If you are overweight, you probably at least once in your life tried dieting to lose weight.  If you failed in your endeavor to lose weight, then it’s time to try out a weight reducing program that has been used in China and the Far East for thousands of years – acupuncture.  You may be surprised at how effective this treatment is to help yourself achieve the weight you desire. Yes, in Linwood, acupuncture is a procedure that involves being stuck by filiform needles in order to achieve a beneficial health effect; however, the procedure is not painful as you think if performed by a licensed and skillful acupuncturist and it is much better than most of the conventional weight loss programs around.

As mentioned acupuncture is a healing tradition used in China where it came from and the Far East.  The discovery of its effectiveness in helping people lose weight was only recently discovered in America.  Since then it has slowly become a popular alternative for the other weight loss drugs and health fitness programs in the market today.

Traditional Chinese medicine sees obesity as an effect of an imbalanced function of the digestive system.  To restore balance, acupuncture is given to the patient and one of the resulting effects is weight loss.  The other benefits of acupuncture include are its improvement of digestion, increase in body metabolism to help burn calories faster, improvement of bowel movement, improvement of blood flow to the digestive organs, and regulating of appetite.

The needles are inserted into specific parts of the body where meridians are located.  These meridians are energy vessels that convey life giving energy called chi all over the body.  The acupuncturist manipulates or tweaks the needles to stimulate biochemical production of certain chemicals that helps in the appetite control, removal of stress and improvement of blood flow.  Sometimes to enhance treatment, electrical stimulation is used through mild electrical pulses or even lasers that are connected to the needles by wires and also Chinese herbal medicine which quickens the treatment and makes it even more potent.  The length of each treatment lasts for 20 to 40 minutes and the needle insertion sometimes may elicit a slight sensation such as a tingling sensation or heat but no pain, if performed by a licensed and well-trained practitioner. Some women with irregular menstrual cycles who have tried using weight loss acupuncture even experienced their period become regular and menstrual symptoms such as fatigue and mood swings disappear with this therapy.

Some noted side effect such as dizziness, nausea and headaches have sometimes been reported by patients during acupuncture treatment.  If you experience these, talk to your doctor and acupuncturist to see what steps to take to mitigate or prevent these side effects.