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Can Acupuncture Help Me Lose Weight?
While we know that acupuncture can provide ongoing support for pain management and a number of chronic conditions, not many of us know that it can actually be used to help with weight loss. Because acupuncture can put your entire body into balance this can have some overwhelming benefits while you are trying to lose weight. Not only can regular acupuncture treatments work in cooperation with a diet and exercise program to help you feel your best, but it can naturally balance your bodily systems to help you naturally lose weight by ensuring your body will process and digest better than before.
Before we look at weight loss we have to consider some of the reasons people gain weight:
People can gain weight for a variety of different reasons whether it is due to a slowing metabolic rate, overeating different foods, unhealthy nutrition, lack of exercise and perhaps even hormones. The good news is that acupuncture can be used in a multifaceted approach to tackle each one of these issues.
Treatment plans can be created to help balance hormonal issues, to normalize weight, to reduce various cravings for unhealthy food, to improve metabolism and digestion as well as to reduce pain so that people will be encouraged to work out.
In many cases a licensed acupuncturist will turn to 5 main acupuncture points in the ear. These can be used to stimulate the main centers of our body that control hormones and neurochemicals for food cravings. Through a precise balancing act, regular acupuncture treatments like this can work to normalize hormone rates which can improve the way that our body handles digestion, fat storage and more. These same treatments can also be used to help us with our food cravings. This means that if you are regularly tempted to eat unhealthy food or you have a number of regular cravings throughout your day, regular acupuncture care can help to reduce these cravings and improve your diet and eating schedule(s). Most of these types of treatments can take weeks of planned appointments. This means you may need around 10 treatments which will be done over several weeks’ time.
Studies have shown that this 5 point system works:
Although there have been some mixed reviews on many of the studies that have been completed in acupuncture and weight loss this mostly has to do with the way that age can effect weight loss. Generally younger people are more receptive to the therapy because it can be generally easier for a younger metabolism to experience faster weight loss.
In one study completed on 5 ear points and one acupuncture point on the body 91 overweight people were assigned to lead researcher Sabina Lim who is a member of the department of Meridian and Acupuncture at the graduate college of Kyung Hee University Seoul. She and several other trained acupuncturists would carry out 5 ear points and 1 acupuncture point weight loss therapy on random participants over 8 weeks of study. The patients did not increase their exercise but had to follow a basic diet which was not meant for weight loss.
Those who received this treatment for weight loss experienced an average reduction in weight of 6.1% total and those experiencing one point therapy experienced at 5.7% reduction in weight over 8 weeks. No weight loss was experienced by the placebo group. The largest drop in waist size through the study was seen by a participant in the 5 ear point therapy and this represents just how powerful this treatment can be even over 2 months.
A 6.1% weight loss over 8 weeks would be the equivalent of a 220lb person losing 13.42 lbs over 2 months’ time without having to exercise. It is possible that you could see these same results with the help acupuncture treatments.
Acupuncture for weight loss is different for everyone:
For the most effective results a licensed acupuncturist will have to come up with a treatment plan for your needs. There are any number of reasons why a person may gain weight and targeting the right areas is essential to maximizing your weight loss goals.
As you can see, acupuncture can have some amazing benefits for weight loss and in changing your lifestyle. By using acupuncture and exercise you can be much more successful in shedding your excess weight!
