How Acupuncture Can Accelerate Weight Loss
If you’re struggling to lose weight, it can feel like no diet or exercise plan works. Perhaps you do everything right and get no result. Maybe your attempts to get started are sabotaged by cravings or fatigue.
In these situations, some extra support may be necessary. One of the lesser-known therapies to benefit weight control is acupuncture, which is becoming more well-known here in Glenview, IL.
How Acupuncture for Weight Loss Works
Acupuncture may work for weight loss when combined with a healthy diet and exercise routine. Studies show that acupuncture and lifestyle changes are more effective together than lifestyle changes alone. However, acupuncture alone is ineffective. In one trial, acupuncture led to a 1.2-point lower BMI and a 1.85cm smaller waist circumference compared to control groups that only used lifestyle interventions.
One of acupuncture’s most popular benefits is its ability to relieve stress and anxiety. The main stress hormone is cortisol, which promotes fat gain and can even cause muscle loss by breaking down proteins. To make things worse, cortisol worsens sugar cravings and increases overall food intake. This may be to assist the fight-or-flight response by boosting the amount of available energy.
Acupuncture can support weight control through directly benefitting metabolic health and appetite control. Some points, such as ST 36, reduce levels of a hormone that promotes hunger and is found in higher levels among overweight patients.
Others may improve insulin sensitivity. Long-term, excessive sugar and calorie intake reduces your body’s ability to respond to insulin, which drives up production of the hormone to compensate. To make things worse, excessive insulin promotes fat gain.
Additionally, acupuncture may boost levels of adiponectin in obese patients. This substance increases insulin sensitivity, helps control fat burning, and protects blood vessels against damage.
Personalized acupuncture approach to weight loss at Life Balance Clinic
At Life Balance Clinic in Glenview, IL, we take a holistic, personalized approach to weight loss with Chinese medicine. Through a combination of nutritional consulting, dietary therapy, and acupuncture, we can be better able to meet your individual needs and goals. Our nutritional consulting services may include information on recipes, meal planning, food labels, and additives to watch out for.
As for your acupuncture treatment itself, Dr. Vadim Dekhtyar (DACM) will take a thorough case history involving your overall health and any factors that may have contributed to your weight gain. This can help to uncover the hormonal, metabolic, digestive, inflammatory, and other factors that make it difficult to lose weight.
Benefits of Acupuncture for Weight Loss
If you’ve just searched “acupuncture for weight loss near me” you may have found the clinic for you. Our owner, Dr. Vadim Dekhtyar (DACM), has over 30 years of experience in acupuncture and Chinese medicine across a range of specialties and techniques. He is also the author of “Natural Slimness with NLP and Hypnosis,” which covers therapy for the emotional and mental factors behind difficulty losing weight.