From tradition to healing: the promise of acupuncture in managing chronic fatigue syndrome.
Wang, Delong, Yang, Tiansong, Cui, Yang et al. · Frontiers in medicine · 2025 · DOI
Quick Summary
This article reviews what we know about ME/CFS and explores how acupuncture—a traditional Chinese medicine practice—might help treat it. The authors summarize research on what causes ME/CFS, how doctors diagnose it, and discuss both historical and modern approaches to using acupuncture and related techniques to manage symptoms.
Why It Matters
ME/CFS affects over 65 million people globally with disproportionate impact on women, older adults, and low-income populations. This comprehensive review bridges traditional and modern medical perspectives on acupuncture, potentially expanding treatment options for patients with limited effective therapies and summarizing current understanding of ME/CFS biological mechanisms.
Observed Findings
ME/CFS prevalence reached 45.2% after 4 weeks in patients with novel coronavirus infection
Women, people over 40, and low-income individuals are at higher susceptibility
Abnormalities identified in NK cell function, HPA axis, and energy/lipid metabolism in ME/CFS patients
Multiple acupuncture techniques discussed including electroacupuncture and acupoint catgut embedding
Combination approaches integrating acupuncture with traditional Chinese medicine and psychotherapy have been studied
Inferred Conclusions
Acupuncture and moxibustion have historical precedent and theoretical alignment with known ME/CFS pathophysiological mechanisms
Innovative acupuncture variants and multimodal treatment approaches warrant further investigation
Rigorous clinical trials, standardized efficacy measures, and international collaboration are needed to establish evidence base
Acupuncture may modulate immune, neuroendocrine, and metabolic dysfunction in ME/CFS
Remaining Questions
What is the actual efficacy of acupuncture compared to sham acupuncture or standard care in well-designed randomized controlled trials?
What This Study Does Not Prove
As a narrative review rather than controlled trial, this study does not provide definitive proof that acupuncture is effective for ME/CFS—it synthesizes existing literature without presenting new experimental data or establishing causation. The review's scope means it cannot determine which specific acupuncture techniques, patient populations, or outcome measures are most reliable, and quality varies among cited studies.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →