Is Acupuncture Safe?

Yes, it is very safe when practiced by a qualified practitioner and without any serious side effects, one of the reasons for its acceptance. The single-use stainless steel needles themselves are pre-sterilized, and they are disposed of after each treatment.

Acupuncture has been used by millions of Americans and is recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA regulates acupuncture needles as medical devices, and rates them in the category of “safe and effective.” The National Institutes of Health finished a two and one-half year study of acupuncture, electrical acupuncture, and microcurrent therapies, and published their Consensus Statement in November 1997. The Consensus Statement from the NIH states, “While it is often thought that there is substantial research evidence to support conventional medical practices; this is frequently not the case. This does not mean that these treatments are ineffective. The data in support of acupuncture are as strong as those for many accepted Western medical therapies. One of the advantages of acupuncture is that the incidence of adverse effects is substantially lower than that of many drugs or other accepted medical procedures used for the same conditions.”

The complete document from the NIH may be found at the National Institutes of Health Consensus Statement on Acupuncture, 1997.