Acupuncture helps check excess weight gain

JUST PUNCTURE OBESITY

Acupuncture helps check excess weight gain

    Obesity is caused by a multitude of reasons. Chief among them are hormonal imbalance, lack of exercise, overeating, bingeing on junk food, sedentary lifestyle, slow metabolism, stress and depression. While there are as many remedies on offer to lose that excess weight, there’s one which isn’t just part of traditional Chinese medicine but is also endorsed by the World Health Organisation and The United States National Institutes of Health: Acupuncture, a science that is able to address almost all the factors associated with being overweight. It does so by providing a multipronged approach to the weight-gain problem by restoring bodily functions to normality so to bring about an equilibrium and thereby, control the factors leading to obesity. 

REDUCES APPETITE, ENHANCES ENERGY Obesity consultant Dr Amrapali Patil says that acupuncture can bring about weight loss by different mechanisms. “It can blunt craving for food, bringing about ‘homoeostasis’ in the body, thereby adjusting the ‘milieu intérieur’ of the body to normality.”
    For instance, blood sugar dips are known to cause hunger pangs. The doctor explains, “When the blood sugar level is normal, there is no unhealthy increase in appetite. Acupuncture achieves this by enabling one to eat less by reducing requirement of food while enhancing the body’s ability to effectively utilise the energy obtained from food consumed. This means that though appetite and food requirement decrease, one feels highly energetic and refreshed at all times.” 

METABOLISM BOOST The basal metabolic rate (BMR) of the body can be upped with the help of acupuncture. “So, while appetite decreases, energy is replenished and the body’s metabolism actually increases. This creates a negative caloric balance and the weight gets yanked down,” says Dr Patil. 

MORE EFFECTIVE 

DIGESTION Acupuncture enables the digestive system to process food effectively. 

HORMONE REGULATION Acupuncture regulates ghrelin and leptin, hormones associated with being overweight and obese. 

STRESS-BUSTER Being overweight causes stress, leading to wrong choices that lead to weight gain. Acupuncture releases endorphins (‘happiness hormones’) present in the body, resulting in a calming, tranquilising effect that brings about a feeling of well-being and positive mood elevation. 

AIDS LIVER FUNCTION It promotes functioning of liver to its optimal level. The liver is an organ that doesn’t just aid metabolism but also is imperative to glycogen storage, decomposition of red bloof cells, plasma proteing synthesis, hormone production and detoxification. Dr Patil states,
    “A regulated liver function means a proper metabolic rate and health at its best. This aids enormously in weight loss.” 

 
ACCUPUNCTURE CLAIMS TO:
    Reduce cravings
    Increase metabolism
    Reduce abdominal fat
    Improve insulin resistance
    Detox body 

OPPOSING OPINION
    Weight-loss clinics in our city that use acupuncture, also have nutritionists who prescribe a low-cal diet that aids weight loss. Others use electromuscular stimulation and procedures that need followups, wherein excess weight is taken care of by an in-house dietician. Since there are no scientific studies, in my knowledge, to study the impact of acupuncture on weight-loss in isolation, I don’t think it has an effect. We have operated many patients who have lost weight through these means but their weight always came back. Despite these procedures, weight re-gain possibility is very high.
    — Dr Ramen Goel,
    Bariatric surgeon