Can Acupuncture Help Weight Loss?

There is a growing obesity epidemic in Western culture. In the United States, obesity is the second most frequent cause of preventable death - behind cigarette smoking. Not to mention the millions of people who suffer from weight related health problems and complications every year.

However, successful long term weight loss is incredibly difficult for most people to achieve. Many people have tried diets that may cause some weight loss and then they gain back the weight they lost plus some additional pounds.

This is why more and more, people are turning to alternative therapies such as acupuncture to try to handle their weight problem once and for all.

Acupuncture is a practice that is more than 5,000 years old, significantly older than Western medicinal therapies and practices.

It involves what most people think of when they think about acupuncture. Inserting fine needles into particular spots on the skin that are believed to help the body function properly, or to relieve pain.

In the case of overweight patients, the acupuncturist will first ask a variety of questions and perform an examination. The purpose is to understand the main causes of the person's excess weight. Perhaps it is merely behavioral, or there could be a physiological reason as well.

Once the root causes of the problem are identified, the acupuncturist will then insert needles into different areas of the body in order to help alter the body's functioning in a way that will promote weight loss.

For example, an acupuncturist who is seeking to encourage weight loss in a patient will probably use a multi-targeted approach. They may attempt to lower the body's weight by increasing the output of the pituitary gland.

They would also probably work on reducing cravings for certain foods or they would attempt to encourage a decrease in natural appetite. Certain needle placements are even thought to lower insulin levels or lipid levels in the blood.

A benefit of this type of weight loss treatment is that unlike certain medications or other therapies, there are potentially harmful side effects and no chance for addiction. It is a perfectly natural means of boosting the patient's weight loss efforts.

The treatment will need to be repeated on a rather regular basis in order to maintain the effects. However, the acupuncture specialist will instruct the patient that the treatment on its own is not likely to be enough to result in long term, permanent weight loss.

Attention should also be paid to diet and exercise. The acupuncturist may provide the patient with certain guidelines as to what to avoid eating in order to promote the regular flow of energy throughout the body as well.