Acupuncture for Crohn's & Colitis (IBD) Support

How Chinese medicine understands IBD

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are diagnosed and managed with scopes, blood tests and medicines. Chinese medicine does not treat the inflammation in place of that. What it offers is another way of looking at the whole person living with the disease: their digestion, energy, sleep and stress.

In Chinese medicine, the patterns seen with IBD usually fall into two groups:

• Damp-Heat in the intestines. Linked with active disease: urgent diarrhoea, blood or mucus, burning, and a thick yellow tongue coating. In Chinese medicine this is seen as heat and damp stuck in the bowel.
• Spleen Qi deficiency. Common between flares: loose stools, tiredness, poor appetite and weight loss. Digestion is seen as worn down and not turning food into energy well.
• Spleen and Kidney Yang deficiency. A colder version with early morning loose stools, cold hands and feet, and deep fatigue, often after years of illness.
• Liver overacting on the Spleen. Symptoms that worsen with stress and worry, which many people with IBD notice.

Often there is a mix: some heat and damp, sitting on a digestion that has been weakened by long illness. The balance between those decides what treatment focuses on.

What treatment involves

Treatment here is support alongside your gastroenterologist and family doctor. It is not a substitute for your medicines, scopes or blood tests, and it never replaces the advice of your GI team.

Your first visit includes a lot of questions: your diagnosis, your medicines, how often you flare, your bowels, energy, sleep, diet and stress. I also look at your tongue and take your pulse.

Acupuncture commonly uses points on the belly, legs, arms and back, chosen for your pattern. The aim is supportive: easing cramping and urgency, helping energy and sleep, and helping you cope with stress. Where the pattern is cold and weak between flares, moxibustion can be used to warm the belly.

Chinese herbal medicine is used with extra caution in IBD because of possible interactions with immune medicines. Any formula is written for you, takes your medicines into account, and is dispensed at the clinic. Your GI team should know about it.

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

Between visits

• Take your medicines as prescribed, including during calm periods. Stopping them is a common cause of flares.
• Keep your appointments and tests with your GI team.
• Work with a dietitian on what to eat, especially during flares or if you have narrowed sections of bowel.
• Rest when you need to. Fatigue is part of IBD, not a failing.
• If you smoke, get support to quit, especially with Crohn’s disease.

When to see your doctor first

IBD must be diagnosed and managed by a doctor. Contact your GI team or doctor promptly, or go to the emergency department, if you have:

• Heavy bleeding from the bowel, or passing clots.
• Severe or worsening belly pain, or a swollen, hard belly.
• Fever, especially on immune-suppressing medicines.
• More than six bloody stools a day, or diarrhoea that wakes you at night.
• Vomiting, or being unable to keep fluids down.
• Signs of dehydration: dizziness, very little urine, or a fast heartbeat.
• A new or painful swelling near the anus, or a discharge.

If you have symptoms like these but no diagnosis yet, see your doctor before starting any other treatment.