Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating filiform needles into various points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes. The word acupuncture comes from the Latin ''acus,'' "needle", and ''pungere,'' "to prick".
According to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi (a "life energy"), flows. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice and continue to inform the practice of acupuncture, but there is no evidence to support their existence and they have not been reconciled with contemporary knowledge about biology, physics or chemistry.
© Matthew Lester Image Courtesy: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Many scholarly reviews have concluded that the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment can be explained largely through the placebo effect, while other studies have suggested some efficacy in the treatment of specific conditions.
Reports from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the American Medical Association (AMA) and various government reports have studied and commented on the efficacy (or lack thereof) of acupuncture. There is general agreement that acupuncture is safe when administered by well-trained practitioners using sterile needles, and that further research is appropriate.
Cosmetic acupuncture is also being increasingly used in attempts to reduce wrinkles and age-lines.
Further Reading
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