World Health Organization Reports: ACUPUNCTURE WORKS

by Paul House, September 16, 1980
 

The World Health Organization of the United Nations now recommends acupuncture for the treatment of at least 47 different illnesses.

"We don't know how it works, but acupuncture does work and we recommend it in treating the illnesses", said Dr. Robert Bannerman who is head of WHO's traditional medicine program in Geneva.

"Extraordinary progress has been made in acupuncture since the late 1950's. Some people claim 200 illnesses can be treated using acupuncture and Western medicine combined."

But WHO has drawn up a list of 47 illnesses which lend themselves to treatment by acupuncture. Dr. Bannerman was among 15 experts from 12 countries who took part in a WHO inter-regional seminar in Peking last year.

After witnessing the remarkable achievements of acupuncture in China, the WHO experts recommended that the Oriental medical treatment be used in the following illnesses:

• Acute sinusitis, the common cold, runny nose (rhinitis), acute tonsillitis, acute bronchitis, bronchial asthma (especially in children), acute conjunctivitis, central retinitis, myopia in children, cataracts if there are no complications.

• Toothache, post-extraction pain, gingivitis, acute and chronic pharyngitis, hiccups, spasms of the esophagus and cardia, gastroptosis (abnormal lowering of the stomach), acute and chronic gastritis, gastric hyperacidity, pain relief for chronic duodenal ulcers and acute duodenal ulcers (if there are no complications).

• Acute and chronic colitis, acute bacillary dysentery, constipation, diarrhea, paralytic ileus (blockage of the small bowel, often after an abdominal operation), headache, migraine, trigeminal neuralgia, facial palsy in its early stages, paresis following a stroke, peripheral neuropathies (loss of feeling in the outer nerves).

• Sequelae of poliomyelitis in its early stages (weakness in the leg), Meniere's disease (ear problem which causes dizziness), neurogenic bladder dysfunction, wetting the bed at night, pains in the ribs (intercostal neuralgia), cervicobrachial syndrome (pains in the neck, shoulders, and along the arms).

• Frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, sciatica, low back pain, and osteoarthritis.