Digestive Problems

ByStef Cordes & Lisa Baird
Treatment room full of patients seated or reclined under red blankets in lazyboys. Standing practitioner covering patient with red blanket.
photo by Vanessa Tignanelli

by Stef Cordes and Lisa Baird

A lot of people struggle with digestion problems every day. Enter any supermarket chain or pharmacy and you’ll find shelves stacked with over-the-counter drugs for indigestion, gas & bloating, constipation, upset stomach, diarrhea, heartburn, nausea, and stomach ulcers. Acupuncture provides simple, long-term relief for all of these digestive problems without side effects (unless you count improved sleep and stress relief as side effects).

Stress and indigestion 

When our stress levels spike, we go into a “fight-or-flight” state, and our energy is shunted towards bodily functions that will increase our chances of survival in a state of emergency. Digesting our food is not one of those emergency functions, so any kind of stress, short term or long term can wreak havoc on our digestion. (Most of our IBS patients notice that stress worsens their symptoms.)

Acupuncture has an amazing ability to encourage our bodies out of the fight-or-flight mode and into a state of rest-and-digest (also known as feed-and-breed mode). This can help with all kinds of digestive upset as the body’s alarm systems calm down and normal digestion resumes.

Treating the pain

Acupuncture is an incredibly effective treatment for all kinds of pain, including pain related to digestive problems, such as ulcer pain, gas pain or stomach pain.

Keeping things moving

We probably don’t need to tell you that regular elimination of waste is important. If things stay around in the gut for too long, things that are should be eliminated may be reabsorbed before they reach the rectum. We’ve seen quite a few people who’ve had constipation for so long that they just accept it as a part of their life, who are quite surprised when they start having daily bowel movements with regular acupuncture.

Acupuncture can help digestion go in the proper direction: downwards. This means we can also effectively treat nausea, vomiting, and acid reflux.

Whether your digestive problem is chronic or acute, acupuncture can help. If you have any questions about what acupuncture can do for you, please get in touch.

Treatment room full of patients seated or reclined under red blankets in lazyboys. Standing practitioner covering patient with red blanket.
photo by Vanessa Tignanelli

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