Digestive disorders treatment methods

First, you must first check for organic problems such as Helicobacter pylori infection, gastrointestinal ulcers, and inflammatory bowel disease. After ruling out these problems, you can make personalized adjustments based on your own gastrointestinal reactions from three dimensions: diet, flora, and work and rest mood. Do not blindly follow Internet celebrity conditioning plans. What suits others may aggravate your symptoms.

To be honest, I have seen too many people order a bunch of probiotics and stomach-nourishing powders as soon as they have flatulence, acid reflux, or diarrhea. After drinking them for two or three months without any effect, they thought of going to the hospital for a check-up. Finally, it was found that they were positive for Helicobacter pylori, or there was a small ulcer in the duodenal bulb. They had suffered for a long time in vain. I once had a friend who worked in operations. He suffered from bloating for more than half a year. He followed the online guide every day to drink sugar-free yogurt and eat steamed pumpkin. As a result, the more he ate, the more he bloated. Only when he went for a gastroscopy did he find out that the ulcer had almost invaded the blood vessels. He took the symptomatic medicine for two weeks and was mostly cured. So in the first step, don’t be busy with adjustments. Go to the hospital for a basic investigation first, rule out pathological problems, and then talk about daily adjustments. This is the premise that all gastroenterologists will emphasize.

After excluding organic problems, dietary adjustment is the most immediate, but the opinions of different schools here are actually quite different. A low-FODMAP diet is commonly used in clinical practice in Western medicine, which is to temporarily avoid foods that easily produce gas, such as fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, such as milk, onions, garlic, prunes, artificial sweeteners, etc. Many patients with irritable bowel syndrome adhere to this diet for 2-4 weeks. It can significantly relieve the problems of flatulence and diarrhea, but this solution is not suitable for everyone - if people with constipation problems completely quit high-FODMAP foods, it will make defecation more difficult. It is not as effective as eating some steamed sweet potatoes and drinking a cup of warm prune juice every day. Traditional Chinese medicine's approach to conditioning is more "warm and nourishing". People with weak spleen and stomach are not recommended to eat raw salads, iced drinks, and cold fruits. I once had a patient who ate lettuce salad every day in order to lose weight. After three months of eating, he developed acid reflux as soon as he touched something cold. Later, he replaced the raw vegetables with boiling water for 1 minute and added warm vegetables with a small amount of seasoning. The acid reflux basically disappeared in less than half a month. There is no absolute right or wrong between these two ideas. You can try both and see which one is more comfortable for your body. For example, if you have diarrhea every time after eating iced milk tea and hot pot, then replace the iced drink with warm sugar-free oolong tea next time. There is no need to insist on saying "everyone else will be fine after eating it", your gastrointestinal tract knows the answer by itself.

As for the microbiome conditioning that is now being touted as magical, the controversy is actually even greater. At present, academic circles have proven that only specific strains are effective for specific symptoms: for example, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG has a clear effect on antibiotic-related diarrhea in children, and Bifidobacterium V9 has a relieving effect on constipation in some adults. However, there is no unified clinical conclusion as to whether more strains are useful. Some studies have even shown that supplementing foreign probiotics for some patients with irritable bowel will actually aggravate the problem of flatulence. There is also fecal bacterial transplantation, which is currently popular in niche circles. Currently, it is only performed in regular hospitals for refractory enteric diseases. There is no so-called "customized home plan" at all. Don't pay the IQ tax. When I was suffering from bloating, I bought a box of more than 300 imported probiotics. After a week of eating, I farted so much that I was embarrassed. After I stopped, I switched to drinking a small cup of warm, sugar-free plain yogurt every day, which made me feel much better. This stuff really varies from person to person. If you take it, continue if it works, and if it doesn’t, stop in time. Don’t believe that the more expensive ones are better.

What many people overlook is that the gastrointestinal tract is actually a barometer of emotions. I have met many senior high school students who frequently suffer from diarrhea before the mock exam. After the exam, nothing happened, and the examinations were all normal. In this case, no medicine is helpful. It is better to take 10 minutes every day to go downstairs and walk twice, instead of sitting down to answer questions after eating. There are also Internet users who stay up late every day to catch up on projects. They have irregular meals and eat late night snacks in the early morning. Even if you eat stomach-nourishing meals every day, it is useless. The biological clock of the gastrointestinal tract is disrupted, so naturally you cannot work well. I once had a programmer patient who suffered from reflux for almost a year and took a lot of medicine. Later, he changed his job to a position where he didn’t have to stay up late and started eating regular meals. Within two months, the symptoms of reflux were basically gone.

Don’t go to extremes. I’ve seen many people take enzymes and aloe vera capsules when they have constipation, and take antidiarrheal medicine when they have diarrhea, which messes up the intestinal rhythm. There was a little girl who took enzymes for half a year to relieve constipation. During the colonoscopy, she found that she had mild melanosis of the colon. She stopped the enzymes and adjusted her diet for half a year before she slowly recovered. There are also people who heard others say "eat less and eat more to nourish the stomach", so they only eat five or six meals a day. As a result, the gastrointestinal tract never gets a rest and becomes more bloated. People who are prone to hunger and suffer from acid reflux when hungry are suitable to eat less and more meals. People who feel full after eating a little and slow digestion should just eat three meals regularly. Don't copy other people's experience.

In fact, it is difficult to regulate digestive disorders, but it is also simple to say. It is not like a cold that has a fixed prescription. You have to slowly understand the "temper" of your gastrointestinal tract, keep a simple food diary, write down what you eat that makes you feel uncomfortable, and just avoid it next time. There is no need to pursue any perfect conditioning plan. After all, only you know whether you feel comfortable or not.