Can Acupuncture Help Weight Loss?

Acupuncture is a Traditional Chinese Medicine practice that has been used for centuries, especially for pain treatment. Today, the most popular discussion about this ancient practice is whether it can really contribute to our weight loss…

As we’re becoming mindful of healthy living, the more we gravitate towards alternative medicine focused on our holistic energy as we can personalize them according to our uniqueness, instead of modern drugs that tackle us all in a single pattern and may harm us with their side effects. And acupuncture is one of them…

Acupuncture, though mostly used for pain, stress management and addiction treatment, has recently become a trending application increasingly tended towards to lose the emotional craving-induced excess weight we have gained particularly during the pandemic. So, can acupuncture really help us lose weight?

What is Acupuncture?

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, there are more than two thousand interconnected energy points through our energy pathways and meridians creating an energy flow (Chi/Qi) in our body. Any disruption to this energy flow result in suffering physical, spiritual and mental problems. At this point, acupuncture kicks in to restore our broken energy balance by stimulating our points connected to these problems with very thin and flexible needles.

In the light of ancient teachings, excess weight gain is also caused by the disruption of energy flow in certain areas of our body such as the liver, spleen, thyroid glands, and endocrine system. Thus, with acupuncture, it is aimed to stimulate the points connected to these regions.

Can Acupuncture Help Us Lose Weight?

Pursuant to scientific studies, although not universally proven, acupuncture can help us lose weight in the following ways, especially when combined with a wholesome lifestyle including healthy eating and regular exercise;

May improve digestion: Practitioners suggest that stimulating the stomach and kidney energy points may improve the blood flow to your stomach and reduce digestive problems like constipation and bloating.

May affect hormones: Numerous scientific researches state that spleen and Shen Men acupuncture can provide support in long-term weight loss by affecting insulin, ghrelin and leptin resistance.

May boost metabolism: A slow metabolism means that we are deprived of the energy needed to burn fat. As per the practitioners’ opinion supported by modern medical experts, acupuncture, especially when applied to pituitary and thyroid glands, can promote our metabolism and fat burning rate.

May reduce inflammation: According to various studies, acupuncture may drive our body into a natural detox process to get rid of excess weight by supporting our immune system, which has turned out of balance due to inflammation in our muscles, etc.

May suppress emotional cravings: One of the most common uses of acupuncture is for treatment of stress-related conditions, which can further lead us to overeat. Research indicate that acupuncture may reduce our emotional cravings by decreasing the function of stress hormones such as cortisol and oxytocin and triggering endorphin production.

May help with our sleep pattern: When we experience insomnia or simply lack of sleep, our risk of gaining weight increases as we tend to eat unnecessarily more to remedy or reduced energy. Acupuncture can contribute to our quality sleep by supporting our stress and digestive balance.

Auricular Acupuncture

Our ears contain dense nerve ends connected to every part of our body, such as thyroid glands, spleen, abdomen, kidneys which has impact on our weight balance. In acupuncture, these nerve ends are stimulated by applying needles and catguts on acupuncture points like Hunger, Shen Men a.k.a. the “heavenly gates” per the TCM, Spleen and Abdomen. The purpose is to achieve longer-term and efficient benefits against excessive appetite and stress-related cravings, especially by stimulating cranial nerves and insulin-related hormones.

How Many Sessions Do We Need?

Although it varies depending on your weight and health conditions, says the practitioners, if you are 10 to 15 pounds overweight, it is generally recommended to attend one or more sessions a week for six to eight weeks. The frequency of these sessions can be reduced as the results of the application become noticeable.

Why Are Scientific Studies Insufficient?

In fact, the number of studies on the effects of acupuncture on overweight and obesity is not that few. But as we mentioned above, the difficulty is in providing  a universal proof. The primary reason for that is their inability to yield combinable results. Such that, for instance the acupuncture points, target subjects, number of sessions, use of placebo and sham interventions referred to in one study may not conform with the other. Another reason impacting the evidential capacity of studies is the inefficacy in personalizing them per psychological and physical characteristics of the targeted individuals.

On the other hand, there are studies that have started to examine the benefits of acupuncture more methodically, including modernized applications like electro-acupuncture and laser acupuncture. Thus, it seems likely that we’ll be able to find more reliable and precise results in the near future.

What Should We Be Mindful of?

If you want to use acupuncture to lose weight, it’s crucial that you consult your doctor first and receive the treatment from a licensed and competent practitioner using sterile needles. Acupuncture usually has notably few side effects like numbness in the needle areas, but when you receive it from a non-specialist, you may be exposed to very serious consequences like inflammation or perforation in the internal organs, collapse of lungs and central nervous system injuries.

It is also valuable to be realistic in our approach. Acupuncture may help us lose weight without side effects when taken from the right practitioner; however, according to experts, the contribution of adopting a healthy lifestyle that involves good nutrition and regular exercise is grand.

In short, if we experience acupuncture through a licensed and experienced practitioner and support the process with approaches such as healthy eating and exercise, our metabolic rate can increase due to more balanced stress levels and hormones, and it may be quite feasible to lose weight without incurring any side effects. 

In the light of all these infos, whether or not to consider this application for weight management in our self care journey is our choice…