Acupuncture has changed my life in many ways, but efficient is not a word I'd use.
I'm a licensed acupuncturist, and occasionally one could call it efficient; most of the time it is effective; it definitely has great potential to change how a person relates to themselves; and it usually affects the whole person.  Sometimes it doesn't work, but side-effects and accidents are so rare, that our malpractice premiums have adjusted downward from the early years of the profession.

Hi Julie and Rhea,
Just to put in a word about my own experience with acupuncture, which I found very helpful in making one feel better and more energetic. Julie's statement about awaking a new awareness to what is hidden in our body reminded me of an interesting conversation I had with my acupuncturist, though I’m not totally sure that I understood it all correctly, and it was a long time ago.

He spoke of the energy in our body, and when I asked him what is his definition of the energy in our body, he explained that modern science deals only with what it can see, with the physical, while old Chinese medicine seeks to treat the hidden as well. In other words, treating the organs from the mental as well as the physiological perspective, and that what is mental is energy. He said, from what I remember, that it is a treatment which takes into consideration the emotions and that those are related in Chinese medicine to specific organs. From what I can remember:

Depression/sadness - lungs
Joy/overjoy - heart
Stress - liver
Anxiety - intestines
Rumination - spleen

I found the first few sessions much more beneficial than the ones after that, and after a while I stopped, but I would still recommend people try it out.

I find acupuncture quite magical. Not that I like to have dozens of needles stuck into my body but there is something fascinating about the economy of tools used and their effect.

Going back to my first comment on it being magical, my acupuncturist gave me a list of ingredients for a (magical) drink. So off I went to the Chinese market with the piece of paper on which he wrote  his Chinese signs to get all the ingredients to brew my potion. It was exciting, and as a friend of mine commented, like being in a Harry Potter book, or back in medieval times with the much respected witch figure.