Exploratory Study On Intervention Of Acupuncture And Moxibustion In Prevention And Treatment Of Metabolic Syndrome In Abdominal Obesity

Objective:This study aims to assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for patients with abdominal obesity, and its prolonged effect on the prevention of metabolic syndrome.Methods:This is a prospective randomized controlled trial. A total of 40 patients with abdominal obesity are randomly assigned to two groups:a treatment group(treated with acupuncture based on their TCM pattern,3 sessions a week for 12 weeks) and a control group(treated with sham acupuncture). A three-month-long follow-up is then conducted. The primary outcome are the change in the bodyweight(BW), body mass index(BMI), waist circumference(WC), hip circumference(HC) and wait-hip ratio(WHR), while the secondary outcome includes blood pressure(BP), fasting blood glucose(FBG), glycosylated hemoglobin(HbA1c), triglycerides(TG), high density lipoprotein(HDL), low density lipoprotein(LDL), total cholesterol(TC), uric acid(UA) and TCM pattern score. Outcomes are measured at the 2nd,4th,8th,12th week of treatment and 3rd month after treatment. The safety of acupuncture is assessed by observing side effects.Results:1. Results of simple anthropometric parameters:Compared with data before treatment, patients in the treatment group showed reduction in BW, WC and WHR during the whole process, while those in control group showed no difference. Compared with control group, patients in treatment group saw greater change in BMI, WC and WHR since the 8th week. Treatment group showed trend of reduction in these parameters in the follow-up period. 2. Results of physical and chemical index metabolic syndrome:Compared with index before treatment, UA and BP decreased in treatment group while FBP, HbAlc and TC increased in control group. There are significant difference between the two group in HbAlc, TC, UA and BP.3. The effective rate in treatment group is higher than that in the control group.4. TCM pattern score decreased in treatment group, continued to drop during follow-up, while that of control group showed trend of climbing 3 months after treatment.Conclusion:Acupuncture can effectively reduce patients’ BW, BMI, WC, WHR, UA and BP, keeping HbAlc, TC from increasing. It can also improve the symptoms of TCM patterns. All the improvement has a prolonged effect.