Digestive disorders, respiratory disorders and immune disorders are commonly seeing in the daily practice. However, when the patients are presenting their disorders, they usually are in state of the chronic state. That meaning is that it is not easy to treat them by just few treatments as like the patients are expecting. There is no magic cure. You have to be patient.
Section 1. Digestive Disorders
Digestive disorders are disorders related with Stomach, Pancreas, Liver, Gallbladder, Small Intestine, and Large Intestine.
Understanding GORD (Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease), Indigestion, Upper Tummy Bloating, Burping, Acid Reflux, Burning sensation of Chest, Heartburn
GORD is quite common unpleasant disorders such as acid reflux, regurgitation, sometimes vomiting, and/or heartburn which is burning sensation at chest which may be coming from inflammation of lining of oesophagus. Common medication is anti-acid tablets to reduce acid in Stomach such Nexium, Somac, Gaviscon, Quick-Eze®, Mylanta, Rennie, etc.
Stomach is temporally storing foods and doing digestion of foods with gastric juice, which is mixing with gastric juice (high acid juice) and churning and breaking down to small pieces of foods to make easy digestion by doing contracting and relaxing by itself, eventually, food is converted to chyme which is thick watery, acidic, soupy mixture.
Gastric Juice
Gastric juice is highly acidic, with a pH of 0.9–1.5, and contains water (99%), hydrochloric acid (0.4%–0.5%), pepsin, lipase, glycoprotein and mucin, calcium, sodium and potassium salts, etc and it is normally volume 20 to 100 mL and this gastric juice actually is doing melting down foods you are taken from mouth. And this gastric juice can kill and eliminate any kinds of bacteria which is contained in foods and waters. Therefore, even if we are sometimes eating and drinking some dirty foods and waters, we are not sick due to the fact that gastric juice is killing bacteria with hydrochloric acid called as HCL.
When chyme is reached to enough acidic level to digest, and then lower gate of stomach called as pylorus opens gate to release the chyme to go duodenum.
Problem is coming from full and/or half indigestion by any reasons. That meaning is foods are not digesting when you have stress and/or thinking too much. Because all bloods are going to your brain due to the need of blood from brain for extra need of nutrients and oxygen for thinking. Your brain is as like central processing unit (CPU) in your personal computer. CPU is a major component in computer. It is consuming lots of power of computer for running many programs and operating system.
If the food is not enough digested with the proper amount and proper acidity of the Stomach Juice(Gastric Juice) whose major ingredient is the Hydrochloric Acid, the food can’t be digested with the indigestion or the under-digestion. The Hydrochloric Acid is HCl by the chemical formula.
Where is the Hydrochloric acid coming from?
Our Stomach internal membranes have the several layers which are the Muscularis Externa Layer, Submucosa Layer, and Mucosa Layer. In Mucosa Layer, there are Parietal cells to produce Hydrochloric Acid. The Parietal cells are supplied from the Fenestrated capillary of the Mucosa Layer. The Fenestrated capillary is suppling the nutrients for producing the Gastric Juice. The major ingredients of Hydrochloric Acid is coming from the Salt whose chemical formula is NaCl. If the salt is reacted with water whose chemical formula is H2O. So, when the salt is reacted with water, the chemical reaction is NaCl + H2O = NaOH + HCl.
After the chemical reaction with salt and water is producing the Hydrochloric Acid for digestion of food and barrier between inside of human body and outside of the human body due to the fact the hydrochloric acid is killing the bacteria which are coming from the in-take food and drinks, because we couldn’t get them off totally from the food and drinks even if we are cleaning the foods and drinks properly.
Why do I have those upper stomach problems?
There are many reasons why you have those problems.
Inflammation of the mucus membrane from the infection such as helicobacter pylori : Helicobacter pylori is the specific bacteria which can survive with high acidic conditions in Stomach. They are producing the neutralizing chemical for hydrochloric acid. So they can survive in Stomach membrane. According to the article, the 15 percent of Australian are infected with this bacteria. https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/explainer-what-is-helicobacter-pylori For preventing the infection of Helicobacter Pylori, do not share the food.
