Acupuncture for Gastritis

How Chinese medicine understands gastritis

Chinese medicine has no word for gastritis. It describes “stomach pain” and “epigastric fullness”, and looks at what kind of pain it is and what goes with it. That gives a pattern, and the pattern guides treatment.

The common patterns are:

• Stomach heat. Burning pain, thirst for cold drinks, bad breath, sour taste and a red tongue. Often linked with alcohol, spicy food and stress.
• Liver Qi invading the Stomach. Pain and fullness that come with stress or anger, belching, and discomfort spreading under the ribs.
• Damp-Heat. A heavy, full, burning feeling with nausea and a sticky or bitter taste, often after greasy food.
• Stomach Yin deficiency. A dull, burning ache, a dry mouth, hunger without appetite, and a red tongue with little coating. Often seen in long-standing gastritis.
• Spleen and Stomach deficiency with cold. A dull ache that is better with warmth, food and pressure, with tiredness and cold hands.

Cooling a hot stomach and warming a cold one are opposite treatments. That is why the pattern matters more than the name.

What treatment involves

Gastritis needs a medical diagnosis first, and some causes, such as H. pylori, need medicines. Treatment here runs alongside that care.

Your first visit includes a lot of questions: where and when the pain comes, how it changes with food, your diet, alcohol and medicines, your stress and sleep. I also look at your tongue and take your pulse.

Acupuncture commonly uses points on the upper belly, forearms, lower legs and back, chosen for your pattern. The aim is to ease pain and nausea, help the stomach settle, and calm the stress that can make it worse. For a cold, weak pattern, moxibustion can warm the upper belly.

Chinese herbal medicine is often used for stomach problems. You take a formula written for your pattern between visits, dispensed at the clinic and adjusted as you improve. Tell your doctor or pharmacist about it if you are taking antibiotics or acid reducers.

The clinic is in Keswick. Research on acupuncture for gastritis is still developing. Plan on 5–10 treatments to judge progress.

Between visits

• Talk to your doctor about anti-inflammatory painkillers. They are a common cause of gastritis. Ask what is safer for you, and do not stop a prescribed medicine without advice.
• Cut back on alcohol, or stop while the stomach settles.
• Eat small, regular, warm meals, and do not skip meals if hunger makes the pain worse.
• If you smoke, get support to quit.
• Finish any course of treatment your doctor prescribes for H. pylori, and go back for the follow-up test.

When to see your doctor first

Stomach pain that is new, or lasts more than a couple of weeks, should be assessed by your doctor. Get help promptly if you have:

• Vomiting blood, or material that looks like coffee grounds. Go to the emergency department.
• Black, tarry stools.
• Sudden, severe belly pain, or pain that goes through to the back.
• Trouble swallowing, or weight loss you cannot explain.
• Vomiting that keeps coming back.
• Signs of anaemia, such as unusual tiredness, paleness or shortness of breath.
• Symptoms that start after age 55, or a family history of stomach cancer.

Upper belly pain can come from the heart. If you have pain or pressure with shortness of breath, sweating, or pain spreading to the arm or jaw, call 911.