An article intended for practitioners of Chinese medicine:

Dyspepsia is my favourite syndrome. Although not all therapists know its name, I'm sure you've treated many people who suffer from it.

It is actually very similar to irritable bowel syndrome but affects the upper digestive tract. It is diagnosed when there is nausea, discomfort or pain in the epigastrium, early satiety and when no "organic" problem is found, i.e. no ulcer/inflammation, etc.

About two years ago, a study was published in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior that examined the effect of achieving qi on dyspepsia - a study whose results I think are interesting to read, no matter what disease it was tested for, because the question it examined - whether achieving qi has any significance - is interesting regardless of the problem we are trying to treat.

The study recruited 64 people who were divided into two groups. Both groups had the same acupuncture points pricked, but in one group the needles were only inserted, and in the other group they also obtained qi.

In both groups, patients received 20 acupuncture treatments over 4 weeks.

Before and after treatments, patients completed dyspepsia symptom questionnaires and depression and anxiety assessment questionnaires.

In both groups, there was a significant improvement at the end of the treatments in symptoms of dyspepsia, depression, and anxiety compared to before the treatments, but the more interesting data for us as therapists was the comparison between the two groups - the one in which qi was obtained and the one in which "only" needles were inserted.

This comparison demonstrated that the group in which Qi was achieved had a greater and statistically significant improvement in dyspeptic symptoms compared to the group in which Qi was not achieved.

I am attaching a link to the study for anyone who wants to delve deeper into it: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32125619/

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