Effect of tuina exercise on simple obesity in college students

Objective

To observe the effect of tuina exercise on simple obesity in college students.

Methods

Fifty-seven college students with simple obesity were divided into two groups according to the stratified randomization method. Twenty-eight in the tuina exercise group were trained in tuina exercise; while 29 in the auricular acupoint sticking group were treated with acuricular acupoint sticking. The tuina exercise group was trained once every other day, and 10 times made one course. The auricular acupoint sticking was replaced once every 4 d, and 5 times made one course. After 2-course treatment, the total therapeutic effect, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumferences, serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were assessed.

Results

The total therapeutic effect was 86.2% in the auricular acupoint sticking group and 85.7% in the tuina exercise group. There was no significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05). After treatment, the weight, BMI, waist and hip circumferences were decreased and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). The waist and hip circumferences in the tuina exercise group were lower than those in the auricular acupoint sticking group, showing statistically significant differences (all P<0.05). After treatment, there were no significant intra-group differences in TC, TG, HDL-C and LDL-C in the two groups (all P>0.05), and the between-group differences were not significant (all P>0.05).

Conclusion

Tuina exercise has reliable effect in treating obesity. It can produce more significant improvements in waist and hip circumferences than auricular acupoint sticking. But no obvious effect is shown in blood lipid indicators.