Deakin Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Centre Bringing over 20 years of  Experience  in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine to Canberra Inner South Deakin  ACT

IBS from a Chinese medicine perspective 

Treatment needs to  be individualised depending on your  symptoms. Identifying triggers is essential to management of your digestive  problems. For some a multi-disciplinary approach is most suitable I will work with you to find what works best.

Chinese medicine regards IBS to be a disharmony between the Liver and the Spleen. When the body's Qi activity is harmonious the internal organs will continue their normal physiological functions. Excessive  emotions or stress will constrain the Liver’s  function of regulating  Qi,  causing internally held tension in the abdominal region, this in turn affects the Spleen and Stomach restricting the flow of bile and digestive enzymes and impairing  digestive motility.

In other words when you are stressed, signals from the brain relay messages via the nervous system [NS] to the gut and its motility function becomes disordered. If the Spleen has already been weakened by  a number of factors such as overeating unhealthy foods, gut dysbiois, candida, food poisoning, parasites, overwork, too much worry, nutritional deficiencies, fatigue and lack of exercise then it will be even more susceptible to Liver constraint. 

Acupuncture can help manage IBS
Research has shown that acupuncture treatment may benefit IBS symptoms by regulating the motility of the digestive tract and regulating the nervous system. Acupuncture can be safely and effectively combined with Western biomedicine, and other treatments such as relaxation exercises, herbal medicine and psychotherapy. In addition to offering acupuncture and related therapies, I will often make suggestions to diet and other lifestyle changes that have been known to be helpful in combating IBS symptoms.

Herbal medicine
Some studies show Chinese herbal medicine effective for managing IBS. Depending on your diagnosis a suitable formula can be prescribed