Role of acupuncture in the treatment of insulin resistance: A systematic review and meta-analysis

•20 RCTs that reported the effectiveness of acupuncture treating diseases related to insulin resistance were included.•This study found that acupuncture is better to act as an adjuvant therapy for the management of IR than as a replacement.•Analyses showed that acupuncture had an advantage over control groups in decreasing FBG, 2hPG and FINS levels.•The pooled analysis showed that acupuncture alone was more effective than sham acupuncture at decreasing homa-IR levels.•Acupuncture was well tolerated by patients, with fewer adverse events than Western medicine.