Acupuncture for Heartburn
April 23rd, 2009
Approximately 60 million Americans experience heartburn, or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), at least once a month. Whether you experience occasional heartburn or frequent heartburn that occurs weekly, acupuncture can reduce stomach acid and help to keep heartburn from coming back.
With acupuncture, heartburn sufferers won’t have to worry whether lunchtime heartburn will interrupt dinner, or whether they’ll be able to sleep without experiencing heartburn. Acupuncture has been proven to treat daytime heartburn, nighttime heartburn and acid regurgitation.
In addition to providing relief to occasional heartburn sufferers, acupuncture can also help individuals who experience breakthrough heartburn while taking heartburn medications like proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), the prescription drugs that reduce stomach acid production.
Over 40 percent of PPI users experience breakthrough heartburn, or episodes of heartburn between doses, often at night. When combined with allopathic heartburn medications, acupuncture can reduce the occurrence of breakthrough heartburn.
Acupuncture can effectively treat many of the symptoms of heartburn, including sore throat, nausea, anxiety, coughing, asthma, and bronchitis. In addition to symptomatic treatment, acupuncture also treats at the root of the condition by balancing the digestive system organs, reducing gastric acid and adjusting esophageal pressure.
Conventional heartburn medications such as antacids and acid-blocking drugs may produce adverse side effects including abdominal pain, nausea, headaches, diarrhea, and damage to the stomach lining. These side effects can become exacerbated if medication usage ceases. Acupuncture safely and naturally treats heartburn with virtually no adverse side effects.
Acupuncture has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine to treat stomach ailments. Acupoint stimulation reduces lower esophageal sphincter (LES) relaxation. By reducing LES relaxation, acupuncture prevents stomach acids from churning up into the esophagus and causing heartburn symptoms.
Stimulation of these particular acupoints increases levels of the body’s natural pain-killing chemicals, such as endorphins and enkephalines, which can aid in reducing heartburn symptom discomfort.
Your acupuncture physician may also recommend lifestyle changes, such as weight control, stress management and dietary modifications which omit heartburn-inducing foods.
For more information about acupuncture for heartburn call Dr. Richard Browne, Acupuncture Physician, at (305) 595-9500.
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