Inflammation of the mucus membrane due to the spoiled food from the stress :
When you have the stress, your blood which is around 5 to 6 litre is distributing to the essential organs such as brain, heart, lungs, and four limps for overcoming the stress. Our body doesn’t know what kind of stress such as the physical stress and/or the mental stress. Our body is responding just like as the ancient our ancestor who were living the extreme natural environmental situations. The stress is like seeing a Lion in the jungle. If you meet a Lion, you don’t have the time to eat, digest. You have to run away from the dangerous situation to survive.
So, the food you ate before the stress and/or with the stress isn’t digested or partially digested by not-enough gastric juice due to the not-enough blood supply to the Stomach. That is why the food you ate is getting spoiled due to the fact that the bacteria with the food is growing quickly rather than killed by the gastric juice. That spoiled food and/or the bacteria are getting affected to the mucus membrane to be inflamed.
Inflammation of the mucus membrane from eating too much spicy foods/Caffeine due to the irritation of the mucus membrane
The spicy foods such as the garlic, onion, chilly, pepper, turmeric, and ginger may irritate the Stomach membrane. Because the Stomach membrane has the rich small blood vessels to produce the mucus for protecting the Stomach mucus membrane from the gastric juice. The gastric juice is doing for chemical digestion, the muscle contraction and relaxation is doing for churning mechanical break-down to small pieces of food and movement of food.
Inflammation of the mucus membrane due to inability to digest the foods by the not-enough level of Sodium and Chloride in blood
PPIs (Proton Pump Inhibitors)
PPIs are the most prescribed medications in the world. From the article, PPIs are used over 10 billion dollars a year in Unite States of America (U.S.A.) and 25 billion dollars a year around world (Jaynes M, Kumar AB. The risks of long-term use of proton pump inhibitors: a critical review. Ther Adv Drug Saf. 2018 Nov 19;10:2042098618809927. doi: 10.1177/2042098618809927. PMID: 31019676; PMCID: PMC6463334). The potential side effects of PPIs for long-term usage are as follows. And the research articles are well documented.
- PPIs and Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection
- PPIs and dementia
- PPIs and pneumonia
- PPIs and antiplatelet agents
- PPIs and kidney disease
- PPIs and micronutrient deficiency
- PPIs and bone mineral density
PPIs are removing gastric acid, so it may help you reducing acid reflux. But you may have another problem. Because gastric juice which is high acid juice with hydrochloride is doing killing bacteria and melting down foods you take. In these functions, the killing micro-organisms are very important function to make a barrier between your inner body and outside environment. Because even if we are cleaning the foods we take properly, there are some micro-organisms in foods and/or drinks we take. So gastric juice which has hydrochloride will kill most of them in foods and/or drinks.
Helicobacter Pylori infection
There is exempt that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a type of bacterium that can live in the lining of the stomach even if high acid juice is in stomach wall. They have special mechanism to protect by themselves.
H.pylori may cause stomach inflammation (gastritis) and more serious conditions such as stomach ulcers and stomach cancer ( https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/helicobacter-pylori).
If you are infected by helicobacter pylori, I recommend you to see your doctor to get the mixed medications which are configured with antiacid medication which is reduce stomach acid helping the antibiotics and two antibiotics such as amoxicillin and clarithromycin to kill the bacteria. After you got the treatment of medications, you might be needed to get tests again for blow balloon test. You swallow a capsule with a special urea, wait for a while, then blow your breath into the balloon which is provided by pathology. If H. pylori is present, it breaks down the urea, releasing carbon dioxide that’s captured in the balloon and analysed, confirming an infection.
Or, you might be tested with blood test for checking antibodies of H. pylori. Even if you have the antibodies of H. pylori, you are not positive. You might be needed with the blow balloon test for confirming positive or negative.
Pancreatic Juice
After the foods was prepared with Stomach by the chemical gastric juice(Gastric Acid and digestive enzymes) and the mechanical break-down & mixing(Churning), which is called as Chyme, and then the Chyme is moving to the Small Intestine(Duodenum) and the Chyme is mixed with Pancreatic juice from Pancreas and Bile juice from Gallbladder which is produced at Liver.
