iHealthTube Featuring: How This Practice Can Help you Live Healthier and Longer!

Acupuncture has been around for centuries. Why has it lasted for so long and what kind of benefits can you really see? Regan Archibald, an expert in Chinese medicine, discusses the topic, not so much as a treatment, but a health maintenance tool! [Video and more below]

Acupuncture and Weight Loss

Anand Dogre
	In the United States, obesity is rapidly growing as a major disease. It is beyond surprise that more than half of the population in the country is overweight and the rate is still increasing. Obesity or overweight has many reasons to grow but on the other hand there are only a few methods to bring the weight under control. Moreover, the success of such methods differs from person to person and most of the time comes under the scanner. This means, successful long term weight loss is incredibly difficult for most people to achieve. And along with the weight loss methods and treatments, most of us have tried diets that may trigger some weight loss but at the end tend to gain back the weight they lost plus some additional pounds. This seems as an unending story for some, but those who have tried acupuncture as a method to control weight have something different to say. Acupuncture, is one of the ancient healing techniques still in use. And those who have tried weight loss with the aid of this age old method can definitely vouch for its success. With the success stories of many, more and more people are turning to acupuncture weight loss treatments. Acupuncture, as a healing technique, is a practice that is more than 5,000 years old, and is appreciably older than Western medicinal therapies and practices. Most of us are aware of the techniques involved in Acupuncture and while considering weight loss with this method, it involves inserting hair-thin needles into particular spots on the skin that are believed to help the body function properly. In general, the method of Acupuncture helps to stimulate the body and to discharge endorphins, which are nothing but body's own pain-relieving chemicals which makes us feel good. This can be considered one of the ways in which Acupuncture helps us in weight loss releasing endorphins and in turn control appetite. The weight loss treatment begins with the proper history of the patient which the acupuncture specialist will note down by asking a variety of questions. Most of the times the specialist also performs an examination of the patient. The intention is to recognize the main grounds of the person's excess weight as the weight gain is sometimes simply behavioral, or sometimes there is a physiological reason as well. After the questioning and examinations, the root causes of the problem are identified, and the acupuncture specialist can continue with proper treatment of the same. To start with the specialist can insert needles into different areas of the body in order to help improve the body's functioning in a way that will promote weight loss. In most of the weight loss cases, the acupuncture specialist uses a multi-targeted approach. One of this is the method to attempt to lower the body's weight by increasing the output of the pituitary gland. Another method is to decrease the carving for foods. Or the specialist can also attempt to encourage a decrease in natural appetite. In this way, some needle placements are even considered to lower insulin levels or lipid levels in the blood.