December 2, 1997 – In a report released on November 5, the US government’s National Institutes of Health officially recognized acupuncture as an effective treatment for postoperative pain, nausea associated with chemotherapy, and pregnancy. and pain resulting from dental surgeries.
The 12 members of the committee also unanimously concluded that acupuncture could be an effective treatment for several other types of pain, such as headaches, menstrual cramps, withdrawal syndromes, fibromyalgia, lower back pain, syndrome. carpal tunnel and asthma, but the evidence was weaker than in the first group of pain.
Committee members paid attention, among other things, to the role of endogenous opioid peptides in the analgesic effects of acupuncture. We know that acupuncture treatments release opioid peptides and that its analgesic effects are partially explained by their role. This hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that opioid antagonists, such as naxalone, suppress this analgesic effect. Committee chairman David J. Ramsay, president of the University of Maryland, said “more serious research is needed to validate what appears to be of use to millions of Americans.” According to the World Health Organization, there are 10,000 acupuncturists in the United States and 3,000 of them are doctors. In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration estimated that Americans spent $ 500 million on approximately 9 to 12 million acupuncture treatments.
Currently, 34 states in the United States in one way or another regulate the practice of acupuncture by non-physicians and have established training standards leading to certification.
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