of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prior to therapy. The patient's complaints are studied and examination of tongue, pulse and other organ systems is made to arrive at a TCM diagnosis.

Treatment of a patient rests on restoring the delicate balance between the five elements and thereby the organ pairs themselves.

The duration of treatment depends on the chronicity of the disease and impaired energy flow in the channels and integrity of the organ systems themselves.

Virtually all diseases except cancers, infections and surgical conditions are treatable by acupuncture. However, even the cachexia associated with chemotherapy for cancers can also be treated by acupuncture.

The World Health Organization (WHO), in its 2003 report has classified diseases that can be treated successfully by acupuncture into four categories as follows:

a. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved through controlled trials to be an effective treatment

• Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
  Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
  Biliary colic
  Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
  Dysentery, acute bacillary
  Dysmenorrhoea, primary
  Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
  Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
  Headache
  Hypertension, essential
  Hypotension, primary
  Induction of labour
  Knee pain
  Leukopenia
  Low back pain
  Malposition of fetus, correction of
  Morning sickness
  Nausea and vomiting
  Neck pain
  Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
  Periarthritis of shoulder
  Postoperative pain
  Renal colic
  Rheumatoid arthritis
  Sciatica
  Sprain
  Stroke
  Tennis elbow
  

b. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof /studies is/are needed

• Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
  Acne vulgaris
  Alcohol dependence and detoxification
  Bell’s palsy
  Bronchial asthma
  Cancer pain
  Cardiac neurosis
  Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
  Cholelithiasis
  Competition stress syndrome
  Craniocerebral injury, closed
  Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
  Earache
  Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
  Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
  Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
  Female infertility
  Facial spasm
  Female urethral syndrome
  Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
  Gastrokinetic disturbance
  Gouty arthritis
  Hepatitis B virus carrier status
  Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
  Hyperlipaemia
  Hypo-ovarianism
  Insomnia
  Labour pain
  Lactation, deficiency
  Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
  Ménière disease
  Neuralgia, post-herpetic
  Neurodermatitis
  Obesity
  Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
  Osteoarthritis
  Pain due to endoscopic examination
  Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
  Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome)
  Post-Extubation in children
  Postoperative convalescence
  Premenstrual syndrome
  Prostatitis, chronic
  Pruritus
  Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
  Raynaud syndrome, primary
  Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
  Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
  Retention of urine, traumatic
  Schizophrenia
  Sialism, drug-induced
  Sjögren syndrome
  Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
  Spine pain, acute
  Stiff neck
  Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
  Tietze syndrome
  Tobacco dependence
  Tourette syndrome
  Ulcerative colitis, chronic
  Urolithiasis
  Vascular dementia
  Whooping cough (pertussis)
  

c. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult.

• Chloasma
  Choroidopathy, central serous
  Colour blindness
  Deafness
  Hypophrenia
  Irritable colon syndrome
  Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury
  Pulmonary heart disease, chronic
  Small airway obstruction
  

d. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment

• Breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
  Coma
  Convulsions in infants
  Coronary heart disease (angina pectoris)
  Diarrhoea in infants and young children
  Encephalitis, viral, in children, late stage

Opthalmic diseases like Retinitis pigmentosa, Optic Atrophy, Night Blindness, Cataracts, Myopia, Corneal Ulcers, Glaucoma (Both Open and Closed angle), Conjuctivitis (Acute &n Chronic), Hay fever, Watery eyes, Crossed eyes, post-stroke ocular disease and blepharitis (eyelid diseases) have all been successfully treated by acupuncture and a TCM approach. 

 

This list is neither comprehensive nor complete and there are many more conditions that benefit from acupuncture. Please call on us or visit with an appointment to know more.

Please do bring all the investigation reports like x-rays, CT-scans, MRI, laboratory reports, surgical reports, discharge summaries and other medical documents for review during your visit.