Acupuncture Beats Drugs For Diarrhea Relief In IBS

Published by HealthCMi.com on 11th December 2016

Acupuncture outperforms medications for the treatment of diarrhea due to irritable bowel syndrome. Termed IBS-D, this type of irritable bowel syndrome presents with chronic diarrhea as one of the primary symptoms. In a protocolized study conducted at the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine (Pei et al.), researchers determined that acupuncture has a higher treatment effective rate for the relief of IBS-D than pinaverium bromide.

The pharmaceutical medication pinaverium bromide is a spasmolytic agent used for the relief of functional gastrointestinal dysfunction. The antispasmodic action of pinaverium bromide is used to relieve irritable bowel syndrome related diarrhea and abdominal pain. The research team of Pei et al. discovered that acupuncture is significantly more effective than the medication. 

The researchers did something very interesting with their investigation model. They studied a specific pattern within the the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) system. They admitted patients to the study meeting the TCM inclusion criteria of liver qi depression combined with spleen qi deficiency. Once the results were tabulated, it was determined that IBS-D patients with liver qi depression and spleen qi deficiency had a 90% total treatment effective rate. The medication achieved an 80% total treatment effective rate.

The researchers note that 65% of all patients with IBS-D suffer from liver qi depression with spleen qi deficiency. Given the diagnostic pattern, this type of IBS-D may be triggered by excess negative emotional activity, including anxiety and depression, and dietary concerns including excess intake of alcohol, oily foods, raw foods, and cold foods. Depression is common among IBS patients. Friedrich et al. determined that 90% of all IBS patients experience depression. Pei et al. note that IBS is often more difficult to treat when depression is present. Allergies or food intolerances directly or indirectly lead to abnormal intestinal bacteria metabolism, which causes a predisposition to IBS. In cases of IBS-D with liver qi depression with spleen qi deficiency, both depression and food intolerances are prominent.

Pei et al. find that acupuncture relieves abdominal pain, bloating, and regulates bowel movements, at least in part, because acupuncture regulates the gut-brain axis (GBA). Carabotti et al. note that the gut-brain axis is the communication link between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system. The GBA links the brain’s emotional and cognitive areas with functions of the peripheral intestines.

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