Acupuncture For Digestive Health

Natural Relief From Bloating, IBS, Heartburn, & More With Acupuncture | Modesto, CA

Man with digestive health problems holding his stomach.

Digestive Health

Are you struggling with bloating, IBS, heartburn, or other digestive problems? At GoldStar Acupuncture in Modesto, CA, we offer 100% drug-free all-natural acupuncture treatment for digestive discomfort.

Learn more about how this traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) procedure can restore gut health, optimize digestion, and improve overall well-being:

Discover How Acupuncture Can Help Transform Your Digestive Health

Common digestive problems and gut-related concerns such as bloating, heartburn, and irregular bowel movements are not normal. They are actually warning signs that your health is in danger and needs immediate attention.

Poor gut health causes system wide problems with circulation, metabolism, immunity and other important functions, and is linked to various chronic health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, allergies, autoimmune disease, arthritis, depression, and many more.

Do you know acupuncture offers a holistic approach to addressing indigestion, acid-reflux, IBS, constipation, gastritis and other common digestive problems?

Acupuncture is a time-tested method to balance the body’s digestion function and improve gut health. It provides natural relief from heartburn, bloating, cramps, constipation, and other common digestive issues associated with poor gut health. Acupuncture also helps to promote the repair and regeneration of digestive tissue, while boosting digestive function and metabolism, and the absorption of essential nutrients.

Benefits of Acupuncture for Digestive Health

  • Relieves bloating

  • Eases constipation and diarrhea

  • Reduces heartburn (acid reflux/ GERD)

  • Alleviates indigestion

  • Relieves abdominal discomfort and pain

  • Improves gastric motility

  • Enhances the secretion of digestive enzymes

  • Regulates the absorption of nutrients

How Acupuncture Treatment Works for Digestive Health

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medical practice that stimulates a person’s own self-healing mechanism. It involves the insertion of ultra-thin therapeutic needles into specific points along the body’s energy meridians. Acupuncture helps promote healing by balancing and restoring the flow of energy, known as Qi, in the meridians.

While acupuncture has been recently popularized for its effectiveness in treating pain conditions, it has been used in the treatment of digestive disorders for thousands of years.

Acupuncture for digestion works by stimulating specific points on the body that can help regulate the digestive system and alleviate symptoms of poor gut health. This includes using points related to the Stomach, Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Liver, and Gall Bladder organ systems, as well as points related to the endocrine and immune systems. Some key acupuncture points for digestion include:

  • Stomach 36 (Zu San Li 足三里): Boosts digestive energy and alleviates constipation.
  • Stomach 25 (Tian Shu 天樞): Regulates intestinal function, treating both diarrhea and constipation.
  • Liver 3 (Tai Chong 太沖): Relieves abdominal fullness, abdominal pain, and constipation.
  • Liver 13 (Zhang Men 章門): Alleviates constipation and focal distention, fullness and pain of the abdomen.
  • Large Intestine 4 (He Gu 合谷): Improves digestive motility and relieves abdominal discomfort.
  • CV 12 (Zhongwan): Relieves bloating and indigestion by targeting the stomach.

Research shows that acupuncture can help modulate the release of inflammatory markers and promote the production of anti-inflammatory substances in the body. This can help reduce the severity of digestive symptoms such as bloating, heartburn, constipation, and abdominal pain. Additionally, acupuncture has been found to improve gastric motility, enhance and balance the secretion of digestive enzymes, and regulate the absorption of nutrients.

Acupuncture Treatment for Digestive Health Uses Herbal Medicine Formulas

Assortment of Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs arranged on a black stained wooden table.

