Study on the therapeutic effect and mechanism of electroacupuncture on simple obesity

OBJECTIVE: To study the changes, and their mechanism of action, of waist-hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI), blood lipids [total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C)], leptin (LEP) and adiponectin (ADI) under electroacupuncture in simple obesity. METHODS: Inclusion criteria: (1) obesity indicator for Asian adults established by the World Health Organization in 2000: BMI≥25. (2) Degree of obesity: according to the standard set by the national academic conference on integrated Chinese and Western medicine research on obesity, degree of obesity ≥10% is overweight and ≥20% is obesity. (3) WHR>1.0 for men and 0.8 for women, recommended by the World Health Organization in 1998 for the Asia-Pacific region, as the criterion for abdominal obesity. (4) TG>1.6mmol/L, or TC>6 mmol/L. (5) Age 18-50 years, either sex. Excluded were secondary obesity, such as hypothalamic disease, pituitary disease, pancreatic islet disease, hypothyroidism, hyperadrenocorticism, etc.; all kinds of severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases; blood diseases such as thrombocytopenic purpura; infectious diseases such as positive hepatitis B markers; and those who had received any other weight-loss treatment within the last three months. Using three-coloured cards (red, yellow, blue), 60 patients were randomly assigned to an experimental group, a control group and a blank control group. Those drawing a red card were assigned to the experimental group, i.e. the electroacupuncture group; those drawing a yellow card to the control group, i.e. simple filiform-needle acupuncture; and those drawing a blue card to the blank control group, i.e.