Facial palsy is a common condition in acupuncture, and doctors sometimes treat patients with oral hormone therapy during their visits. So, why does facial palsy need to be treated with hormones and what kind of patients are suitable for hormone therapy? First of all, we should clarify that the facial palsy mentioned here is due to peripheral facial palsy caused by immune inflammation or viral infection, and facial palsy caused by intracranial lesions is not included. There are two main types of peripheral facial palsy from the pathological point of view: one is considered to be caused by immune inflammation of the facial nerve, also known as Bell’s palsy, and the other is caused by viral invasion of the facial nerve, which can be accompanied by herpes around the ear, also known as Hunter’s syndrome. Both types of peripheral facial palsy can in principle be treated with oral glucocorticoids. Because the facial nerve originates from the brainstem, it has to pass through a bony canal called the stem mammary foramen to come out of the skull and distribute to the facial muscles. Inflammation of the facial nerve will cause edema of the nerve, at which point the hard bony canal will compress the nerve, resulting in loss of innervation of the facial muscles and symptoms of facial palsy. If hormones are used appropriately in the early stage of facial palsy, the nerve edema can be effectively suppressed, which is beneficial to the functional recovery of the facial nerve. However, hormones are not suitable for every patient. First of all, if the facial palsy has been over a week and the peak of nerve edema has passed, it is not very meaningful to use hormones. In addition, we should pay attention to the side effects of hormones. Elderly people, patients with hypertension, diabetes, tumors, patients with severe osteophytes, patients with tuberculosis and patients with uncontrolled infection should be very cautious and some of them are forbidden to use them. For these patients, we recommend to use the safer Chinese acupuncture therapy.