A new study demonstrates that ear acupuncture (also known as Auriculotherapy), which is thought to stimulate certain regions of the body linked to hunger and appetite, may be an effective treatment for weight loss, HealthDay reports.
Acupuncture is founded on the theory in traditional Chinese medicine that certain regions of the body correlate with others, and that by stimulating certain points, the imbalance of the qi (the body's energy flow) can be corrected, allowing the flow of qi through the body's meridians (or channels). Ear acupuncture follows the same principles, based on the belief that the outer ear represents a microsystem of the entire brain.
The latest eight-week study on the technique took place in South Korea, involving 91 overweight adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 23 or higher. Sabina Lim from the department of meridian and acupuncture in the Graduate College of Basic Korean Medical Science at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea and her team used a five-point treatment on one third of the adults, in which needles were inserted into key points of the ear linked to hunger and appetite.
For the five-point treatment, needles were placed 2 millimeters deep into one outer ear with tape which was used to keep them in place for a week. The treatment was then applied to the other ear, the process then repeated over the course of the eight weeks.
Another third of the participants were given one-point acupuncture, in which one needle was used on both ears to stimulate a point linked to hunger, while the remaining third were given a sham treatment as a placebo in which needles were removed immediately after insertion. All of the participants were instructed to follow a restrictive diet and not increase their usual exercise during the study.
Over the course of the study, 24 patients dropped out, researchers noting that 15 of them had received the sham treatment.
Just four weeks into the study, participants in different groups showed significant differences in weight loss. Those who received five-point therapy had an average weight reduction of 6.5 percent, while those who had been treated with just one needle saw an average weight loss of 5.7 percent. Those receiving sham therapy lost no weight. The largest drop "was seen in waist size with the five-point treatment, compared with sham therapy; however, this difference disappeared after taking age into account, the investigators noted," according to HealthDay.
"Both five- and one-point approaches showed significant effects on treating the obese patients and notable reduction in the values closely related to obesity, such as waist circumference measurements and weight, compared to the sham group," Lim told HealthDay. "But yet, the five-point approach caused the largest decrease in waist circumference, indicating that the method should be considered as a primary treatment to reduce central obesity, rather than the hunger acupuncture point or temporary stimulation of the five acupuncture points."
The study was published online Dec. 16 in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine.
