Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs for IBS

herbs for ibs, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, heartburn, GERD

Acupuncture, Herbs and IBS

Welcome to the all new and improved IBS page.

This page used to be the home of one article that talked extensively about two possible causes of IBS as well as their treatments from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) paradigm.

The work that I've done with IBS has proven to me that this article did not address all of the issues that IBS can create. So, I've gone into much more depth on the subject and hope that you can use these pages to better answer your specific IBS questions. Of course, if there are any issues that you don't see answered here, you are welcome to contact me for more information.

IBS is generally a diagnosis of exclusion. In other words, there is no lab test for IBS, however tests can rule out everything else. In some cases, IBS has become synonymous with a digestive problem that Western medicine simply can't explain. That's one reason for the expanded version of this page, to take into account all of the different symptoms that can be part of this issue. Though, from the TCM standpoint, IBS doesn't really exist. We look at things very different.

For instance, the typical IBS problem which is a stress-induced digestive problem, is only one of many possible causes for the symptoms addressed on this page. IBS has to be treated in the individual, because there are a wide variety of possible causes and unless we address the specific cause, the treatment itself will not work.

That is Chinese medicine. Welcome.

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Conventional medicine is doing its best to understand IBS too. Here's a consumer-friendly video from Stanford University Medical Center's Dr. Parischa.

His research has come up with a variety of different mechanisms that resonate somewhat with the patterns described by Chinese medicine. While it is inaccurate to draw too clear a one-to-one correspondance between biomedicine and Chinese medicine, I would like to at least put some of his statements regarding IBS on to the TCM map.

bacteria migrating upstream from colon [damp-heat, qi deficiency, stomach heat].
post-infection IBS [damp-heat, stomach heat]. Interestingly, Dr. Parischa mentions that this type of IBS represents between 10-20% of all cases of IBS. This is somewhat consistent with my patient population as well. About 10 - 20% have damp heat.
neurological hypersensitivity [liver-spleen disharmony, qi stagnation, internal cold].
the enteric nervous system [liver-spleen disharmony, qi stagnation, internal cold].
central and enteric nevous systems not getting along well [liver-spleen disharmony, qi stagnation, internal cold].
history of physical of sexual abuse represent 20% of all IBS patients.
vegas nerve disregulation modulates emotional state along with gut motility [liver-spleen disharmony, qi stagnation, dampness].

This Irritable Bowel Syndrome Web Ring site is owned by Al Stone, L.Ac.
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Acupuncture, Herbs and IBS

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