Did you know that acupuncture can help with a number of digestive issues? Yes, it’s true!
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) occurs when stomach acid frequently flows back into your esophagus – the tube connecting your mouth and stomach.
If you suffer with this, or you’ve ever suffered with it, you might have felt hopeless and frustrated at times that there are no known causes and the only known treatments are either medications or dietary adjustments.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know what causes it in the first place, so that you can start treating and healing the root cause?
Enter Chinese Medicine (CM). CM has known for thousands of years that the blueprint of many physical manifestations is an imbalance of our Qi (energy). Reflux esophagitis in CM focuses on transforming, harmonizing, and restoring the normal movement of the stomach Qi to prevent it “rebelling” upwards. The treatment with acupuncture and/or herbs focuses on restoring normal functioning of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), enhancing gastric motility, and improving gastric emptying.
Stomach Qi usually rebels because of:
- Eating in a hurry
- Eating when stressed or angry
- Burning the midnight oil
- Eating while walking or standing, repeatedly and over time
- Anxiety
- Drinking too much water with a meal or shortly after which diluted digestive enzymes makes digestion very difficult.
If we take a little look at the most common lifestyle factors which cause or exacerbate GERD, or the upward rebelling of Stomach Qi, we can see that simply doing the opposite of what causes it will be helpful. Also introducing calming practices like meditation, walking in nature, and of course coming for acupuncture treatment. Because whilst changing our habits will help to prevent GERD from returning, healing the problem and lessening the damage done by the issue is the forte of CM.
Quick At-Home Tip: Something very simple you can do at home to help yourself is after every meal, stroke down the midline from the bottom of your rib cage to the top of your belly button for about two minutes gently. This will help the Qi to move downwards instead of rebelling upwards.
Here’s some more good news: In a 2018 study Acupuncture was trialled over a period of 6 weeks with daily treatment for GERD, with a few days break in between each week of treatment and the TCM control group fared significantly better than the Western medicine control group. There were also far fewer side effects (virtually none) in comparison to the control group who were taking Proton Pump Inhibitors and other medications for GERD.
The conclusion of the study – compared with PPIs or Prokinetics therapy alone, TCM single therapy can better improve the clinical total effective rate and symptom relief and decrease the recurrence rate and adverse events in the treatment of NERD. Our results suggest that TCM will be a promising alternative therapy for NERD patients in the future.
So, if you, or someone you know is suffering from GERD, there may be hope on the horizon! Give us a call at (218) 724-3400 to see if we can lend a helping hand.
Source:
Xiao J, Yang Y, Zhu Y, et al. Efficacy and Safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine on Nonerosive Reflux Disease: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2018;2018:1505394. Published 2018 May 24. doi:10.1155/2018/1505394
Treatment, of course, depends on the severity of the problem. As long as emergency situations are ruled out or addressed, one can turn to Chinese medicine for prevention, treatment and maintenance. And the power of self-care can never be understated. Acupressure is one of our best self-care tools when used appropriately. While the needles (and the added effect of electrostimulation of needles) are generally considered a stronger approach to energy medicine than acupressure, acupressure alone has proved extremely beneficial. For example, in a study of 70 hemodialysis patients with constipation where acupressure was administered 3 times/week for 4 weeks, there was a significant improvement in bowel function .
The Fall, in Chinese Medicine belongs to the Metal element and the associated emotion is grief, which is held in the lungs. Grief is a part of life and something we must all deal with at some point. If the emotion of grief is suppressed and not processed properly it can lead to health issues, especially lung disease. Taking time to remember loved ones that have passed and allowing emotions to flow can be extremely important in long term disease prevention and health maintenance. The Fall is a great time to do this according to Chinese Medicine seasonal energies. Halloween, a chance to face the dark side of death with a certain amount of playful protection, can be a reminder to put aside the spooky fun for a moment and lovingly honor our deceased friends and relatives.