Acupuncture for Digestive Disorders & IBS

In comparisons with Western drug treatments, acupuncture has been found beneficial for a variety of gastrointestinal diseases: dyspepsia (Chen 2005), gastritis (Ren 2009; Gu 2009), ulcerative colitis (Mu 2007; Lee 2009), reflux (Journal of the National Medical Association 2008; Zhang 2010) and pancreatitis (Wang 2007).

How can acupuncture help in the treatment of GI tract disorders?

• improving delayed gastric emptying. (Xu 2006)
• reducing inflammation, by promoting release of vascular and immunomodulatory factors. (Zijlstra 2003)
• stimulating areas in the brain that are involved in gastric perception. (Zeng 2009)
• inhibiting stress-induced pro-opiomelanocortin expression in the hypothalamus. (Sun 2008)
• increasing vasoactive intestinal peptide and nitric oxide in plasma, gastric mucosal, and bulb tissues, and elevating expression of vasoactive intestinal peptide in antral smooth muscle. (Shen 2006);
• decreasing permeability of intestinal mucosa in patients with acute pancreatitis, and reducing accumulation of endogenous inflammatory mediators and vascular active substance in intestinal mucosa. (Wang 2007).