As you can see above diagram, there are major duodenal papilla which are connecting with Common Bile duct which is connecting to Gallbladder and Liver and Pancreatic duct which is connecting to Pancreas. That meaning is chyme is mixed with Pancreatic juice and Bile juice. Pancreatic juice is high alkaline juice about pH 8. This high pH makes neutralization of chyme which is acidic, entering duodenum. Now chyme is not toxic to intestine and our intestines can absorb nutrients from chyme.
Where is coming from the pancreatic juice?
The Pancreas makes Sodium Bicarbonate which is formulated as NaHCO3 at Ductal Epithelial Cells as follows.
Carbon Dioxide(CO2) + water(H2O)= Bicarbonate(H2CO3)
H2CO3= H+ + HCO3-
Na+ + HCO3- = Sodium Bicarbonate(NaHCO3)
From above flow chart, if you don’t have the salt(NaCl), you can’t have Sodium(Na+), therefore, you couldn’t make the Sodium Bicarbonate(NaHCO3) which is alkaline working for raising PH level.
From here, if chyme is not neutralised by any reasons, for example, slightly acidic or slightly alkaline, in that case, chyme is toxic to small intestine and large intestine. Therefore, slightly acidic or slightly alkaline chyme can cause irritation to the membranes of intestines, leading to inflammation of tissues. That irritation of the mucous membranes, leading to the irritation of nerve can cause the rapid evacuation of chyme with tummy pain and then eventually there is no time to absorb any nutrients and waters, leading to urgent diarrhoea and/or loose stool.
This diarrhoea and/or any loose bowel motions are not good, because we can’t absorb any nutrients and waters at all. Eventually, we have lack of nutrients and dehydration. Therefore, we can’t maintain our body, eventually, our body is getting weaker.
Usually, after stomach, chyme is mixed with bile juice whose colour is brown colour, so all stools are coloured with brown colour.
IBS(Irritable Bowel Syndrome)
Gastritis
Gastritis is meaning “inflammation of Stomach membrane”. It is quite common disorders presented in clinic. Most of people have these disorders with many reasons such as stress, not proper diets, not fresh foods, helicobacter pylori infection, certain medications which are anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofens, and alcohol, caffeine contained foods such as coffee, tea etc.
Usually, the diagnosis is done with gastroscopy by seeing with macroscopic observation, and during the procedure, the surgeon may take some tissue from certain pathological areas to see any pathological changes by using microscope, in order to check any abnormal tissue.
Gastric Ulcer
Gastric Ulcer is an open sore on an internal surface of the Stomach, caused by a break in the mucous membrane which fails to heal (Definitions from Oxford Languages). As you have an experience at the skin ulcer which is not healing, so you will feel painful. If this kind of ulcer is happened in your Stomach membrane, you will feel different feeling. But it is not favourable. Not healing sores may be leading to Stomach Cancer.
However, the ulcerate tissues have a chance to back to the normal tissue.
Stomach Cancer
Stomach Cancer is developed from Stomach Ulcer. If Stomach ulcer is going further with continuous stimulation, such as inflammation, Stomach membrane is changing to Stomach Cancer.
Ulcerative Colitis
Figure 2: Mayo endoscopic score for ulcerative colitis (A) Score 0=normal; endoscopic remission. (B) Score 1=mild; erythema, decreased vascular pattern, mild friability. (C) Score 2=moderate; marked erythema, absent vascular pattern, friability, erosions. (D) Score 3=severe; spontaneous bleeding, ulceration. Images courtesy of Elena Ricart.
As you can see from above picture, picture D is showing bleeding, ulcerations which is whitish image. If the patients are bleeding diarrhea with mucus, it is severe stage of ulcerative colitis.
Recent research article mentions the stress for one of risk factors. (De Sousa JFM, Paghdar S, Khan TM, Patel NP, Chandrasekaran S, Tsouklidis N. Stress and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Clear Mind, Happy Colon. Cureus. 2022 May 15;14(5):e25006. doi: 10.7759/cureus.25006. PMID: 35582022; PMCID: PMC9107617.)
