Acupuncture for Acid Reflux
No one enjoys the burning, squeezing and oppressive feeling of food trapped in the stomach. Whether you actively feel the back-flow of stomach acid in your throat and chest, or you have the silent type where the effects are impacting your sleep, voice, respiration or sinuses, you know how disruptive reflux can be to your daily life.
An increasingly common complaint for many of my patients, acid reflux is one of many conditions acupuncture can help to improve digestive health and along with it, quality of life.
There are a number of factors that can negatively influence healthy digestion, the most common and obvious are stress and diet. Rarely do we find one cause for any one disease process, and acid reflux is no different, there are likely many contributing factors to acid reflux.
What causes acid reflux or GERD?
Let’s look at some of the reasons you may be suffering with acid reflux or GERD (gastrointestinal esophageal reflux disease). The latter being a more chronic and frequent form of the latter.
Weakness of a muscle in the esophagus, the sphincter, can allow the back-flow of stomach acid.
Medications like muscle relaxants, ibuprofen and pain killers
Specific foods like coffee, chocolate, tomato sauce, mint, sugar, alcohol and citrus
Late night eating and over eating
Excess weight around the abdomen, as well as pregnancy
While these are the most common causes of acid reflux, another connecting factor that I commonly see is gut dysbiosis.
That’s a fancy way of saying that an imbalance of the healthy bacteria in the gut. This can be triggered by a pathogen, like the types of bacteria that cause food poisoning. Some medications destroy healthy gut bacteria, while a diet lacking in adequate nutrition can cause the disproportionate over-growth of certain strains of bacteria.
TCM and acid reflux.
Traditional Chinese Medicine address acid reflux through acupuncture, herbs, dietary and lifestyle changes. Let’s take a look through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine to see how acid reflux develops.
The Stomach has the “job” of “rotting and ripening” food.
The Spleen has the job of transforming and transporting the clear Food Essence up toward the lungs, while the Stomach sends the turbid waste down to the intestines.
Stomach Qi goes down while Spleen Qi goes up for healthy digestion.
If the Stomach Qi is injured in any way, and it flows the wrong direction (upward) symptoms of belching, burping, nausea and vomiting result.
What injures Stomach Qi?
A number things, including:
over-eating, constant nibbling
eating late or lying down immediately after eating
eating too little
excessively spicy foods
sweets
fried foods and processed foods
irregular meal times
eating in a rush
eating while stressed
eating while working (problem solving, focused on something other than eating)
a sudden change in dietary habits (hello holidays and vacations!)
alcohol
Phew…that is quite the long list. Between all of the causes of acid reflux identified by allopathic medicine and TCM, can you relate any of your symptoms to those behaviors or habits?
My guess is…yes.
Clinical experience has demonstrated time and time again, that acupuncture definitively helps reduce intensity, severity and frequency of acid reflux; but equally, if not more important to successful treatment, is modifying lifestyle and diet.
Finding a balanced lifestyle is absolutely key to getting all digestive imbalances under control.
If you have been struggling with acid reflux, and need some help getting started, make an appointment today. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll rediscover what it once felt like to live without the nagging discomfort of reflux.