Acupuncture for Paralysis treatment Acupuncture is found effective for the treatment of paralysis caused by a stroke. Researchers tested the Shujintongluo acupuncture protocol for treatment of hemiplegia, a type of stroke affecting one side of the body. The addition of acupuncture to standard drug therapy following an acute cerebral infarction increased the positive patient outcome rate by 11.77%. A randomized clinical trial of 68 patients examined results in two groups. One group received standard drug therapy and the other group received standard drug therapy plus acupuncture. The drug therapy only group had a total effective rate of 70.59%. The group receiving drug therapy plus acupuncture had an 82.36% total effective rate. One of the more important results measured in the study was the recovery rate, defined as a disability rank of level 0 and the NHISS (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale/Score) improvement rate of 91% – 100%. The group receiving acupuncture plus drugs had a 29.41% recovery rate and the drugs only group had a 20.59% recovery rate. Another important result was the significantly effective rate, defined as a disability rank of level 1 – 3 and an NHISS improvement of 46% – 90%.