Does complementary and alternative medicine help in treating obesity?

2015-06-11 09:59:24

Obesity and its morbidities are a major health threat. Despite many diets and exercise programs available, interest in complementary and alternative (CAM) for obesity has increased. This study reviewed available articles and trials to see if obesity could be treated with CAM ⁽¹⁾. The results showed that the evidence supporting the effectiveness and safety of methods like herbal supplements, acupuncture, and non-invasive body-countouring, is either lacking or point to a negligible clinical benefit, barely surpassing placebo. Several limitations are observed, including uncontrolled trial designs, non-random allocation of patients, small number of patients, short duration of follow-ups, and ambiguous end points. Overall, the authors conclude that various CAM therapies do not have adequate evidence to justify their use, namely due to poor research quality.