Acupuncture treatment for digestion also includes the use of medicinal Chinese herbs. Chinese herbal medicine is well known for its excellent ability to regulate and optimize digestive function. It is commonly used to help maintain healthy gut flora balance and repair damaged intestinal mucosal barriers to offer relief for various symptoms of poor digestive health, including indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, poor appetite, gas, nausea, bloating, excess weight gain, acid regurgitation, and stomach ulcers. Common Chinese herbs used in acupuncture treatment for digestion include:

  • Magnolia Bark (Hou Po / Cortex Magnoliae Officinalis): Relieves abdominal distention, pain and fullness, poor digestion, bloating, constipation, and nausea.
  • Hawthorn Berry (Shan Zha / Fructus Crateigi): Dissolves food stagnation, promotes digestion, eases stomach and abdominal fullness and distention.
  • Dried Citrus Peel (Chen Pi / Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae): Aids in the digestion of fatty and greasy foods, reduces bloating and nausea, and alleviates abdominal distention, fullness and pain.
  • Ginger (Sheng Jiang/ Zingiberis Officinalis): Soothes the stomach, stimulates digestion, and alleviates nausea, indigestion, and abdominal discomfort
  • Peppermint (Bo He/ Herba Mentha Haplocalyx): Promotes digestion, and relieves gas, bloating, nausea and stomach cramps.
  • Licorice Root (Gan Cao / Radix Glycyrrhizae Uralensis): Inhibits gastric acid secretion, protects the digestive mucous membranes, and enhances overall digestive function.

Acupuncture Treatment for Digestive Health Uses Nutrition Therapy

Acupuncture for digestion also uses dietary modification and nutrition as part of treatment. Nutrition therapy in acupuncture promotes eating a diet consisting mainly of fresh plant-based foods that are the most vital and free from chemicals, preservatives, and over-processing, in combination with the use of nutritional supplements as needed. Studies have shown that a plant-based diet and the use of nutritional supplements helps maintain optimal function of the digestive system to alleviate indigestion, heartburn, bloating, and constipation, and reverse various states of poor health.

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PHARMACEUTICAL GRADE HERBAL & NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS AVAILABLE

What to Expect During Your First Acupuncture Treatment for Digestive Health

Closeup of new patient filling out paperwork for first acupuncture appointment
  • Plan for your appointment to last from 1 to 2 hours.
  • Please make sure to shower and clean your body before your visit.
  • Eat a hearty meal and drink plenty of fluids 1-2 hours before your appointment.
  • Plan on wearing loose, comfortable clothing that can be easily rolled up or removed.
  • Plan on removing your shoes and socks, and clothes that may interfere with examination and treatment. For your comfort and convenience we offer a clean medical gown and clean athletic shorts.
  • Arrive 10-15 minutes before appointment time to check in, complete New Patient Forms, and use the restroom.
  • If you’re taking any medication or supplements be sure to include this information in the forms you fill in and let your acupuncturist know.
  • You will be asked to remove your shoes and socks, and any clothing that may interfere with examination and treatment (if necessary a clean medical gown and clean athletic shorts are offered to change into).
  • We will ask you about the nature of your visit and follow up with you on the information you provided in the forms.
  • We may ask you a series of detailed questions about any health problems or symptoms you might be having.
  • We will examine your health using a wide variety of acupuncture and traditional Oriental medicine diagnostic methods including facial, tongue, and pulse diagnosis.
  • We will determine if treatment is appropriate, and discuss treatment options and frequency, financial arrangements, and any other concerns you may have.
Acupuncture for shoulder and neck pain.
  • If acupuncture treatment is decided, it will be provided during the same visit.
  • Your acupuncturist will select specific locations on your body, such as points located on your hands or feet, or your arms or legs, or the head, the face, abdomen, the chest, or on the back of the torso, and place needles there.
  • While receiving treatment your acupuncturist may consult with you about changes to your diet and lifestyle that can best suit your situation, and they may also prescribe herbal medicine or vitamins and minerals, and guidance for meditation and exercises, as needed.
  • Lay back and relax, it’s okay to fall asleep!
  • Avoid overexertion and plan to take it easy afterwards to give the mind and body time to adjust to the treatment as it can produce strong shifts.
  • Follow all instructions for diet and lifestyle modification, meditation and exercise, and dosing with nutritional and herbal medicine supplements.
  • Schedule your next appointment according to the treatment plan established for you.
Arrangement of supplements from Pure Encapsulations brand.

