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Edinburgh Natural Health Centre What can Acupuncture help with? We believe that many conditions benefit from acupuncture but current UK law administered by the Advertising Standards Authority now insists that only when ‘robust’ evidence is available may claims for efficacy actually be made. By ‘robust’ evidence they mean that neither the WHO (World Health Organisation) list of conditions treatable by acupuncture nor a similar list on the British NHS acupuncture evidence site is adequate. They regard such lists as being based only on positive evidence and not on all reviews including those of research conducted on a condition where the results were also found to be negative or inconclusive. We would point out that although, for convenience, conditions with names such as nausea, vomiting and dental pain are treated as such (and successfully according to their requirements for ‘robust’ evidence) acupuncturists don’t treat such conditions! What acupuncturists do treat are syndromes and meridian problems as defined in Chinese medicine. For example, ‘nausea’ isn’t such a syndrome. Nausea can arise in Chinese medicine from a multitude of syndromes, some easier to treat than others, such as - Liver qi stagnation with invasion of the Stomach - Stomach qi not descending - Stomach Heat - Stomach qi deficiency - Stomach Full condition - Heat in the Liver and Gall-Bladder - Cold in the Stomach, and so on. (Yes, there are more!) - A combination of the above When you visit your acupuncturist, you may think you are being treated for nausea, your presenting condition. Not so! Actually, you are being treated for one of the conditions in the list above, or a combination of them. If the treatment is successful, your nausea will improve – almost as a side effect. Is there anything your practitioner needs to know? Apart from the usual medical details (see Consultation), it is important that you let your practitioner know: If you have ever experienced a fit, faint or funny turn. If you have a pacemaker or any other electrical implants. If you have a bleeding disorder. If you are taking anti-coagulants or any other medication. If you have damaged heart valves or have any other particular risk of infection.