What they're saying: ABC, CBS, Fox News, Dr. Mehmet Oz, The Mayo Clinic, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and patients comment on acupuncture's effectiveness

ABC NEWS: A new medical study finds that acupuncture, an ancient form of healing that has been around for thousands of years, is as good as, or better than modern medicine in helping ease the side effects of breast cancer treatment. Acupuncture may alleviate some unpleasant side effects of hormone therapy. The findings, which were presented today at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's annual meeting in Boston, suggest that this ancient therapy can give cancer patients a wide range of benefits above modern medicine.

CBS NEWS.com: The Air Force, which runs the military's only acupuncture clinic, is training doctors to take acupuncture to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. A pilot program starting in March will prepare 44 Air Force, Navy and Army doctors to use acupuncture as part of emergency care in combat and in frontline hospitals, not just on bases back home. They will learn "battlefield acupuncture," a method Niemtzow developed in 2001 that's derived from traditional ear acupuncture but uses the short needles to better fit under combat helmets so soldiers can continue their missions with the needles inserted to relieve pain. The needles are applied to five points on the outer ear. Niemtzow says most of his patients say their pain decreases within minutes. The Navy has begun a similar pilot program to train its doctors at Camp Pendleton in California.

FOX NEWS: With seasonal allergies torturing one-third of Americans, ancient acupuncture can provide a new kind of relief. While over-the-counter medications often come with unwanted side-effects, acupuncture does not. This makes it a welcome alternative for people looking for a new way to combat allergies.

THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW FEATURING ACUPUNCTURE, 2009: Angela, an audience member who wanted to try acupuncture gave it a chance while on the show: The results are in! After a dozen needles were put in targeted places, Angela returns to the stage to report on how she feels, "I'm on cloud nine," she says. "I feel rejuvenated. The pain that I had was a constant radiating pain, and I don't feel it. Literally, I don't feel it. I feel wonderful." Angela says she's ready for more acupuncture treatments, too. This is good because acupuncturist Daniel Hsu says she'll need a few more sessions to really cure her shoulder. "The key is to have a few treatments back-to-back so it builds up on itself," he says. "Eventually she'll have no pain at all."

DR. MEHMET OZ ON THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW, 2009: Acupuncture has been around for 2,500 years in China. There are a billion people in another part of the world who use these therapies – The next big frontier in medicine is energy medicine. It's not the mechanistic part of the joints moving. It's not the chemistry of our body. It's understanding for the first time how energy influences how we feel.

DR. MEHMET OZ: Chinese acupuncture is finally getting under the skin of dieters by tapping into the body's many hidden energy meridians. The ancient practice of acupuncture helps to heal a host of ailments, and practitioners of Western medicine now embrace it to quell chronic pain, postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting, high blood pressure, addictions and weight loss. When fine needles are barely inserted into the skin along strategic points on the body it can restore balance to the flow of energy along rivers of Qi (pronounced chee), or life force.

VINCENT MAXWELL/Patient, Jacksonville, FL: Cleared up my sciatica. I was blown away. Three visits and I'm feeling fine!‎.

KRISTIE M./Patient, Jacksonville, FL: I moved to Jacksonville two years ago from Los Angeles. In LA I was treated for shoulder and neck pain by several acupuncturists with varying results (mostly good). About six months ago my shoulder and neck pain began to return. I'm really against taking pain medications so I thought I'd better do something as the pain was getting worse by the day. I saw an ad for Honeysett Acupuncture in Folio Weekly and thought I'd give them a try. I must say that Dr. Honeysett was the best acupuncturist I've ever been treated by. Her clinic was very nice, totally relaxing and I felt results after the first visit. My pain was totally gone after three visits. She even called me to check up and make sure I was doing ok. I give her the highest recommendation and have had two of my friends see her with similar results.

MAYO CLINIC STUDY: Acupuncture reduces symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Promising results have emerged, for example, showing efficacy of acupuncture in adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain. There are other situations such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma, in which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.

WebMD: Study Shows Acupuncture Trumps Standard Care for Back Pain Relief ... those in the acupuncture groups were also more likely than the usual-care group to continue to have improvement in dysfunction, with up to 65% of the acupuncture-treated patients but just 50% of the usual-care patients still reporting improvements.

DUKE MEDICINE NEWS AND COMMUNICATIONS: Acupuncture reduces pain and need for opioids after surgery.

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Relieves pain and improves function in knee osteoarthritis.
DR. RAYMOND CHANG, director of New York's Meridian Medical Group: Chang has been incorporating acupuncture into fertility treatments for the past decade. "Acupuncture provides better circulation and better blood flow to the womb. It will give a better chance for the eggs to be nourished and therefore carried."

TANYA EDWARDS, M.D., Medical Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Integrative Medicine: I recommend acupuncture all the time for patients who have nausea and vomiting related to chemotherapy, based on multiple studies that have been done. Preliminary studies suggest that acupuncture also may help increase a person’s white blood cell count. Low white blood cell counts are a significant problem for many patients taking chemotherapy.

BARRIE CASSILETH, PhD: Current data support the use of acupuncture for chronic headache, chronic neck pain, chronic prostatitis/pelvic pain, and symptoms associated with fibromyalgia. In addition, studies show benefits against peripheral neuropathy and a variety of other conditions. The role of acupuncture for symptom control in cancer is now well established, with substantial data supporting its ability to alleviate pain, chronic fatigue, postoperative and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and xerostomia.

HEINZ ENDRES, MD. WebMD.com: Acupuncture represents a highly promising and effective treatment option for chronic back pain.