Metabolic Syndrome is a  cluster of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. These conditions include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

What is metabolic syndrome and why it need to be treated

Metabolic syndrome, characterized by excessive level of abdominal obesity(waist size >40 inches (M) >35 inches (F), less sensitivity to insulin(insulin resistance or diabetes, fasting sugar >100mg/dl), high blood pressure(>130mmHg systolic or >85 mmHg diastolic), and high level of blood serum cholesterol(triglyceride >150mg/dl), is now considered a major health hazard1 and has even been called a “global pandemic.”2

Clinically any person falling under any one of the above conditions is considered high risk of full-blown metabolic syndrome because these conditions are closely inter-connected mechanism. Researchers suggest that an increase in high-calorie food such as high sugar containing fast food, low-fiber fast food, an increase in sedentary lifestyles, and a decrease in physical activity and exercises complicated with ongoing elevated stress level especially caused by mainly global COVID 19 induced pandemic contribute to the rising incidence of metabolic syndrome.1  

Patients with metabolic syndrome are five times more likely to develop diabetes.3 In fact, often the cases of metabolic syndrome often increase alongside with the cases of obesity and type 2 diabetes.1

CDC data in 2017 give us an alarming picture that about 30.2 million adults aged 18 years and older (comprising of 12.2% of US adults) had type 2 diabetes and the likelihood of the prevalence of prediabetes or metabolic syndrome was about three times more—suggesting that about one third of US adults have metabolic syndrome.1

Metabolic syndrome is not only affected by poor diet as many people believe but also not enough exercise; uncontrolled high stress levels, and the health of the microbiome in the gut can also play an important and integral part of the disease progression.

The microbiome in the gut is also known to affect metabolism, and may contribute to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.4 In individuals with metabolic syndrome, arterial stiffness predicts cardiovascular risk. In a study of 617 women, analysis of the microbiome accounted for 8.3% of the variation in arterial stiffness. For example, examining the gut microbial makeup showed that butyrate-producing Ruminococcaceae bacteria were negatively correlated with arterial stiffness.5

Studies about acupuncture for many health concerns including high blood pressure and obesity demonstrate direct effects of acupuncture on the central nervous system. These include spinal reflex effects, where acupuncture stimulates muscle relaxation and changes in visceral organs, resulting in the altered level of nerve function. In the brain, acupuncture has been shown to change functional connectivity, decreasing stress and illness while improving the regulation of the primary system that the body uses for regulating hormones and stress response.6 Additionally, acupuncture modulates parasympathetic activity, the branch of the nervous system associated with rest, relaxation, digestion and tissue healing.7

Acupuncture combined with the protocol to balance gut microbiome may have a higher chance of slowing down the metabolic syndrome and possibly reversing the disease progression within certain time without taking risks of invasive and dangerous medications and surgeries in the future.

Reference

  1. Saklayen MG. The global epidemic of the metabolic syndrome. Curr Hypertens Rep. 2018;20(2):12. doi:1007/s11906-018-0812-z.
  2. Kelli HM, Kassas I, Lattouf OM. Cardio metabolic syndrome: a global epidemic. J Diabetes Metab. 2015;6(3):1-14. doi:4172/2155-6156.1000513.
  3. Wilson PW, D’Agostino RB, Parise H, Sullivan L, Meigs JB. Metabolic syndrome as a precursor of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Circulation. 2005;112(20):3066-3072.
  4. Org E, Blum Y, Kasela S, et al. Relationships between gut microbiota, plasma metabolites, and metabolic syndrome traits in the METSIM cohort. Genome Biol. 2017;18(1):70. doi:10.1186/s13059-017-1194-2
  5. Menni C, Lin C, Cecelja M, et al. Gut microbial diversity is associated with lower arterial stiffness in women. Eur Heart J. 2018;39(25):2390-2397. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehy226
  6. Cho ZH, Hwang SC, Wong EK, et al. Neural substrates, experimental evidences and functional hypothesis of acupuncture mechanisms. Acta Neurol Scand 2006;113:370–7. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0404.2006.00600.x
  7. Lund I, Lundeberg T. Mechanisms of Acupuncture. Acupuncture and Related Therapies Published Online First: 2016. doi:10.1016/j.arthe.

Weight Loss is a Problem

Obesity is a condition of abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that leads to a risk to health. As per WHO, a person with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more is considered obese, whereas a person with BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight.

Obesity and weight gain are the most prevailing health conditions around the globe. Excessive weight gain is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, Type II Diabetes, musculoskeletal conditions, and few cancers.

According to a report published by the WHO, the worldwide obesity has nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016. But, obesity is preventable. With appropriate medical treatment and diet plan, one can get rid of these two alarming health conditions, and acupuncture is one of the best-known treatments. Reason? Acupuncture cures obesity without putting a person under the knife.

How Acupuncture Aids in Weight Loss?

When it comes to losing weight, it is easier said than done. As per the researchers, acupuncture can actually aid in weight loss. It can affect appetite, intestinal motility, and metabolism, along with the psychological factors such as stress.

Acupuncture is one of the oldest healing practices in the world. Being originated in China, acupuncture has now marked its presence around the globe. The process of using needles to aid in the treatment of several health conditions, acupuncture focuses not only on an individual’s problem areas but also balances the functioning of the whole body. It gives an opportunity to experience good health and an individual can feel better despite their external appearances.

Acupuncture offer insights and practices that just aren’t found in workout videos and diet pills. The craving for food majorly depends on the imbalances in our internal system, and the therapy of acupuncture helps in normalizing the craving, and aid weight loss when complemented with proper diet and exercise. This is a powerful and profound therapy that generates a real experience of feeling comfortable with your body while motivating to play an active role in maintaining your own well-being.

CHINESE NUTRITION DIET

“People who practice medicine must first thoroughly understand the source of the disorder and know what has been violated. Then, use food to treat it, and if food will not cure it, afterwards apply drugs.” ~ Sun Simiao, Essential Prescriptions for Every Emergency Worth a Thousand in Gold (Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang, 備急千金要方 – see Wilms, 2010)

What is a Healthy Diet? From the perspective of Chinese dietary therapy there is no simple answer to this question; rather the answer lies in two counter questions: ‘A healthy diet for who?’ and ‘A healthy diet when?’.

A Healthy Diet for ‘Who’?
The ‘Who’ of this step simply involves matching the person’s patterns with foods that are recommended and foods that should be avoided. The most crucial factor is to determine the willingness of the patient to follow dietary recommendations. The second is to determine from where these dietary recommendations are sourced.

“Changing a diet can be a profound thing, and it is, at the same time, one of the easiest and the hardest things to change. In theory, it is easy to drastically alter one’s health by simply eating differently. All you have to do is put something different in the mouth and diet change is done. However, diet change is one of the hardest to accomplish as because people have emotional patterns of eating. Thus, while the diet itself is easy to change, the person’s Heart is not.” (in Foreword to Wilms, 2014)

A Healthy Diet ‘When’? Applying temporal considerations to dietary advice can be as simple as recommending seasonally grown local foods and as sophisticated as consulting the traditional Chinese calendars. Temporal considerations can be divided into three broad categories:

  • Seasonal
  • Astrological
  • Climatic
Seek Out When
Sardines Augmenting yin is recommended in a yin wood goat year (2015)
Pumpkin Seeds In season at the time of consultation: moistening is recommended in a yin wood goat year and to counteract to the dryness of Autumn.
Chestnut In season at the time of consultation and available for wild harvesting
Venison In season at the time of consultation and available

 

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