Cumbria Acupuncture Blog

67-year-old Elizabeth had a number of problems when she first came to see me in 2012. She'd had IBS for years and suffered from tummy ache and constipation. In the last few months she'd had acid reflux and had been diagnosed with hiatus hernia. She was anxious, tired and restless at night, and also having headaches, stiff neck and achy back. She had thready pulse and pale tongue with white coating. I believed that in terms of Chinese medicine, the key point in her case was malfunction of the stomach and spleen, which lead to disorder of ascending and descending energy. I did acupuncture in her neck, back and thighs. In the week after the first session, apart from some stiffness in the neck and back, she didn't have any symptom from the stomach and bowels and had better sleep. After the second session she had tummy ache once and a mild lower back ache. In some days her bowels movements could be a bit sluggish. After a few more sessions, the IBS and hiatus hernia basically stopped bothering her. She generally felt so much better and decided to come once a month for maintenance.