10 Incredible Benefits of Acupuncture For Better Health and Well-Being

With the rise of natural medicine, more people are exploring the benefits of acupuncture to address various health concerns. Those who do so often want to reduce their reliance on medications and their side effects and promote holistic wellness through natural means. Acupuncture may be worth considering if your healthcare provider recommends it. Here are 10 fantastic benefits of acupuncture you could experience, plus a look at the methods behind the practice.

What is acupuncture?

Acupuncture involves sinking single-use needles under the skin to stimulate specific points of the body called acupoints. It’s a part of traditional Chinese medicine used primarily to relieve pain in sore body areas.

Acupuncture aims to balance one’s energy flow or life force called “chi.” In Chinese traditional medicine, an illness occurs when energy gets stuck on certain meridians or body pathways, disrupting the healthy flow. Acupuncture helps release the blockages and restore the body to normal health.

It’s worth noting acupuncture is part of alternative or complementary medicine, meaning it’s not widely recognized or used compared to standard medical treatments. More research on a broad scale is required to establish the effectiveness and safety of this intervention.

What are the benefits of acupuncture?

Modern practitioners have found various applications for acupuncture. Learn more about the benefits of acupuncture and a few ways it’s used in Western medicine.

1. Boosts immunity

The immune system is responsible for fighting diseases. Under normal circumstances, it should be in a state of steady balance to do two things — protect you from illness and prevent cells from being reactive and causing autoimmune disease.

If this immunity balance gets interrupted — whether by an organism bringing disease or cells self-reacting — acupuncture may help restore the immune system to its normal state. Due to this unique feature, experts believe it can potentially eliminate diseases by stabilizing the immune system.

2. Improves digestion

Acupuncture is often a complementary therapy in treating digestive concerns like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is a condition that causes bloating, constipation, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. One randomized controlled trial compared the effectiveness of acupuncture and medications — specifically polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 and pinaverium bromide — in treating IBS.

Researchers divided the participants into an acupuncture group — which received 18 acupuncture sessions — and a PEG 4000/pinaverium bromide group — which ingested the medications daily for six weeks. They also did a follow-up after 12 weeks.

At the end of the trial, the total IBS-symptom severity score decreased by 123.51 points in the acupuncture group, while medications reduced it by only 94.73 points. The result concluded acupuncture may be more effective than drugs in alleviating IBS, with effects that can last up to 12 weeks.

3. Promotes better sleep

Research also found acupuncture can be an effective drug-free treatment for people with insomnia. A review that included over 3,800 patients determined acupuncture was better than drugs at increasing sleep duration and improving sleep quality.

Several reasons contribute to dwindling sleep quality, one being the modern lifestyle. Regardless of the work titles, employees work longer hours and leave their workplace late, often leading to sleep deprivation. For example, over 40% of pilots say they don’t receive assigned rest before a flight, and 58% have worked on carriers with illegal rolling-rest policies.

When you need rest, acupuncture may be a helpful alternative to sleeping pills for treating sleep troubles. The mechanism behind its sleep-promoting benefit is its ability to increase melatonin secretion and promote normal brain function, encouraging people to relax their minds before bed.

[Check out these top tips for better sleep].

4. Improves mental clarity

Have you noticed how you get brain fog, short-term memory loss, or decreased focus — or a combination of all three — after a night of sleep deprivation? Quality shuteye is crucial to preserve your brain’s ability to learn, remember, and concentrate on tasks.

Since the benefits of acupuncture may help address sleeping troubles, it could also improve brain functions. If the root cause of brain fog and lack of focus is inadequate sleep, treating the underlying issue will ultimately resolve the problem. Waking up after a restful sleep makes you feel better and brings clarity, giving you sufficient mental bandwidth to pay attention to your tasks.

5. Eases depression and anxiety levels

Apart from seeing a psychiatrist, many health experts have started to consider the use of acupuncture in improving mental well-being. In a review that included 20 randomized controlled trials, acupuncture intervention helped reduce stress levels in those diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.

In another systematic review, acupuncture was found helpful in treating chronic pain with depression and was more effective than drug therapy. Experts suggested it could be a better alternative for patients who respond poorly to medication treatment for chronic pain with depression.

6. Relieves allergies

Allergic reactions happen when the immune system reacts to harmless foreign particles, like pollen or dust. In one study, roughly 105 patients with moderate to severe seasonal allergic rhinitis were divided into observation and control groups. The first group was treated with acupuncture, while the other group was not.

The seizure rate of the observation group was 84% — lower than the control group, which was 100%. The findings revealed acupuncture reduced the symptoms and incidence of seasonal allergic rhinitis and decreased the need for emergency drugs.

7. Supports weight loss

If you want to lose weight, acupuncture may be a beneficial supplementary intervention to fix imbalances in the hormonal system, metabolism, digestion, and oxidative stress. All these are factors in obesity or being overweight.

The needles that sink under the skin are supposed to help revitalize the organs and nerves affecting a person’s weight, such as the endocrine system and thyroid glands. The result is improved metabolism and energy.

8. Relieves pain

Instead of the conventional ice and heat packs or OTC medicines, you might want to try an alternative remedy to relieve neck and back pain. The benefits of acupuncture may help numerous conditions, such as aches associated with osteoarthritis and post-operation.

A 2020 review compared acupuncture with several drugs for relieving migraines. Acupuncture was slightly more effective than medications in soothing painful migraine symptoms.

(Note from Elly: I often find acupuncture is more effective for me personally in treating back pain, as compared to other bodywork therapies, such as chiropractic, osteopathy, and physiotherapy. Those treatments have their place and work wonders in many instances. I’m just saying I’ve personally had more lasting success with improving lower back pain after a series of acupuncture treatments).

9. Controls nausea and vomiting

Another health merit of acupuncture is it reduces nausea and vomiting. One study involved 134 cancer patients categorized into two groups, with the first group receiving true acupuncture and the second getting sham acupuncture. The group that had undergone true acupuncture lowered the severity of nausea and vomiting at a modest rate compared to the group that received sham acupuncture.

This benefit of acupuncture isn’t limited to cancer patients. Nausea and vomiting are signs of many health conditions. While they’re typically short-lived and get better with home remedies and OTC medications, you should visit your doctor for a diagnosis if they negatively impact your life. Ask if acupuncture can help.

(Note from Elly: I experienced significant improvements in morning sickness after a series of acupuncture treatments during pregnancy. It was the only treatment/approach that improved my morning sickness, and I tried several things!)

10. Improves skin health

There’s no cure for eczema, but acupuncture may be an excellent non-drug therapy for itchy, dry, and irritated skin. In a study among Koreans, people who received acupuncture two times a week for four weeks had minimized the frequency of flare-ups, lowered stress levels, and shrunk skin lesion sizes, which are all triggers for eczema.

Acupuncture is a supplementary intervention with minor side effects. It may be worth considering if you want to use natural means to improve skin conditions.

The benefits of acupuncture show promising outcomes 

People have used acupuncture for thousands of years, but its applications in Western medicine are constrained. Although evidence suggests its all-inclusive health benefits, the lack of wide-range studies restricts its potential as an adjunctive therapy in promoting holistic wellness.

In general, most systematic reviews confirmed the benefits of acupuncture with minor to zero health risks. If you’re experiencing issues with sleep, mental health, or digestion, ask your healthcare provider if it’s worth including acupuncture in your treatment plan.