Acupuncture Treatment Of Abdominal Obesity And Related Complications

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 abdominal obesity related complications.Methods:This is a prospective randomized controlled trial.A total of 60 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 body-weight(BW),body mass index(BMI),waist circumference(WC),hip circumference(HC)and wait-hip ratio(WHR).The secondary outcome includes blood pressure(BP),fasting blood glucose(FBG),glycosylated hemoglobin(HbAlc),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.Results:1.Results of simple anthropometric parameters:Compared with data before treatment,patients in the treatment group showed reduction in BW,BMI,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 BW and BMI since the 4th 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,TG,TC and BP decreased in treatment group,but all the indexes in the control group was increased.There are significant difference between the two group in TG,TC,UA and BP.3.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 HbA1c,TC from increasing.It can also improve the symptoms of TCM patterns.All the improvement has a prolonged effect.