Introduction

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a broad definition of acupuncture is the stimulation of certain points on the body (acupuncture points) using needling, moxibustion, electricity, laser, or acupressure for therapeutic purposes.¹ The Standard Acupuncture Nomenclature published by the WHO listed about 400 acupuncture points and 20 meridians connecting most of the points.² Results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown that acupuncture is effective in treating dozens of disorders¹ such as osteoarthritis ^{3, 4, 5} pelvic and back pain ⁶ neck pain ⁷ migraine and tension headache ^8,9 nausea/vomiting ¹⁰ and inflammatory bowel disease.¹¹ Mixed results widely exist in acupuncture research¹² for various reasons. Many neurohumoral ^{13, 14, 15, 16} mechanical and growth control effects of acupuncture¹⁸ have been observed. Several models of acupuncture mechanism have been proposed. The focus of this article is on the biological models of acupuncture which can meet the gold standard of science with multiple independently confirmed predictions. Read More...