Acupuncture, Surgical Sutures and Weight Loss

WEST LAKE,  HANGZHOU, CHINA

Hangzhou,  capital of Zhejiang Province in East China is one of the more modern and prosperous cities in China, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Shanghai. It sits besides the zen-like, West Lake, and is at the southern end of the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal, 1,764 km (about 1200 miles) in length, is the longest man-made waterway surpassing the Suez and Panama Canals. What makes it even more remarkable is the Grand Canal was made with the engineering of ancient China; the oldest parts of the canal date back to the 5th century BC, although the various sections were finally combined during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 CE). Hangzhou is one of China's seven ancient national capitals.  When Marco Polo came to Hangzhou in the 13th century, he declared it to be “the most beautiful and elegant city in the world"  Hangzhou is also the home of the Red Cross Hospital otherwise known as the Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital of Zhejiang Province which is where this story begins.


A few years ago, I participated in a residency program at this hospital in the OB-GYN, Herbal, General Acupuncture Divisions.  As the name suggests, this is truly an integrated hospital where patients receive ordinary care along with acupuncture treatments, herbal formulas and pharmaceutical medications.  While this was quite an enlightening experience, I observed another procedure that I cannot name nor can I find any information on.  Woman and teenage girls were coming in to the OB-GYN division to have cm long pieces of surgical suture material (cat-gut) placed in precise locations, intra-dermally to enhance weight loss. 

Surgical Suture Materials

 I observed this procedure on visibly overweight teenage girl.   The girl was placed supine on an exam table while the Doctor loaded a 1 cm piece of cat-gut into a needle like cannula, wiped the area with alcohol and pushed the loaded cannula into a precise location intra-dermally in the abdomen of the crying girl.  This was repeated 5-6 times. The mother of the teenage girl stood by holding her hand and softly chuckled and said of few words of reassurance to her daughter.  As best I understood at the time, China's entry into a modern economy brought dietary changes to the youth of China leading to overweight teenagers-really?.  It was explained to me that this procedure, when repeated every six weeks, has been shown to reduce appetite and substantially reduce belly fat in overweight patients.  


Next it was my turn.  I opted out using the excuse that in 6 weeks I would be back in the US so the experiment would not have time to work for me.  My Australian roommate decided she wanted to try the procedure.  For her there were no tears, no blood.  I checked back with her after I left and she had had another two rounds.  She claimed it was a miracle cure for her "inner-tube"  problems!?
Anecdotal, yes and quasi-acupuncture, yes; interesting comment on the mystery of Chinese medicine and the human body, yes.


There are a number of studies that researched the effects of ear acupuncture and traditional acupuncture on weight loss with mixed results as compared with control or placebo.  In a recent study, traditional acupuncture with electrical stimulation has been shown to have a positive effect lowering lipoproteins associated with obesity.  The abstract of this study was cited from Pub Med and can be found below:

Am J Chin Med. 2008;36(6):1029-39.

The efficacy of electroacupuncture therapy for weight loss changes plasma lipoprotein A, apolipoprotein A and apolipoprotein B levels in obese women.

Cabioglu MT, Gündogan N, Ergene N.

Source

Department of Physiology, Medical Faculty, Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey. tugcab@yahoo.com

Abstract

In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of electroacupuncture treatment on lipoprotein A, apolipoprotein A and apolipoprotein B levels in obese subjects. Fifty-eight women were studied in 3 groups as follows: 1) Placebo acupuncture (n = 15; mean age = 41.47 +/- 4.61, and mean body mass index {BMI} = 33.43 +/- 3.10); 2) Electroacupuncture (EA) (n = 20; mean age = 40.55 +/- 5.30, and BMI = 35.65 +/- 3.84) and 3) Diet restriction groups (n = 23; mean age = 42.91 +/- 4.02, and BMI = 34.78 +/- 3.29). EA was performed using the ear points, Hungry, Shen Men and Stomach the body points, Hegu (LI 4), Quchi (LI 11), Tianshu (St 25), Zusanli (St 36), Neiting (St 44) and Taichong (Liv 3) for 20 days. Intragroup comparisons were made by using paired samples t-test whereas intergroup differences were investigated by the two-way variation analysis and LSD test. There was a 4.7% (p < 0.001) weight reduction in patients with electroacupuncture application, whereas patients in diet restriction had a 2.9% (p < 0.001) weight reduction. There were significant decreases in lipoprotein A (p < 0.05) and apolipoprotein B (p < 0.05) levels in the EA compared to the control group and no changes in apolipoprotein A levels was observed in EA, diet and placebo acupuncture groups. EA therapy may be a useful approach for the treatment of obesity for both losing weight and lowing the risk factors for cardiovascular disease associated with obesity, since this application may decrease the

plasma lipoprotein A and apolipoprotein B levels.

While this study is an encouraging, positive result supporting the use of acupuncture and weight loss, the process of weight loss remains an individual journey.   Healthy weight loss requires behavioral and lifestyle modifications based upon discipline, hard work and patience; translation- -exercise, healthy diet and pro-biotic support to get the most out of the good food you eat.

Cat-gut anyone??