Acupuncture helps acne

Acne is a chronic inflammation in the hair follicles and sebaceous glands. The most affected areas are the face and chest and back, because these areas are the areas where sebum secretion is more active. Acne develops further and can produce skin lesions such as pimples, cysts, and nodules. Acne not only damages the appearance of patients, but also causes emotional distress such as anxiety or depression due to impaired appearance, which seriously affects the physical and mental health of patients. The causes are related to endocrine factors, immune factors, abnormalities of the hair follicle sebaceous glands, and mass reproduction of microorganisms.
Recent studies have shown that acupuncture can quickly reduce inflammation, relieve local tissue edema, congestion, exudation, adhesions, and other pathological changes. The white blood cell value changes significantly before and after acupuncture treatment. The white blood cell count of patients treated with acupuncture was significantly higher, indicating that acupuncture can promote the proliferation of white blood cells, thereby promoting the absorption of inflammation and playing a role in anti-inflammatory and anti-infection. Acupuncture has the function of promoting the absorption of chronic inflammation, which can destroy the diseased tissue and stimulate the body's absorption of necrotic tissue. Promote blood circulation: Local microcirculation problem and local skin lesions are present in acne. This was improved after acupuncture treatment. Acupuncture can help the absorption of inflammation and improve local blood circulation. It can improve the body's metabolic level.

For example, a study recruited 36 participants with acne. They were offered 12 treatments over 6 weeks.
The result has shown that there was a significant reduction in the inflammatory acne lesion counts, the Skindex-29 scores and the subjective symptom scores.

References
Byeong-Kook Son et al Acupunct Med. 2010 Sep;28(3):126-9.
Le Kou et al. Medicine (Baltimore). 2020 May; 99(18): e19764.