Acid reflux: what TCM looks at, and what needs a scope
Physician Poh Yu Min (Joy) · 傅瑜敏医师
Reflux is common enough that people put up with it for years, and specific enough that some of its symptoms are not reflux at all. This article is about both halves of that.
When, not just what
The consultation asks when you eat and how late, how quickly, how much at once, what you do immediately afterwards, how you sleep and on what, whether stress tracks with it, and how your bowels are. Timing and habit tell a TCM physician more than a list of foods does.
The words a physician will use
Stomach heat, rebellious qi, the liver overacting on the stomach. Rebellious qi is worth pinning down: it describes a direction — something moving upward that should be moving down — and it is not a measurement of how much acid you are producing. Nothing in a TCM consultation measures acid. That is what a doctor's investigation is for.
Where a doctor's diagnosis fits
Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, gastritis, an ulcer and Helicobacter pylori infection are medical diagnoses. Some are found with a breath or stool test, some need an endoscopy. They are treated differently from one another, and TCM cannot distinguish between them.
If you take a proton pump inhibitor or any other prescribed medication for this, keep taking it and bring the details. Stopping one abruptly can cause a rebound that is worse than the original symptom, and whether to stop is a conversation with the doctor who prescribed it.
See a doctor before anything else if you have difficulty or pain swallowing, food sticking, unintended weight loss, vomiting blood or what looks like coffee grounds, or black tarry stools. And treat chest pain as a heart problem until a doctor says otherwise — reflux and cardiac pain can feel alike, and if it comes with breathlessness, sweating, or pain spreading to the jaw or arm, call 995. None of this is a reason to stop TCM treatment. It is a reason to have both.
This article is general information, not medical advice, and not a promise about what any treatment will do. What is appropriate for you is decided at consultation.