How long does it take to treat digestive disorders?

There is really no standard answer to this question. For mild cases, most of the symptoms can be alleviated in 1-2 weeks by adjusting diet and lifestyle + symptomatic intervention. If it becomes chronic or even tied to anxiety, the treatment period may be extended to 3-6 months. A small number of people with recurring attacks even need to live with the symptoms for a long time.

The reason why there is such a difference is essentially that digestive dysfunction itself is not a problem caused by a single factor. Most of the minor problems are caused by short-term bad habits that violently irritate the stomach and intestines, just like you have tightened the clockwork that has been spinning well, and it can return to its original position after you relax it. The junior girl I met in the clinic last week is a typical example. She stayed up for five days in a row during the finals week to work on her papers. She only had ice milk tea and fried chicken to satisfy her hunger. She had diarrhea for three days in a row and still felt sick to her stomach. When she came to the doctor, she still had half a cup of unfinished iced Americano in her bag. I prescribed her some compound probiotics and told her not to eat anything spicy or cold for a week, to drink warm porridge and soft noodles for three meals, and not to stay up late at night. She came for a follow-up visit last Sunday and said that the symptoms of flatulence and diarrhea were gone, and it only took 10 days.

But if this kind of stimulation exists for a long time and has even affected the normal signal transmission of the brain-gut axis, the adjustment will not be so fast. I have an old patient who works in sales. He has to drink and catch up with customers all year round. He has suffered from acid reflux and flatulence for almost 3 years. He had three gastroscopy and no organic disease was found. This is a typical chronic digestive disorder. He himself knew that he needed to recuperate, but he had to socialize. He recovered for half a month, but then relapsed immediately after a heavy drinking session. He adjusted on and off for almost half a year. Only recently did he finally tell me that he had not suffered from acid reflux for more than a month.

There is still a lot of controversy about this matter on the Internet. Some people think that digestive disorders can be cured quickly by taking medicine, while others think that as long as food is taboo, there is no need for additional intervention. In fact, both of these opinions are a bit biased. Think about it, the intestines and stomach are originally the "second brain" of the human body. They are connected to many threads such as diet, work and rest, and emotions. If only one of them is pulled, as long as the wind is a little stronger, it will definitely still not be stable. I have met many patients who take gastric motility drugs when they feel flatulent. After taking them, they feel really comfortable for a few hours. Then they stay up late arguing with colleagues and sulking. After taking a lot of drugs, their symptoms still come back. Over time, drug resistance can easily develop.

There is another aunt who is even more interesting. She is a bit anxious. After she was diagnosed with a functional disorder, she ate boiled vegetables every day and did not even dare to add more soy sauce. She did nothing every day and just stared at her belly to count how many farts she had today and whether she had bloating. On the contrary, the more nervous she became, the worse her symptoms became. Later, I told her that she was allowed to eat two pieces of her favorite sweet and sour pork ribs every week and not always focus on her belly. She dubiously followed it, and in less than a month, most of her symptoms disappeared.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there is no fixed KPI for conditioning. The more you focus on the time point of "when will you be better?", the more burden you will put on your stomach and intestines. If you follow its rhythm, you will find that those troublesome symptoms have long since disappeared at a moment when you don't pay attention.