Abstract
Obesity and subsequent ill health have reached epidemic proportions in developed countries, and many developing countries are on the same trajectory. Weight loss and sustaining a healthy weight have posed a significant challenge for individuals, patients, health-care providers, and public health experts. The literature suggests that dietary advice and lifestyle changes alone have limited sustainable impact for those who are seeking to achieve a healthy weight. Supplementary techniques to control weight, such as acupuncture and auricular acupuncture (AA), have shown mixed results and failed to clearly demonstrate a conclusive impact. This study aimed to provide clarity about the impact of AA on weight loss via a randomized controlled trial. Data were collected from patients to identify measurable girth reduction, weight loss, dietary choices, and mood changes over seven weekly sessions of AA (n = 30) versus sham needle as control (n = 28). Results demonstrated a large and highly significant AA treatment effect for reduced waist circumference over the course of the seven-week intervention. While the treatment effect for weight loss and BMI was not significant, this negative result may have been mediated by the relatively short duration of the study. Results also demonstrated a significant mood improvement across participants in both the AA intervention and control group as the intervention progressed. Further studies are required to determine if the reduction in waist circumference is driven specifically by the AA alone or in conjunction with improved mood. The results also have potentially significant implications for healthcare delivery in the fight against overweight and obesity.
Highlights
Overweight and obesity has become a major public health epidemic currently affecting 1.9 billion adults aged 18+ worldwide and resulting in 2.8 million deaths annually [1]
Some of the addiction points demonstrated by NADA [19] to work for detox and addictions to drugs and alcohol were manipulated. e aim was to determine if auricular acupuncture (AA) can reduce craving for sweet refined foods, leading to a reduction in weight and body mass index (BMI) among overweight women
Existing trials are at best descriptive of short duration, and the designs fell short of sound scientific rigour [20, 21]. ere is an urgent need for well-designed and implemented studies to examine the effectiveness of AA for weight loss [22]. is study attempts to address some of these shortcomings by following a strict randomized controlled trial design
Summary
Overweight and obesity has become a major public health epidemic currently affecting 1.9 billion adults aged 18+ worldwide and resulting in 2.8 million deaths annually [1]. There is little evidence of a positive long-term effect of any one weight loss intervention, and the number of people with obesity-related disease continues to increase [4]. Ese highly refined, fatty, sugary foods demonstrate an addictive potential [9] and trigger a Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine dopamine response in the reward center of the brain [10,11,12] that can diminish over time, requiring increased intake of the sugars to experience the same release of dopamine and subsequent reward [11,12,13]. Previous successes using auricular acupuncture (AA) to help patients with addictions to alcohol, drugs, and smoking provide an impetus to expect a similar result when using AA for a sugar addiction [18].
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