Daniel Mazanec, MD, FACP, FACR, Associate Director, Center for Spine Health Cleveland Clinic, discusses medical acupuncture, which is currently practiced by between 4000 and 5000 physicians in the US and is becoming popular for pain management, particularly in musculoskeletal medicine.

Summary:
Acupuncture is now used by around 5000 physicians in the US. Early research is demonstrating efficacy in the areas of pain relief in headache and muscoskeletal medicine.

References and Resources:
Böwing G, Zhou J, Endres HG, Coeytaux RR, Diener HC, Molsberger AF. Differences in Chinese diagnoses for migraine and tension-type headache: an analysis of the German acupuncture trials (GERAC) for headache. Cephalalgia. 2009 Jul 13

Kim MS, Cho YC, Moon JH, Pak SC. A characteristic estimation of bio-signals for electro-acupuncture stimulations in human subjects. Am J Chin Med. 2009;37(3):505-17.