First of all, what is functional heartburn?

Functional heartburn is heartburn that occurs without a clear cause (without acid rising into the esophagus as is the case with regular heartburn).

The American Gastroenterological Association has formulated recommendations for the treatment of functional heartburn that appeared in the medical journal Gastroenterology, including a recommendation for treatment with acupuncture.👏🏻👏🏻

One of the reasons acupuncture was included in the recommendations is probably a study conducted in the US (the lead researcher was an excellent Israeli physician, Prof. Ram Dickman) that proved that acupuncture is more effective for symptoms than a double dose of antacids.

In the study, patients with heartburn who did not respond to standard-dose antacid drug treatment were divided into two groups:

A group that received a double dose of medication (40 mg instead of 20 mg) and a group that received the medication at the previous dose that did not benefit the patient plus acupuncture treatments.

The acupuncture group improved significantly compared to the group that received only medication in terms of daytime heartburn, heartburn that awakens from sleep, and other symptoms that were tested.

Link to the study and the acupuncture points that were pricked: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17875198/

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