Acupuncture as an adjunct therapy improved conditions of patients with eating disorders

Eating disorders are serious and complex emotional and physical conditions and include extreme thoughts, emotions, and behaviours surrounding body weights, food and body shape. Bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are the most common forms of the disorders. Binge eating is another type of eating disorder. While commonly affecting young woman, eating disorders can impact all age and genders. Conventional treatments of eating disorders include psychological therapies, nutritional counselling and medication.

Medical complications of eating disorders comprise multiple body systems including gastrointestinal, cardiac, endocrine systems. Resulting problems can be anything ranging from depression, headache and infertility, with digestive systems being mostly disrupted.

Acupuncture therapy offers a holistic dimension that treats body, mind and emotion simultaneously. Acupuncture is very effective in treating many digestive conditions such as acid reflex, nausea, abdominal bloating, constipation, diarrhoea etc. It reduces stress and anxiety helping mental and physical relaxations. As a recent study showed that as an adjunct therapy acupuncture helped improve the conditions of patients with eating disorders.

Reference:

Forgarty S et al., Acupuncture as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of eating disorders: A randomised cross-over pilot study. Complementary Therapies in Medicine (2010)18, 233-240.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21130359