The method consists of placing special, very fine needles into specific points of the human body(into the skin at different depths)in order to treat various diseases.Over the centuries acupuncture has undergone many modifications and improvements. Today is among the methods of alternative or complementary medicine and is recognized by the World Health Organization .At 2010 UNESCO included acupuncture in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The most important elements of these studies where, The gate control theory of pain(Melzack and Wall 1965),the discovery of the "endorphins",now called endogenous opioid peptides (Hughes et al 1975)which play an important role in analgesia as natural pain killers,and studies that showed that acupuncture releases "endorphins"(Han and Terenius 1982).Since then there have been many studies that associated acupuncture with the function of the nervous system and more specifically with the stimulation of the free ending nerves and the release of vasoactive neuropeptides and endogenous opioid peptides which play important role in local healing and pain relief .
