Digestion, the Foundation of Health

If you’re like most people, you probably don’t think much about your digestion unless something’s going wrong. And there are a lot of conditions and symptoms that let you know your digestion needs some help. While it’s true that it’s easy to shrug off a little heartburn or bloating as no big deal, in Chinese medicine, the foundation of good health begins with good digestion.

Think about it; the process of taking food in, breaking it down and converting it into the energy and nutrients that you need to power all of your body’s systems comes under the heading of digestion. If you’re having problems anywhere in that process, your body may feel the affects in seemingly unrelated ways. Things like your overall level of energy, the strength of your immune system, your metabolism, fertility and even your emotional health depend on good digestion.

In Chinese medicine, your stomach, spleen, small and large intestine are organ and energy systems associated with digestion. Your stomach, a hollow organ, receives the food you’ve eaten and breaks it down for further processing. However, it’s the Spleen and small intestine that magically convert all that food from your stomach into the energy and nutritional building blocks that fuel your body and all its systems. We rely on the large intestine to absorb what’s left of the hydration and nutrients as well as completing detoxification and elimination.

If you’re having digestive problems, sometimes it can be hard to know what’s causing them. In Chinese medicine, however, there are a number of factors that can lead to problems with your digestion. Some of the most common include:

• Stress and emotional upsets. Unrelenting stress or strong emotions can kill your appetite, cause heartburn and be a factor in developing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). That’s because your body responds to stress by activating the Fight or Flight response. It shuts down body systems that aren’t needed in the moment to handle the emergency at hand, including your digestion.
• Eating too much food or the wrong kinds of food for your needs. Spicy food, huge portions, rich or fried food and food that’s hard for you to digest can cause bloating, stomach irritation, heartburn and slow emptying of your stomach.
• Imbalance of your gut microbiome. Wait…what? That’s right, your gut has trillions of microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses and other organisms living in it. These organisms play an important role not only your digestive processes, but they also affect your general health. You need a healthy and balanced gut microbiome in order to support good digestion. However, some medications, most specifically antibiotics, can upset the balance in your gut by killing off some beneficial organisms and allowing others to overgrow. Your diet also plays a role in the balance of your microbiome.
  
• Poor digestive fire or low energy. It takes a certain kind of energy to break down food, called digestive fire. The best example I can give is that if you try to eat a bowl full of raw vegetables, it takes a lot of energy and heat for your body to break down the fiber in those vegetables and convert them into more energy and nutrients. However, if you cook those same vegetables in a soup or stir fry, it takes much less energy, or digestive fire, to break them down in your body. Sometimes the underlying cause of this problem is eating too many fibrous, raw fruits and vegetables. However, sometimes your energy is low for other reasons, and your digestion suffers. A common symptom of this problem is feeling tired or sluggish after meals.
  

In addition to heartburn, GERD, IBS, constipation and bloating, there are a number of health conditions related to your digestion that are too numerous to list. Needless to say, any digestive symptoms or those related to poor energy point to the need to have your diet and digestion assessed. However, what you eat and how you digest is related to so many other systems in your body, your digestion may be culprit in symptoms seemingly unrelated to what or how you’re eating.

At BodaHealth, I have worked with many people who have had health conditions relating to their digestion. A thorough health history is a good place to start. There are a number of therapeutic approaches to treating digestive problems, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, cold laser therapy, diet and lifestyle modifications.

Acupuncture is often my first line of treatment for digestive issues for a number of reasons. It increases movement in the body, including circulation, gastric emptying and helping food move through the lower digestive tract. Acupuncture also decreases inflammation and pain. Researchers have also found that acupuncture can help regulate gut imbalances, decrease gut hypersensitivity and regulate motor function in the gut.

Chinese herbal medicine is also very useful in treating digestive issues. Each herb in the Chinese formulary has specific actions, and they can be combined into formulas tailored to your individual needs. Herbs may be used to treat conditions such as reflux, poor appetite, gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea. In addition, your herbal formula augments the effects of your acupuncture treatment.

A newer therapeutic approach to treating digestive issues involves the use of cold laser therapy. Cold laser therapy is also called low level laser therapy, and it uses light to gently penetrate deep into tissues to create healing changes at the cellular level. This process is called photobiomodulation, and it can reduce inflammation, promote healing and reduce pain. In addition early research indicates that it can alter gut microbiome in a positive way.

Clearly, no treatment plan for digestive issues is complete without looking at dietary factors. As a practitioner of Chinese medicine, I am trained and have had years of experience in working with patients using dietary therapy. Frequently, what you’ve been eating, when you’ve been eating, how it’s prepared and other factors play a role in your symptoms. Dietary therapy uses the same principles of Chinese medicine to create a plan specific to your unique needs.

The bottom line is that if you’re struggling with digestive issues, there’s help. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine offer a number of safe, natural and effective treatments. If you’d like to know more, please contact our clinic.

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