| Obesity is a pathological state with the excessive accumulation and (or) abnormal distribution of body fat which induce weight gain. Genetic and environmental factors together contribute to the development of obesity. Obesity is correlated with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, diabetes and other obesity-related diseases (ORD) possitively, and affects the health and quality of life seriously. The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed obesity as one of the top ten threats to the health of people all over the world. Incidence of obesity is also in an upward trend year by year in China, thus the prevention and treatment of obesity has been a hot issue of common concern in modern medical and sociological research.Acupuncture has been proved to be an effective, economical, and convenient method of treatment to simple obesity, with few side effects, as compared with medicine, surgery, exercise, diet control and other therapy. Acupuncture has been widely used in clinical treatment of obesity. Point selection in acupuncture treatment of obesity is based on clinical differenciation mostly, but obesity itself is a special kind of pathological state with insidious onset, continued progress, in addition to weight gain and body changes. Most patients coming to treatment lack of typical clinical symptoms and signs, or even no subjective discomfort or physical limitation, with less objective evidence of clinical syndrome, syndrome are diversed and scattered, thus difficult to distinguish between the syndromes in TCM way. As a result, the physicians treating obesity with acupuncture are often feel at loss, and in more cases, acupoints selections were based on experience, obese local acupoints, or distal acupoints.He-Mu point combination refers to the clinical point selection methods which combine points of lower He-sea point of six fu with the front Mu point. Treatment of Fu disease are their common features, so the He-Mu point combination is to take both in attending the common, mutual coordination and enhance the efficacy of the treatment of six internal organs diseases of the main points of a distribution method. Althought lower He and front Mu points are wildly selected in Acupuncture treatment of obesity, there has not been report on treating obesity by combination of 6 Fu lower He and front Mu points. In this study, patients with simple obesity were treated by the method of He-Mu point combination acupuncture, and therapeutic effect as well as influence on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and body fat ratio (BFR) was investigated on patients with simple obesity.Objective:To investigate the therapeutic effect of Lower He-Front Mu point combination acupuncture on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and body fat ratio (BFR) in patients with simple obesity.Methods:1. Clinical information:63 patients were from department of acupuncture, Nanfang Hospital, department of acupuncture and rehabilitation, Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital, Southern Medical University, Tianyoutang, Haoyu and Liangfang Clinic of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hongkong. All patients were randomly divided into two groups:31 in treatment group (12 men and 19 women), obesity grade:mild in 13 cases,14 cases of moderate and severe in 4 cases; 32 patients in control group (15 men and 17 women), obesity grade:mild in 4 cases,25 cases of moderate and severe in 3 cases. 2. Treatment methods:Patients in treatment group accepted acupuncture treatment under the principle of Lower He-Front Mu point combination, while those in control group were treated with conventional method of differenciation in TCM way.1.5-inch 32# sterile disposable acupuncture needles (Huanqiu brand) were used in this stuy. Patients in treatment group were treated in supine position and needled in points on the abdomen and inferio part of lower extremities firstly, then posterior part of lower extremities. Control group patients treated by conventional methods of acupuncture. Treatment arrangements:1 treatment every other day,30 minutes each treatment,15 treatments to a course of treatment, and all patients were treated for 2 courses. During treatment, patients were to maintain a normal diet and exercise habits as usual.3. Main outcomes and observation methodsHeight, body weight and waist circumference were measured with conventional methods before and after 30 treatments in each patients. Body mass index (BMI) was caculated according to height and body weight. Body fat ratio (BFR) was messured by machine (OMRON HBF-306). The patients were to report discomfort and adverse reactions after each acupuncture treatment.4. Therapeutic effective evaluationClinical therapeutic effective judgments were made accoding to the Obesity Efficacy Standard established in the First National Conference on Integrative Medicine,1987.5. Data processingDifferences of BMI, WC and BFR changes within as well as between groups were analyzed with statistical software (SPSS 13.0 for windows), two-tail test, and p<0.05 for the difference was considered as statistically significant.Results:1. Total effective rate was 87.10% in treatment group and 78.13% in control group. Further statistical analysis showed that the efficacy of the treatment group and control group was significant different (p<0.01), suggested that He-Mu Combination Points acupuncture is more effective than conventional treatment on obesity. 2. BMI, WC and BFR was compared between and within two groups before and after treatment:BMI, WC and BFR values of the two groups reduced significantly after treatment (p<0.01), which reduced more in treatment group than in control group with significant difference (p<0.01, p<0.05 respectively).3. Excepte for occasional local minor irritation, soreness and subcutaneous bleeding, no other serious adverse events was reported during the treatment of acupuncture.Conclusion:Lower He-Front Mu point combination acupuncture is an effective method in treatment of simple obesity which reduced the BMI, WC and BFR significantly. Compared with the conventional differentiation point selection method,6 Fu He-Mu points combination acupuncture is characterized with standardized set of point selection and easy operating procedure, which surport it to be used as choice of treatment on simple obesity.
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