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In 1822. the Chinese Emperor, Dao Guang, issued a law removing the practice and teaching of acupuncture from the Imperial Medical Academy. This dismissal of the ancient superstition'changed the practice from an officially recognised conventional medicine to an experimental activity practiced only by witches and quack doctors, seemingly doomed to a long, slow death.The fact that 200 years ago acupuncture had fallen out of favour in China-the country of its birth-makes it even more surprising that its reputation has been rehabilitated to such an extent that it was recognised, in 2015, as a treatment on the NHS Choices website. Critics of acupuncture suggest that acupuncturists are pulling the wool over our eyes while they take the pound out of our pocket. On the other hand, supporters of this complementary therapy continue to pay for acupuncture and argue that acupuncture should be at the heart of people's care plans for disease, sickness, pain, and low mood.
Proponents of acupuncture disagree, claiming that it can benefit-or cure-a raft of ailments ranging from the physical to the mental and even the spiritual. The idea that having needles inserted in various points in the body could prove a better treatment for the chemical imbalances that lead to depression or anxiety than the right psychoactive drugs might seem silly to some people. However, a growing number of people are throwing away their antidepressants and replacing them with a course of acupuncture. Meanwhile, others go further, citing acupuncture as their main support in overcoming an addiction to legal or illegal drugs.
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The most common reason for a course of acupuncture is to gain relief from pain. While much of the evidence for acupuncture is unreliable, there is an increasing bank of evidence to support the idea that acupuncture can treat back pain, particularly pain located in the lower back. A review of 29 studies undertaken by Andrew Vickers in 2012 found that acupuncture had a clear and strong effect on chronic back pain. This comes as heartening news to the estimated 8 million people in the UK who suffer from chronic pain. However, those who turn to acupuncture in the hope of a cure rather than relief are still waiting for science to back up their beliefs.
Acupuncture has been indicated as a potential cure for an ear condition called Tinnitus, which involves a ringing sound in the ear sometimes accompanied by pain. A small-scale study
carried out in 1998 by Furugard et al. found that acupuncture healed the symptoms of Tinnitus in 45% of sufferers. However, these results were reduced in the long term when it was
discovered that the symptoms were only relieved temporarily and that in the long term, the condition returned in most cases. In 2000, a systematic and comprehensive study carried out by
the US National Institute of Health found no link between acupuncture and a cure for Tinnitus, thus severely undermining the case for acupuncture as a cure for specific conditions.
Considering the lack of supporting evidence, it is surprising that acupuncture has garnered a reputation for reversing the decline of Parkinson's disease. Symptoms of that progressive disease include tremors, decreased mobility, and stiffness. These symptoms are reported to have been relieved and indeed reversed by acupuncture in some patients. However, this reversal has only ever been reported by individuals and never substantiated by science. A comprehensive review of the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating Parkinson's was carried out in Korea between 2000 and 2007 by Myong Soo Lee and Edzard Ernst. They did not find any proof that acupuncture has any positive effect for Parkinson's sufferers beyond being an aid for
sleep.
During the last few years, acupuncture has failed to find proof in a number of scientific studies, but it has continued to gain ground as a holistic therapy embraced by ex-addicts as one of the main contributory factors in beating their addictions. Many rehabilitation centres have added their support to this view by incorporating acupuncture into their daily programs.
