Effect of Auricular Stimulation on Obese Women:A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial

• Main Authors: Chun-Ying Lien, 連純瑩
• Other Authors: Chung-Hua Hsu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16978361839568638317

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 傳統醫藥研究所 === 99 === Obesity is one of the distress modern maladies nowadays, and yet we only know little about its etiology. Most obese subjects can only reduce weight through dietary or life style changing and exercise, which requires strong will to reach the goal. Therefore, they turn to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for help. Auricular acupuncture is one of the most common used treatments for reducing weight in CAM. However, the adverse effects of needling are major concerns to treatment safety. Our aim is to investigate the therapeutic effects among different stimulations of auricular acupoints on obese women. This trial conducted on August, 2009 to March 2010 in LinSen(TCM) branch, Taipei City Hospital. Seventy-one of ninety obese women met our inclusion criteria were recruited and completed whole course. They were randomly allocated to receive auricular stimulation by needles or metal beads or sham auricular acupuncture on each ear alternatively at each treatment session three times a week for 4 weeks. We found no significant differences among the three groups after treatment. However, the group receiving auricular stimulation by metal beads showed a decreasing trend similar to that of the auricular acupuncture group, indicating that metal beads could replace needles as obesity treatment with less adverse effects. Our pilot study obtained findings worthy of further and more in-depth research.