digestion

Nobody wants to deal with digestive issues like constipation, excessive gas, bloating, or abdominal pain. Chinese medicine can help to address these complaints and underlying causes with acupuncture treatments, Chinese herbs, and nutrition and lifestyle.

What Is Healthy Digestion?

Digestion is a complex process that starts when you eat something and ends when your body excretes the waste left over after your body has broken down and absorbed whatever nutrition it can. Food enters at the mouth, travels down the esophagus to your stomach, on to the small intestine, and finally the large intestine before exiting via the anus. This pathway is called the gastrointestinal tract and along the way there are numerous enzymes, hormones, and organ functions that play a role in digestion. Healthy digestion requires all these aspects of digestion to be working well so that you can absorb nutrients from your food and not experience any adverse symptoms during the process. The underlying causes of issues with digestion are often chronic stress, improper diet, and lifestyle issues like not getting enough sleep.

Chinese Medicine for Better Digestion

Digestion has long been considered one of the primary concerns in maintaining optimal health according to Chinese medicine. Aside from the discomfort that may result from a dysfunctional digestive system, if nutrients from food cannot be properly broken down and absorbed, this can lead to numerous other health issues. In Chinese medicine, healthy digestion is considered absolutely fundamental to good health, and as a result, much time and effort has been dedicated to treating these problems.

In Western medical terms, acupuncture engages the “rest and digest” response (or parasympathetic nervous system) which increases blood flow to digestive organs, promotes production of digestive enzymes, increases intestinal activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in the digestive tract. Engaging the parasympathetic nervous system also helps to address stress and anxiety; common aggravating and underlying factors for digestive complaints.

Some of the disorders and symptoms we treat:

Improve Your Digestion at Gotham Holistic

If you are experiencing issues with digestion and would like to find out how acupuncture can help you, get started with a complimentary consultation at Gotham Holistic Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine. We’ve helped many of our patients to ease the discomfort of chronic issues with digestion and we’d love to help you. Book your appointment online to meet with our skilled NYC acupuncturist to find out more about how you can benefit from our effective treatments for healthy digestion.

Studies on Acupuncture for Digestive Conditions:

1. Liu Z, Yan S, Wu J, He L, Li N, Dong G, Fang J, Fu W, Fu L, Sun J, Wang L, Wang S, Yang J, Zhang H, Zhang J, Zhao J, Zhou W, Zhou Z, Ai Y, Zhou K, Liu J, Xu H, Cai Y, Liu B. Acupuncture for Chronic Severe Functional Constipation: A Randomized Trial. Ann Intern Med. 2016 Dec 6;165(11):761-769. doi: 10.7326/M15-3118. Epub 2016 Sep 13. PMID: 27618593.
2. Chao GQ, Zhang S. Effectiveness of acupuncture to treat irritable bowel syndrome: a meta-analysis. World J Gastroenterol. 2014 Feb 21;20(7):1871-7. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i7.1871. PMID: 24587665; PMCID: PMC3930986.
3. Yan J, Miao ZW, Lu J, Ge F, Yu LH, Shang WB, Liu LN, Sun ZG. Acupuncture plus Chinese Herbal Medicine for Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Diarrhea: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019 Apr 14;2019:7680963. doi: 10.1155/2019/7680963. PMID: 31110553; PMCID: PMC6487118.
4. Acu vs non-acu: Jin Y, Zhao Q, Zhou K, Jing X, Yu X, Fang J, Liu Z, Zhu B. Acupuncture for Functional Dyspepsia: A Single Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Trial. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:904926. doi: 10.1155/2015/904926. Epub 2015 Jul 30. PMID: 26294930; PMCID: PMC4534622.