Acupuncture is the subject of many ongoing research studies, into many differing ailments.

People who have tried acupuncture usually speak highly of it, even though they admit to being baffled by it. 

People who have never tried acupuncture are often sceptical, it can seem too 'other' to our mainstream medical model.

Nonethless, acupuncture is widely used in many countries, such as China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and increasingly in Western society too. Like it or not, Chinese Medicine is precise and analytical, and scientific studies of many kinds are increasingly bearing this out. For those of you who are sceptical, or who simply want to learn more, here are details of some studies /research which you may find useful;

• University of Maryland, Eric Manheimer, published an authorative review of acupuncture's effect  on IVF treatment in the British Medical Journal. His report was based on seven studies since 2002, and involved women who had been treated with either sham acupuncture, no acupuncture, or real acupuncture. It was shown that genuine acupuncture could increase a woman's chance of pregnancy be 65%.
  

• The response to acupuncture of 18 anxious adult subjects who complained of insomnia in an open prepost clinical trial study was assessed by the authors of the study. After five weeks acupuncture treatment they found a significant nocturnal increase in endogenous melatonin secretion and significant improvements in polysomnographic measures of sleep onset latency, arousal index, total sleep time and sleep efficiency. They also found significant reductions in state and trait anxiety scores. These objective findings are consistent with clinical reports of acupuncture's relaxant effects. Acupuncture treatment may be of value for some categories of anxious patients with insomnia.

Spence DW, et al. Acupuncture increases nocturnal melatonin secretion and reduces insomnia and anxiety: a preliminary report. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 16(1):19-28.