Overview
A patient has been visiting our clinic who has been suffering from a digestive disorder. She underwent an endoscope, but nothing conclusive was found in the results. Generally if nothing is found through the endoscope, the next step would be to assess the patient’s emotional and psychological state.
If someone has a digestive disorder, anxiety and insomnia at the same time, it will be difficult to achieve good results if we only treat the digestive system and not the other issues.
While the patient has mainly expressed concern about the digestive disorder, it is important to note that in actuality, it is a low degree of anxiety that is causing the digestive disorder and insomnia in the first place. For the best results we have to focus on calming the emotional status. Recently, medical researchers say that the stomach is ‘the Second Brain’ because the neurotransmitters and hormones that are found in the brain can also be found in the stomach. The brain does control the stomach, so by improving the patients anxiety we can in turn treat the stomach issues and vice versa; the stomach controls the brain so by improving the stomach issues we can treat the issues concerning the brain.
Patients often talk about a ‘butterfly sensation’ when nervousness or anxiety makes them feel nausea. Once such a nervousness keeps reoccurring, it can lead to food stagnation which can also cause insomnia and anxiety. When this happens it can feel like a vicious cycle.
These symptoms can be treated by ‘Fu Ling(Poria)’. I treated the patient with ‘Fu Ling’, and we saw improvement and good results. After taking herbs for 1 month, not only have the patients stomach issues greatly improved but her psychological issues have improved as well.
Acupuncture Treatment
For cases like this, the Pericardium 6 and Spleen 4 is commonly used. For optimal results patients usually require treatment for one month. In the first two weeks of treatment the patient should receive acupuncture twice a week, then once a week for the remaining 2-3 weeks of treatment.
Herbal Treatment
To relieve the patient of the ‘butterfly sensation’, herbal treatment is essential. Fu Ling(Poria) is the best herb for this type of symptom. Fu Ling has a calming effect for the stomach and is also used for palpitations and found to be very effective in treating edema and dysuria as well. We recommend a period of 1 to 3 months for this herbal treatment.
