HANOI — Fifty-year-old Tran Thi Dang credits acupuncture with helping her lose weight.

Dang, 165cm tall, weighed 65kg before the treatment. In just one month of acupuncture she lost 3kg, she said.
Dang plans to reach 60kg and be able to maintain that weight by the time her daughter returns to school in September.
Her daughter Nguyen Thuy Quynh is 18 years old and weighs 80kg. She hopes the treatment will help her lose weight too.
Many overweight people have turned to acupuncture to lose weight in Viet Nam in recent years. However, health specialists warn that people should not expect miraculous results from the treatment.

Dr Dao Huu Minh at the Central Traditional Medicine Hospital said that not everybody who seeks help with weight loss is necessarily a good candidate for acupuncture.
Obese people who suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, and liver and kidney disease, must be treated for these diseases as well.
The treatment only works for people whose weight-to-height ratio is more than 25, according to Dr Minh.
The treatment lasts 12 weeks, with consultations every second day.
Patients should lose 1kg in the first week, and 2kg in every subsequent three weeks of treatment, Dr Minh said.
Dr Nguyen Viet Thai, head of consultations, said acupuncture accelerated weight loss.
Dr Minh said the treatment could also be used on obese children.
Inserting an acupuncture needle into a particular spot on the ear would allow the needle to be manipulated by the patient to relieve the sensation of hunger when needed.
The doctor said this worked best for children, because the needle only needed to be changed once a week.
Both Dr Minh and Dr Thai agreed that to maintain their new weight, people would have to change their diet over the long term.
Acupuncture was purely a way to help the body adjust to the change, they said.
Dr Minh also said that while some medicines and fad diet would help people lose weight in the short-term, they were not a permanent solution because people would quickly regain weight if they could not overcome their cravings for food in the long term. —VNS