Have you heard? A handful of needle pricks in your ear may help you lose that stubborn belly fat, according to a study published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine.
“Stimulating specific points can help suppress appetite appetite and increase metabolism,” explains study co-author Sabina Lim.
Researchers at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea studied the efficacy of acupuncture treatments in helping obese patients lose weight, comparing the standard Korean five point treatment with acupuncture stimulating only a single point.
For the study, needles were placed into points on the ear believed to correspond to hunger and activity in the spleen, endocrine system and the stomach. Participants who received eight weeks of acupuncture saw a 6 percent decrease in BMI, a smaller waist circumference and a loss in overall body fat.
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Auricular , or ear, acupuncture was first used by Dr. Paul Nogier in France in 1956. He found that he was able to cure his patients’ backaches with a single burn on the ear. His fascination with these findings led him to start mapping the ear, pinpointing the spots that correlate to various organs or systems in the body.
Dr. Nogier soon began treating his patients by applying pressure to the spot associated with their ailing organ.
“Both five-needle acupuncture treatment generally used in Korean clinics and one-needle treatment at the hunger point appear to be effective in reducing body weight in the short term,” study researchers concluded.
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