Change of taste by ear acupuncture in simple obese patients / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

Differences between right-side and left-side stimulations in ear acupuncture treatment for obesity were examined. In Method I, 39 patients with simple obesity were randomly divided into two groups bilateral lung points stimulation group (BL) and right cardia point stimulation group (R₁). In Method II, 24 patients with simple obesity were randomly divided into two groups right cardia points st mulation group (R₂) and that of left one (L). Ear acupuncture was undertaken for both groups for four weeks. The appetite depressing effect and change of body weight and taste were compared. In Method I, BL showed better appetite-depressing effect and body weight loss than R₁. Highly increased salt-taste sensitivity was seen in both BL and R₁ groups. Positive correlation was seen between pretreatment salt-taste threshold and amount of body weight loss in (R₂) group (r=0.794), and the same tendency was also seen in L (r=0.536), i. e. the higher pretreatment threshold, the larger amount of wight loss. The fact that more abrupt tilt of regression line was seen in (R₂) suggests that stimulation of the right-side pointI was more effective than that of left-side.