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Jiaxin Chen,1,2 Johannah L Shergis,3 Xinfeng Guo,1,2 Anthony Lin Zhang,3 Hanlin Wang,1,2 Chuanjian Lu,1,2 Charlie C Xue,3 Changcai Xie1,2 1Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, and The Second Clinical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2State Key Laboratory of Dampness Syndrome of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Joint Laboratory on Chinese Medicine, and Immune Disease Research Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Research on Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, Guangzhou, 510120, People’s Republic of China; 3The China-Australia International Research Centre for Chinese Medicine, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University, Bundoora, Melbourne, AustraliaCorrespondence: Changcai Xie, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, and The Second Clinical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, 111 Dade Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, 510120, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13650997551, Email hxie114@163.comPurpose: An increasing number of people are affected by overweight or obesity, and the personal and social health burden is growing rapidly. Acupuncture is gaining popularity as an alternative treatment to manage weight. This research aims to update and synthesize the evidence of acupuncture therapies from systematic reviews for treating overweight and obesity.Methods: Nine databases were searched from their inception to March 2022. Overweight or obesity was classified using standard diagnostic criteria. Published systematic reviews that included randomized controlled trials and quasi-randomized studies were eligible. Quality was assessed via the AMSTAR-2 scale and risk of bias using the ROBIS tool.Results: Thirty-eight systematic reviews were identified. Acupuncture therapies and auricular acupoint stimulation showed benefits in terms of reducing body weight and body mass index. Catgut embedding therapy and abdominal acupuncture are currently not in widespread use with insufficient evidence. Acupuncture therapies appear to be safe. Most of the reviews were assessed as having high risk of bias and low confidence in the findings.Conclusion: There is a need for larger and more methodologically sound randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture therapies for individuals who are affected by overweight or obesity.Keywords: acupuncture, overweight, obesity, systematic review

Introduction. Herbal medicine is commonly used by patients with chronic cough, but the role of herbal medicine for cough variant asthma (CVA) has not yet been clearly defined. For the first time, we performed a meta-analysis to integrate the current evidence of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on this topic and assess the efficacy of herbal medicine in adults with CVA. Methods. A comprehensive search was conducted in electronic databases to identify RCTs of herbal medicine for adult CVA. Cochrane systematic review methods were followed, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation was performed to evaluate the quality of evidence. Results. Twenty-eight RCTs were included. Compared with placebo, moderate-quality evidence from two studies showed that herbal medicine was associated with reduced cough symptom score (CSS) (MD −1.15 points; 95% CI, −1.67 to −0.63) and visual analogue scale (VAS) (MD −1.76 points; 95% CI, −2.66 to −0.86). Compared with montelukast, low- to moderate-quality evidence from 11 studies indicated that herbal medicine was associated with improved Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) (MD 2.38 points; 95% CI, 1.32 to 3.44), reduced CSS (SMD −0.81 points; 95% CI, −1.09 to −0.53), and VAS (MD −1.34 points; 95% CI, −1.82 to −0.86). There were no significant differences between herbal medicine and ICS plus bronchodilator. Conclusions. In adults with CVA, herbal medicine may result in improved quality of life and reduced cough frequency and severity scores compared with placebo or montelukast. Herbal medicine was not better than ICS plus a bronchodilator but the evidence is very uncertain.

Additional file 2. COREQ (COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research) Checklist. Description: This document states where in the manuscript the COREQ items have been reported.

Additional file 3. Participant Interview Guide. Description: This document lists the questions asked of participants during focus groups.

Additional file 1. Patient position during MET (a) seated and (b) side-lying. Description: This document presents two images of typical patient positions used for MET application during the study.