The ancient art of acupuncture is widely used to treat various digestive disorders, from Crohn's disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome to constipation and diarrhea. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 65 million Americans suffer from recurrent digestive problems. Research into the use of acupuncture is growing and more practitioners of Western medicine are now integrating acupuncture into patient care. While no one is absolutely sure how acupuncture works, it is has been demonstrated as beneficial for certain digestive conditions.
What
The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture -- a group of medical doctors who also are trained in the art of acupuncture -- explains that acupuncture is designed to encourage the body to promote healing and improve functioning. To do so, needles are used to free up blockages in the body at precise points that are said to correspond to specific conditions. Acupuncture is widely used as a stress and pain reliever, as well as a treatment for many illnesses and diseases..
How
The classic theory of acupuncture posits that channels of energy, called meridians, run throughout the body and over the surface of the skin. You can picture these channels as rivers which provide nourishment to the tissues; When the movement of a river is obstructed, it acts like a dam blocking the flow. The release of this blocked-up energy aids your organs in correcting imbalances in the digestion and absorption process. According to the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, the Western medicine explanation of acupuncture is that chemicals are released to the muscles, spinal cord and brain when the acupuncture points are stimulated.
Research
An overview conducted by German scientists and published in the 2007 World Journal of Gastroenterology found a total of 18 relevant trials for acupuncture and digestive disorders as published in the Journal of Chinese Medicine -- two for IBS, one for Crohn's disease and one for ulcerative colitis -- were particularly rigorous in terms of their execution. All four trials concluded that the quality of life of patients treated with acupuncture improved significantly, whether the patients underwent real acupuncture or sham acupuncture as a control group. The two IBS studies found that acupuncture treatment was significantly superior to sham acupuncture; a particularly significant finding, since IBS is a difficult illness to treat.
Considerations
Two studies at Yale University School of Medicine, one published in Anesthia and Analgesia and the other presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists indicate that acupuncture is effective for pain, anxiety and relaxation. There are few side effects associated with acupuncture, although your initial symptoms might worsen for a few days. The needles used in acupuncture are very slender and pointed at the tip instead of round with sharp edges, so their insertion is much less painful than an injection or a blood draw.
References
- Journal of Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture for Gastrointestinal Diseases
- American Academy of Medical Acupuncture: Doctor, What's This Acupuncture All About?
- US Department of Health and Human Services; National Digestive Diseases Clearinghouse; Digestive Diseases Statistics for the United States;NIH Publication No. 10–3873; June 2010
- The Acupuncturists: Acupuncture for Digestion
- Acufinder.com: Gastrointestinal Disorders in Chinese Medicine
- Sierra Acupuncture: Acupuncture for Anxiety in Hospital Settings; Dr. Taya Stanley
