Is acupuncture good for weight loss?

Many people think acupuncture is synonymous with pain relief. However, another one of the benefits of acupuncture is that it can help you lose weight. 

Before 1971, most people in the United States had never heard of acupuncture. In fact, complementary and alternative medicine in any form can be traced back to a single event that happened in 1971. A New York Times columnist, James Reston, had to have an emergency appendectomy while visiting China to provide media coverage of President Nixon’s visit there. When James Reston returned from China, he wrote about acupuncture anesthesia in China.

That famous piece in the New York Times about acupuncture anesthesia in China is what put acupuncture on the map, and many Westerners became intrigued with acupuncture’s benefits for pain relief. Since that time, acupuncture has become synonymous with pain relief, although the benefits are far more extensive than that. Acupuncture may hold the “secret” to maintaining a youthful appearance, hormone balance, longevity, fertility, and a slim physique.

 

Auricular acupuncture (acupuncture that is done at specific points on the ear) is known to help curb cravings for addictive substances, including sugar, nicotine, and drugs, and it is often used in drug rehabilitation centers to ease symptoms of withdrawal. For weight loss acupuncture in Del Mar, CA, auricular acupuncture is combined with meridian acupuncture at different points on the body. While the points on the ear help to curb cravings and withdrawal from addictive foods, the points on the body help to balance a variety of hormones.

The hormones that are considered the most well-studied ones involved in hunger and satiety are leptin and ghrelin.

Leptin is known as the “satiety hormone.” It is secreted by adipose tissue (fat cells), so typically an overweight or obese person will have a lot more circulating leptin than a lean person. The reason why overweight or obese people continue to feel hungry despite high levels of leptin is because they become “leptin resistant” in the same way that a person with type 2 diabetes becomes “insulin resistant.” The body’s cells fail to recognize the leptin (or insulin, in the case of type 2 diabetes) because leptin is chronically elevated because of chronic overeating and weight gain. Getting Acupuncture in Del Mar, CA can be beneficial by helping the body’s cells to recognize the leptin, therefore helping overweight people to feel satiated with fewer calories.

Ghrelin is known as the “hunger hormone.” When ghrelin levels rise, you feel hungry. After a meal, your ghrelin levels decrease and you feel satiated. The catch-22 with weight loss diets is that ghrelin levels increase in response to weight loss and decrease in response to weight gain. This is why most dieters end up feeling very hungry when they start to lose weight, so they end relying on willpower to maintain the weight loss with a constant feeling of deprivation and hunger. Eventually, the willpower wears off, they eat to satiety, and the weight piles back on. Acupuncture for weight loss works by lowering ghrelin levels so hunger decreases even with weight loss, and the weight loss can be maintained without having to rely on willpower and deal with a constant feeling of hunger.