Stress causes indigestion

By Lee Sung-hun

Every so often, patients visit my clinic with undiagnosed indigestion symptoms ― feelings of congestion in the upper abdomen and nausea ― whose cause could not be identified even after an endoscopy.

For such symptoms, a popular Korean folk remedy is to tie up the tip of the thumb and prick it to draw blood, which is meant to alleviate the dyspepsia (the formal name for indigestion).

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is generally defined as when the patient does not have any structural or metabolic issues such as gastritis, a gastroduodenal ulcer, or cancer and yet shows one or more of the following symptoms; epigastric burning; feeling bloated; or feeling full quickly when eating.

FD is regarded as a very common illness with world-wide prevalence of about 25 percent of the population, and yet the exact cause is unidentified.

There are several hypotheses that could explain FD, such as movement dysfunction in the stomach, hypersensitivity of the endocrine nervous system, or even Helicobacter pylori infection. Also, social psychological issues are suspected of playing an important role in bringing about FD symptoms.

There have been studies that show that due to the high number of FD patients who have various anxiety disorders, the most common symptom for an FD patient is in fact feeling of anxiety rather than stomach-related symptoms. It can be said that daily mental stress is a psychological issue that can directly cause FD symptoms, which is in line with the view taken by the Oriental Constitutional Medicine.

In the Sasang book of constitutional medicine, established by Je-ma Lee (A.D. 1837-1900) during the late Joseon Kingdom, we fall in to one of the four different constitutions, namely So-Yang-In (SY type), So-Eum-In (SE type), Tae-Yang-In (TY type), and Tae-Eum-In (TE type), and the SE types are prone to suffering indigestion.

Physically, SE types tend to have well-developed pelvis, and upper body is likely to be smaller than the lower body.

SE types are often said to have a cold stomach, which results from the lack of yang-qi and thus the gastric functions become weak.

Weak gastric functions can lead to weak circulation, leading to cold extremities.

SE types tend to be perfectionists with attention to details, and can be hypersensitive to the extent where they are stressed about details others wouldn’t fret about. When an SE type feels mentally taxed, they can complain of indigestion even after drinking water.

SE types are said to be in good health without any illness if they can consume and digest foods without any issues, meaning that they have to pay extra attention to what they eat.

When a patient suffers indigestion, other symptoms that seem unrelated to digestive systems can also manifest, such as headaches, flu-like symptoms, and neck and shoulder pain.

As the meridian system related to the stomach passes through the forehead; headaches in the front part of the head are an indication that there are gastric issues.

If a patient complains of a headache in the forehead along with indigestion, alleviating the indigestion symptoms can also get rid of headaches at the same time.

Dyspepsia can also accompany chills and cold-sweats, much like the common cold.

Patients have visited my Oriental clinic thinking they had contracted a cold only to find that their cold medications did not help, but having been treated for their indigestion, they were relieved of the chills and cold sweats.

Other patients can complain of neck or back pain along with their dyspepsia. For such patients, treatment will focus on the stomach as well as pain-stricken areas. Once the digestive functions improve, patients often experience their muscle ache is lessened.

Conversely, stimulating the neck or the back area can improve the digestive functions.

There are various options for Oriental treatment for FD. Acute-FD is treated mainly with acupuncture, cupping and moxibustion.

Cupping is administered on the acupuncture points related to digestive functions to draw blood to strongly stimulate those points.

Moxibustion adds warm qi to the stomach area to alleviate indigestion symptoms. For treating chronic and repeated dyspepsia, Hanyak medication is required.

The prescription will vary depending on the cause of the indigestion, such as indigestion from eating a certain type of food, or eating cold or raw food, or drinking alcoholic beverages, or feeling quickly after eating, or even discomfort after drinking water. Each case requires a different prescription according to its cause.

Apart from the proper treatment of dyspepsia, a constant monitoring and attention is essential to managing indigestion. Monitoring what you eat is important in preventing dyspepsia. Excessive consumption of fatty food can lower the movement function of the stomach, and should be avoided by the patents. Limiting the amount of high-caffeine drinks, alcoholic beverages, spicy and salty foods can also help.

Although generally considered a good practice, eating lots of dietary fiber can slow down the discharge of food from the stomach, and thus not recommended to patients with lowered digestive functions.

Regular exercises such as walking can also help.

In Oriental medicine, digestive function has a close relationship to extremities.

A healthy digestive function means that qi and blood circulation can properly reach all four extremities to allow proper movement, and conversely, moving the four extremities can improve the digestive function.

In other words, working the arms and legs can help improve the stomach’s function.

Power-walking with great arm swings and strides is a great example of such an exercise.

As FD may occur without an underlying physiological illness, Oriental treatment can provide a holistic option.

If you suffer from indigestion, you could benefit from visiting your local Oriental clinic.

The writer practices Oriental medicine at

the UN Oriental Medical Clinic in Hannamdong,

Seoul.