acupuncture

In alternative medicine, a system of inserting long, thin metal needles into the body at predetermined points to relieve pain, as an anaesthetic in surgery, and to assist healing. The needles are rotated manually or electrically. The method, developed in ancient China and increasingly popular in the West, is thought to work by stimulating the brain's own painkillers, the endorphins.

Acupuncture is based on a theory of physiology that posits a network of life-energy pathways, or ‘meridians’, in the human body and some 800 ‘acupuncture points’ where metal needles may be inserted to affect the energy flow for purposes of preventative or remedial therapy or to produce a local anaesthetic effect. Numerous studies and surveys have attested the efficacy of the method, which is widely conceded by orthodox practitioners despite the lack of an acceptable scientific explanation.