Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate physical therapy modality in order to reduce body fat. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation of two specfic acupuncture points, that is, Liang-Qiu and Gong-Sun, bilaterally was examined in order to determine the effect of this stimulation on body fat and body weight in 10 subjects obese or overweight. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups: 1) an Acu-TENS group which received acupuncture-like TENS applied to four acupuncture points, and 2) a Con-TENS group, which received conventional TENS applied to the same points. A repeated measure analysis of variance revealed a significant reduction of body fat for the Acu-TENS group versus the Con-TENS group, but did not show a significant reduction of body weight for the Acu-TENS group versus the Con-TENS group. Further studies are needed to determine whether there are other acupuncture points, stimulation methods or characteristics that can enhance the effect of the treatment without side effects. Verf.-Referat