Sticking it to blood pressure?

If acupuncture really lowers blood pressure, its effect is likely to be small — and definitely temporary.

For more than 2,000 years, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have used acupuncture to treat high blood pressure and symptoms related to it. A small but growing number of Americans have turned to acupuncture as an alternative to blood pressure pills ever since ping-pong diplomacy helped thaw relations between China and the United States in the 1970s. There's just one nagging question: Does it work?