Acupuncture
Acupuncture for digestion
Acupuncture and digestive medicine
Food for nourishment and energy
As food goes directly to the interior of the body in order to give us nourishment and energy, the quality and nature of that food can affect the internal environment of our bodies either adversely or beneficially. Thus, too much of one type of food can have an adverse effect; or, if the body is already imbalanced in a particular direction, the wrong type of food can help to maintain or worsen that imbalance.
Returning to normal balance
Eliminating food that may be unsuitable or harmful can be used as a way of helping the body to return to normal balance and thus back to health. Equally, foods that are beneficial to you can be substituted further enhancing your return to balance.
This does not mean that those foods eliminated can never be consumed again. However, for a period of time, sometimes up to two or three years, some foods need to be avoided. Once the body has returned to balance, these foods may be re-introduced into the diet, although often at a reduced level.
Some people have an inherited disposition to digestive weakness and may have experienced problems since an early age. Diseases and infections affecting the intestines can also cause long term damage and weakness.
In addition, lifestyle can disrupt and damage the digestion, perhaps on top of an inherited weakness. In the context of digestive problems, ‘lifestyle’ can include:
stress and tension at work or at home;
working long hours without proper breaks;
eating ‘on the go’;
lack of exercise;
eating at irregular intervals, missing meals;
eating late at night;
eating a diet mainly composed of foods that are unsuitable for you, e.g. spicy food, fried fatty food, or cold raw food.
Food to heal
The healing process involves firstly, trying to identify those foods might be irritating to the gut and removing them from your diet to allow your digestion to heal and become stronger. Secondly, it involves addressing how and when you eat, so that you can eat in a calm environment and have time to digest your food properly.
We can also use acupuncture (and possibly Chinese herbal medicine) to help to support the process of healing by promoting normal digestive function. This will in turn help to improve your energy levels by ensuring that the products of the digestive system are benefitted from by the rest of your system.