I think there is some evidence that acupuncture, is occasionally an effective treatment, with better outcomes than than just a placebo would produce. When my sister did her nursing exams in the sixties, it was recognised as a system of pain relief. You don't have to buy into all the Chinese mumbo jumbo though, if you think of the needle interfering with the messages passing through the nerves a lot of the effects become a lot more creditable.
Interestingly Otzi the 4000 year old iceman of the Alps may have undergone acupuncture as a treatment. If that is so it dates to before the Chinese are supposed to have discovered it.
http://www.archaeologiemuseum.it/en/node/262
Interestingly Otzi the 4000 year old iceman of the Alps may have undergone acupuncture as a treatment. If that is so it dates to before the Chinese are supposed to have discovered it.
http://www.archaeologiemuseum.it/en/node/262