Weight lose case with an unfair result

Weight loss can be a tricky case because it is easy to confuse the diagnosis by expecting it to be something - most often by not looking deep enough. My guess with this patient is that there is more going on than just stomach heat. Given that the patient is female and has a very busy work life, I would guess that she is probably showing signs of KD yin deficiency and/or SP qi deficiency.

Either way, weight issues can be attributed to lifestyle choices (poor food, lack of exercise, etc.), but also thyroid issues, metabolic disorders, addictions, etc. If you do not properly diagnose the underlying factors you will get poor results with the treatments. That said, with correct treatment, most patients should experience some weight loss within one month (we treat once a week, but that is just preference). Some, however, it will take up to 3 months to get a significant change (this is usually the case when there is thyroid involvement, or other systemic issues).

We often use the following points for weight loss:

Huatuo of T7, ST 21, GB 13 (on the right side), LI 18, huatuo of C2 (on the right side), GV 22, Yiming, TH 17 - plus points based on their overall Chinese Medicine diagnosis.

Safe weight loss, the kind that has a greater chance of staying off is on the order of 1-2 pounds/week. When we work with people we will often see larger amounts in the first 3-5 months of treatments, perhaps 15-20 pounds in some cases. This degree of weight loss, however, cannot be maintained and will usually come back without the patient making appropriate dietary and lifestyle adjustments.

Personally I rarely use auricular therapy for weight loss (or anything else), but many do and there are good protocols for related issues such as endocrine imbalances and addiction issues. We generally use medical qi gong (tong ren therapy), acupuncture, and occasionally herbal medicine. If we use herbs it is our "Certainly Slim" formula which in our experience is quite safe compared to many herbal formulas and has a good track record of efficacy, particularly if people are putting in the effort as well.