FAQs

Unfortunately, there is no straight easy answer. Insurance coverage for acupuncture varies widely among insurance companies both statewide and nationally, with plans requiring certain criteria to be met before coverage is applied. This criteria is not standardized, and insurance companies all make their own policies, including exclusions, limitations and restrictions, regarding acupuncture coverage.

As a result, even when insurance companies advertise they offer acupuncture coverage, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will actually pay for all of it, or even some of it. Most people with an acupuncture-friendly health insurance plan that want to try to use it to pay for acupuncture should expect to accrue at least some out-of-pocket costs, anywhere from co-pays and deductibles to paying for uncovered procedures and products such as herbal medicine and nutritional supplements. It is also not uncommon for acupuncture-related claims to be entirely denied by insurance companies, leaving insured patients responsible for paying the total amount billed.

Fortunately, our office is well-versed on these details to help you understand how and when it is possible to use your insurance to help pay for acupuncture. For more information, or to begin the verification process and request prior authorization for using your PPO insurance with our office, please send us a message.

No, you do not need a referral to receive acupuncture treatment. California acupuncturists are primary care providers and can provide you treatment independently without referral. Some people may seek a doctor referral for acupuncture to try and use their insurance to cover expenses or for help finding a practitioner, but this is not required.

Acupuncture itself is very safe in the hands of a competent practitioner. It generally presents little to no side effects and rarely makes a condition worse. If these do occur it’s usually indicative of the healing process and any ill effects disappear within days of treatment.

However acupuncture is not for everyone, and there are times when precautions must be made. For example, people who are not eligible for acupuncture include those with hemophilia or contagious skin diseases. On the other hand, people on blood-thinning medication, or who tend to bruise easily, or who are pregnant, can receive acupuncture but should disclose their medical history to their acupuncturist prior to treatment so that certain precautions are made.

Where severe danger exists is in the inappropriate application of acupuncture by poorly trained and unskilled non-acupuncture therapists and physicians, many which do not receive the same instruction and training as licensed acupuncturists. To ensure safety when receiving acupuncture, it is highly recommended to use a practitioner who has received proper education and schooling in acupuncture, and is certified and licensed to practice acupuncture by an official governing acupuncture board, agency, or organization.

In general, acupuncture will not minimize any treatment or medication you have used or will use. Recent studies suggest acupuncture may actually enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of other treatments and reduce some of their adverse reactions.

However because acupuncture and some herbal and nutritional supplements prescribed by acupuncturists can sometimes diminish or potentiate the effects of other treatments, it is advisable that you disclose all of your medical history to your acupuncturist, especially if you’re taking medication or are undergoing other types of treatment, or have recently undergone other treatments, so that any precautions can be made prior to treatment. For more information, send us a message.

Depending on the type of service, total visit time is between 60-90 minutes, with 20-75 minute acupuncture treatment time.

Everyone responds to acupuncture differently but in general the approach we use is so gentle and the acupuncture needles we use are so thin that most people won’t even be aware when the needles are inserted. If they feel anything at all, it may be a slight pinch at the site of needle insertion followed by a brief dull ache that dissipates within seconds. Other common sensations felt during treatment include slight tingling, subtle muscle twitching and spasms, heaviness, extreme relaxation, and warmth in the hands and feet.

Comparison chart of acupuncture needles to matchstick, hypodermic needle, and sewing needle.

Most adults looking for a natural approach to health and overall wellness are candidates for acupuncture. But if you have a specific health condition and you’re not sure if acupuncture is right for you, the best way to find out is to request an appointment for an evaluation and consult.

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