An article intended for practitioners of Chinese medicine:

I am asked if there is a difference between treating Crohn's and treating ulcerative colitis.

In terms of symptoms, Crohn's and colitis are similar to each other, but from my experience, these two diseases respond completely differently to Chinese medicine treatment and should be treated differently.

Colitis responds well to treatment; usually acupuncture once a week will be sufficient and herbs will not be needed.

Treatment will of course depend on the diagnosis, but often the diagnosis is dampness and the treatment will be through the tai yin and yang ming layers.

A treatment that works great for me with colitis is Dr. Tan's treatment that balances the tai yin and the yang ming:

On one side: li3, li11, sp3, sp9

On the other side: lu5, lu9, st36, st43

*This treatment is suitable for diagnosing moisture; if there is no moisture, there is no point in it.

Crohn's, on the other hand, responds much more slowly to treatment. Sometimes I will add herbs early in the treatment (rather than giving the acupuncture a chance to work on its own like I would with colitis), I will inform the patient that the process will take much longer and I will not expect to see improvement after 5 treatments like I expect to see with other digestive problems.

Of course, both diseases can be helped, but at least in my experience, colitis responds much faster.

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