An article intended for practitioners of Chinese medicine:

In the spirit of Purim, I want to talk about two digestive system disorders that "disguise" each other - gastroparesis and dyspepsia.

Gastroparesis is slow emptying of the stomach and is manifested by symptoms of nausea, feeling full after eating little, lack of appetite, and more.

Dyspepsia is another digestive disorder that can manifest itself in the same symptoms as gastroparesis.

One of the big differences between the two diseases is that gastroparesis can be "proven" with tests.

Gastroparesis is usually diagnosed by testing gastric emptying (monitoring the rate of gastric emptying over 4 hours), whereas in dyspepsia all tests come out normal and the condition is diagnosed solely based on the patient's symptoms.

It is very important to know that gastroparesis can become dyspepsia and dyspepsia can become gastroparesis. That is, gastric emptying can become normal even though the symptoms remain the same, and dyspepsia can become gastroparesis - gastric emptying that was normal will become abnormal without the symptoms changing.

Why is this important?

Because when patients come to us with a diagnosis of gastroparesis, they are sure that their condition is very difficult and that it will be difficult to help them. I explain to them that regardless of acupuncture, gastroparesis is a reversible condition that can change naturally.

From our perspective as practitioners of Chinese medicine, the treatment of both diseases is the same.

In gastroparesis, the condition will usually be a little more difficult to treat, so we will need stronger treatment - seeing the patient twice a week or adding herbs at the initial stage of treatment.

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