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Acupuncture therapy to shed excess body fat
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MANY believe that obesity results from eating too much and exercising too little. This is certainly true in most cases; but the digestive system and metabolic functioning can also play a role in how one’s body stores fat, even among active individuals who eat sparingly.
Fortunately, there’s an acupuncture therapy that can help tackle issues with digestion and metabolism by accelerating the production of lipolysis. It can also help restrict one’s appetite by slowing down stomach movements and gastric acid secretion, says Dr Zhang Qian with the Acupuncture Department of Yueyang Hospital attached to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The therapy can be effective in obesity resulting from over-eating and from disordered internal secretion and metabolism, but it may not lead to obvious weight loss for constitutional obesity.
Quite a number of TCM hospitals in Shanghai provide such therapies in their acupuncture departments, such as the Yueyang Hospital.
The therapy should be carried out after a careful TCM diagnosis, so as to choose the best acupuncture points to stimulate. Each treatment session takes about 20 minutes, with three sessions recommended each week. Some patients experience decreased appetite and diarrhea in the early stages of treatment.
There are usually three phases to a complete course of weight-loss therapy. The first phase usually takes about four weeks with rapid weight loss. In the second phase, most patients enter a weight-loss plateau from the fourth to 10th week.
“Some patients may get a bit frustrated in this phase without obvious weight loss, but they may find their figure improved as fat cells undergo redistribution. It will be quite a pity to give up at this period,” says Dr Zhang.
The third phase will help the patients solidify their improved figure with a bit more weight loss.
“Losing weight by acupuncture therapy is a process of breaking and rebuilding the energy balance. It takes time and persistence to take effect,” says Dr Zhang.
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