For millions of people who live with pain, acupuncture is no longer an exotic curiosity. It is now widely accepted among the medical community.

And it is extremely popular with patients overall. A recent survey found almost 3.5 million Americans said they had acupuncture in the previous year.

Acupuncture is used as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative to threat an ever-growing list of disorders: addiction, stroke, headache or chronic migrain, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, lower back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, asthma, TMJ pain, and side effects from cancer treatment.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) states that an advantage of acupuncture treatment is that the rates of side effects are substantially lower than of many drugs or other accepted medical procedures that may be used for the same condition.