Digestive disorders treatment methods

First, organic diseases such as ulcers, polyps, and Helicobacter pylori infection are eliminated through examination, and then adjustments are made from four directions: diet, work and rest, mood, and personalized intervention. Most people with functional disorders will feel significant improvement in 2-4 weeks, and there is no need to take various stomach-nourishing health products for a long time.

I have been in the gastroenterology clinic for almost 6 years, and I have seen too many cases where minor problems turned into big problems, and I have also seen cases where blind supplementation of health supplements resulted in liver damage. Today I will explain the most useful things in practice. First of all, you need to be clear about it: don’t make random adjustments at the beginning. Go for a basic examination first, do a carbon 13 blow to measure the pylorus, and if possible, do a gastrointestinal endoscopy to rule out organic problems, otherwise your half-year adjustment will be in vain. I just received a patient last month whose stomach had been bloated for a year. He couldn't stop drinking millet porridge and eating celebrity stomach powder every day. When he had a gastroscopy, he found a 0.8cm polyp. After the removal, the bloating disappeared on the third day. You think it was unfair or not.

If you rule out organic problems, the first thing you need to adjust is your diet. But don’t believe the “Top Ten Stomach-Nourishing Foods” list on the Internet. I have seen people who drank millet porridge every day and suffered acid reflux, and I have also seen people who ate boiled vegetables every day to nourish their stomachs and suffered constipation. Everyone’s tolerance is completely different. Western medicine now recommends a low-FODMAP diet in the acute phase, which means temporarily eating less easily fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, and polyols, such as milk, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and apples with skin, to suppress symptoms such as flatulence and diarrhea first. However, there has been controversy in the nutrition community, saying that long-term consumption of this diet will reduce the diversity of intestinal flora. Food must be slowly added back after 2-4 weeks at most, and it cannot be used as a long-term stomach nourishing program. By the way, there is also the question that people often ask, can it be spicy? As long as you don’t feel uncomfortable eating spicy food, you can eat it. Don’t listen to others who say that you must eat bland food to nourish your stomach. People in Hunan and Sichuan eat spicy food every day and no one has gastrointestinal problems. The key is not to suddenly eat a lot of ice, spicy, or oily food that will irritate the stomach. I used to be an operator. Little girl, I used to take out American-style ice cream with milk tea and heavy oil for takeaway. I was so bloated that I couldn’t wear my old jeans. After eating low FODMAP for two weeks, I stopped eating sweet ice cream, and most of the bloating disappeared. Later, I slowly added room temperature yogurt and strawberries, and there was no recurrence.

Now that the food problem is solved, there is another point that many people don’t take seriously: work and rest. It doesn’t mean that you have to go to bed early and get up early every day. Some people are born to be night owls. As long as you go to bed at 3 a.m. and wake up at 11 a.m. every day, and sleep for 7 hours, your rhythm will be stable and your gastrointestinal tract will not be disturbed. I'm afraid that if I stay up until 4 o'clock today and start at 7 o'clock tomorrow, if day and night are reversed, the rhythm of gastrointestinal motility will also be disrupted. I once had a patient who was a bartender. After working day and night for three years, I had diarrhea every day. All the tests were fine. Antidiarrheal medicine and probiotics were useless. Later, I changed my job to an administrative job. I went to bed at 12 o'clock and started at 8 o'clock every day. I didn't take any medicine, and it was normal in half a month.

There is another influencing factor that is hidden deeper and that is emotion. This is really not metaphysics. Western medicine has now thoroughly studied the brain-gut axis. Your brain’s anxiety and stress signals will be directly transmitted to the intestines, disrupting its digestion rhythm. Traditional Chinese medicine even says that “liver stagnation suppresses the spleen.” Many people cannot eat when they are angry, and have diarrhea when they are nervous. This is the reason. Last year, a little girl who was taking the postgraduate entrance examination came to me and said that she had diarrhea three or four times a day in the week before the examination, and she had diarrhea according to whatever she ate. I gave her some montmorillonite powder for later use, and told her to take it if she felt really uncomfortable. As a result, she sent me a message on the day after the examination, saying that she was fine and had not taken any medicine.

As for probiotics, moxibustion, and massage, which are the most frequently asked questions, I can only say that they vary from person to person and there is no unified answer. Let’s talk about probiotics. Now there are many studies saying that probiotic supplements are useless for ordinary healthy people. They are only effective for people who have just taken antibiotics or are clearly suffering from flora disorders. And you have to choose the corresponding strains. For example, those with constipation can choose those containing Bifidobacterium lactis, and those with diarrhea can choose those containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Don’t buy the kind of probiotics that are popular in the Internet and cost hundreds of dollars. The strain number is not clearly marked, so if you eat it, you are eating it in vain. There is also moxibustion at Zusanli and Zhongwan points. Some patients say that they feel particularly comfortable after moxibustion and their stomachs feel warm. Others say that it is useless because of the psychological effect. As long as you try it yourself, there is no harm. It can be used. You don’t need to listen to other people’s opinions about whether it works or not.

Finally, let’s talk about some common pitfalls: don’t take anti-inflammatory drugs when you have diarrhea. 90% of digestive disorders are functional. There is no bacterial infection. Taking antibiotics will kill the good bacteria in the intestines. The more you eat, the more disordered you will be.； Don’t be superstitious about “stomach nourishing remedies”. Eating raw peanuts and drinking soda water to treat stomach problems all depends on individual circumstances. For people with low stomach acid, drinking soda water will worsen indigestion. ； Also, don’t scare yourself whenever you have symptoms. Every day you feel like you have stomach cancer and intestinal cancer. The more anxious you are, the worse the symptoms will be, forming a vicious cycle.

In fact, digestive dysfunction is simply a signal from your body, telling you that your living habits have been too chaotic recently and it is time to adjust. It is not a serious illness that cannot be cured. Try slowly and you can always find a rhythm that suits you. If it doesn't get better after a month of adjustment, remember to go to the hospital for a review in time and don't force yourself to do it.