Having a needle stuck in your ear may be a quick way to suppress your appetite and lose weight, research on the benefits of acupuncture as a weight loss technique has revealed. Researchers from the University of Adelaide and a private medical acupuncture practice used an electronic acupuncture device on 60 overweight people in the study and monitored its impact for one month. The majority of overweight people who had the device attached to their ear recorded both weight loss and reduced appetite.