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Taking the weight off with TCM

Acupuncture and herbal prescriptions should go hand in hand with a healthier lifestyle, say practitioners

TCM treatments such as acupuncture are proving effective in helping people to lose weight. Photo: REUTERS

TCM treatments such as acupuncture are proving effective in helping people to lose weight. Photo: REUTERS

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SINGAPORE — When it comes to losing weight, some calorie-conscious Singaporeans are game enough to be pricked by dozens of needles. Mdm Esther Low, a self-employed 40-year-old, is one of an increasing number of Singaporeans attempting to shed unwanted kilos in this manner.

Twice a week, Mdm Low heads to a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic where a physician inserts 30 tiny acupuncture needles into her skin. Each session is followed by a tuina massage where a trained therapist kneads, rubs and applies pressure to specific acupoints of her body.

Mdm Low, who used to weigh 81kg, says the “relaxing” twice-weekly sessions have helped her shed 7kg over the last three months. Her body mass index (BMI) has decreased from 32.4 to 29.6, which is still considered by the Health Promotion Board to be in the “very unhealthy range” for her height of 1.58m. She hopes to bring her BMI down to the healthy range of 22.

“So far, I’ve not experienced any negative side effects such as lethargy and gastric problems, which I used to get while on an extreme low-calorie diet. The acupuncture treatments seem to curb my big appetite and sweet tooth too. I no longer need to eat so much to feel satisfied or crave sweet food,” said Mdm Low, who paid close to S$4,000 for a package of 24 acupuncture sessions and 60 tuina sessions.

Losing weight is a common affair in Singapore, where one in two people consider themselves overweight and are trying to slim down, according to a 2012 study by Nielsen. Based on the last National Health Survey in 2010, 11 per cent of adults aged between 18 and 69 were obese, up from 7 per cent in 2004.

At least two multi-chain TCM providers here have noticed a significant increase in people seeking help for weight management issues in the past five years.

Registered TCM practitioner Zeng Wei, from Ma Kuang TCM Medical Centre, said the two clinics she is attached to see about 900 patients each month, the majority of whom struggle with weight. This figure has more than doubled in the past five years.

During the same period, Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic has seen a 60 per cent growth in the number of patients on its weight management programme.

Most are younger women and “overly stressed” working professionals in their thirties who lead sedentary lifestyles and have poor diets, said the centre’s registered TCM physician, Ms Lin Xiao Yan.

It is also not uncommon for local parents to take their overweight teenagers for consultations.

Among Ms Zeng’s youngest patients was an obese 14-year-old whose mother turned to TCM to tackle his out-of-control appetite for junk food and sweet drinks.

Some, like Mdm Low, turn to TCM after experiencing a weight rebound following unsuccessful weight-loss programmes made up of off-the-shelf slimming pills or strict dieting.

Mdm Low’s weight rebounded by 30kg after she stopped a year-long low-calorie diet stipulated by a slimming centre.

 

THE YIN AND YANG OF WEIGHT LOSS

According to TCM principles, excess weight is said to be a sign of some “imbalances in the body” due to factors such as ageing and an unhealthy lifestyle and diet, which interrupt “qi” (the “vital energy” of the body) and lead to the build-up of toxins, said Ms Lin.

Ms Zeng said overweight patients tend to have sluggish metabolisms due to their sedentary and stressful lifestyles, lack of adequate sleep and poor diet — factors also known to cause weight gain according to Western medicine. Drastic weight-loss measures such as crash-dieting further slow down metabolism, increasing the risk of a weight rebound, she added.

Ranging from acupuncture and tuina to herbal prescriptions, TCM treatments for weight management typically focus on restoring the “internal balance” of the body, which in turn improves circulation and revs up metabolism, said Ms Zeng.

TCM has been used in China for centuries to manage obesity and other chronic diseases. But there are limited studies using international standards to prove its efficacy. One review of 96 randomised trials conducted within and outside China found TCM treatments, including acupuncture and herbal medicine, more effective than lifestyle modifications and as effective as prescription anti-obesity drugs, but with fewer side effects.

However, the study authors, whose findings were published in the May 2012 issue of international medical journal Obesity Reviews, noted that their findings were “limited by a small sample size and low quality methodologies”.

Dr Sonali Ganguly, director of the Obesity and Metabolic Unit at Singapore General Hospital, said alternative weight-loss measures are generally “unlikely to work if the individual continues with an unhealthy lifestyle and diet”. “Quick fixes typically do not work when it comes to weight management. They are usually drastic and may result in short-term weight loss. However, this weight is usually quickly regained once the intervention, such as massages or herbal medicine, is discontinued,” she said.

But the TCM physicians stressed that weight loss through TCM is not a quick fix as patients are also encouraged to adopt a healthier lifestyle in tandem with their treatments. Each course of treatment may take three to six months, or up to a year for post-menopausal women, said Ms Zeng.

“TCM adopts a holistic approach towards weight management. As long as patients abide by a healthy lifestyle, the risk of weight rebound is low,” said Ms Lin. People should always consult a registered practitioner to decide if a TCM programme is right for them. It is not suitable for some people, including those with abnormal bleeding disorders and certain chronic or contagious diseases as well as women who have just given birth, miscarried, or are still breastfeeding.

 

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, we misstated the gender of Dr Sonali Ganguly. She is female. We apologise for the error.

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