Basic Concepts and Treatment Methods of Obesity in Oriental Medicine

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Nowdays, obesity and overweight constitutes serious health problems in a modern complex industrial society. They are either directly, or indirectly, associated with a wide variety of diseases that account for an ever-increasing annual mortality rate.
In Oriental Medicine, doctors treat problems of obesity in another way in comparison with Western Medicine. They consider the metabolic disorders of five organs, Wind(風), Phlegm(痰), Damp(濕), and Heat (熱) also give rise to obesity and overweight problems.
And also, the treatment of obesity in Oriental Medicine is very various and complex. Present forms of treatment include acupuncture, herbmedications and Qigong. In particular, starvation is carried out with manipulation, negative therapy, a contrast of bathing therapy, carbon therapy, behavior modification and counselling.
As stated above, the concepts and treatment methods of obesity in Oriental Medicine are unique and original.

In that, Chinese Medicine differs from the point of Western Medicine, it is regarded as the cause of obesity and the lack of energy in the paunch liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys. Disorders in the paunch and metabolism are caused by moisture, spectrum, palsy and fever, whose explanations are the same as disorders of the digestive system, metabolic functions and the endocrine system.
To treat obesity, in Chinese medicine, many treatments like Chinese drugs, acupuncture and Qikong-therapy cures are being used. Manipulation, negative pressure, physical and breathing-exercise cures are used with the fasting cure stepped into reduction, fasting, convalescence and dieting. Also, this institute analyzes dietary habits with on obesity-evaluating questionnaire, grasps the causes and constitution of obesity, performs the action-correction cures to induce changes of a wrong dietary and living habits and solves psychological disorders that are observed in obese patients through counselling.
Such like this, Chinese medicine has a peculiar concept on the basic causes and classification of obesity, and uses many safe treatments without any sideeffects.