From Stomach, the foods are going down to Small Intestine. Small intestines are absorbing the nutrients from the thyme. If the thyme is not neutral PH levels, the mucus membranes of Small Intestines are irritated and damaged, leading to the inflammation of the mucus membranes. Eventually, the gap junctions are broken and the
Tissue Cellular Changing Process for understanding diseases
TREATMENT OPTIONS
- There are two options.
ACUPUNCTURE
“Acupuncture, an important component of traditional Chinese medicine, has gained growing attention around the world in the past decades. Both manual and electroacupuncture are commonly used in clinical practice, especially by patients with gastrointestinal disorders seeking symptoms control due to disease signs recurrence and/or lack of effective treatments. Currently, patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders, constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease, inflammatory bowel disease, ileus, acute pancreatitis, and gastroparesis may benefit from acupuncture treatment, as clinically evident, and the most frequently used acupoints are chosen from the large intestine, stomach, bladder, and spleen meridian. The underlying mechanisms of acupuncture involve the neuromodulation, adjustment of gastrointestinal motility and visceral hypersensitivity, anti-inflammation, repairment of gut microbiota, and intestinal barrier. As methodology advanced, cumulative number of well-designed clinical trials has been established, which might help elevating clinicians and gastroenterologists’ awareness and perception toward application of acupuncture for gastrointestinal diseases management.”(Li X, Liu S, Liu H, Zhu JJ. Acupuncture for gastrointestinal diseases. Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2023 Dec;306(12):2997-3005. doi: 10.1002/ar.24871. Epub 2022 Feb 11. PMID: 35148031.)https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.24871
From the personal experience, acupuncture still have the various effects on body. Most of patients are not only one condition to treat. One particular problem is their stress coming from the various reasons such as the family issues, financial issues, school or work places issues. The mental issues are affecting the physical body.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Section 2. Respiratory Disorders
Common disorders are breathing disorders such as Asthma, Sinusitis, Common Cold, Recurrent Lung Infection, etc.
Current COVID19 is making scare of people as it is spreading worldwide with high mortality than any other infectious diseases. This virus is fatal to older people. We should follow the recommendations of government guidelines and policies.
You are already knowing about flu vaccination and COVID-19 vaccination.
However, COVID-19 was gone, every yearly we have infections such as common cold, flu, etc.
Long or Post COVID-19 Conditions
Long or Post COVID-19 Conditions is the name given to the long-term symptoms that some people get after having COVID-19. It’s also called ‘post-COVID-19 condition’ or ‘post-acute sequelae of COVID-19’ (PASC)
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/long-covid#:~:text=memory%20loss,headaches.
General symptoms of long COVID reported by the patients are as follows:
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/long-covid#:~:text=memory%20loss,headaches
- Fatigue (Tiredness) or No Energy or No Motivation
- Feel Weakness
- Post-exertional malaise (worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity)
- Rash
- Pain
Respiratory (Lung) symptoms of long COVID are:
- Shortness of Breathe or difficulty breathing
- ongoing Coughing
- Chest Pain or discomfort
Cardiovascular (heart) symptoms of long COVID are:
- Chest tightness
- Heart Palpitation (Racing or Pounding heart)
- symptoms of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome called as POTS
Neurological (nervous system) symptoms of long COVID are:
- memory loss
- difficulty concentrating or brain fog
- loss of smell or taste
- headaches
Gastrointestinal (stomach and bowel) symptoms of long COVID
- irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms
- diarrhoea
- constipation
- abdominal (tummy) pain
- nausea and vomiting
- heartburn
Mental health symptoms of long COVID are:
Other frequently reported symptoms include muscle pain, muscle weakness and kidney problems.
Sinusitis
Sinusitis is meaning as the inflammation of sinus.
As you can see from the above image, the sinuses are usually the empty space and maybe filled with the air. And the wall of sinus is moisturised with slight mucus. This is normal situation of sinus.
However, due to the any reasons, if you have lots of phlegm/mucus in the nasal cavity, there is a hole to drain the excessive phlegm/mucus to the sinus for storing the excessive phlegm/mucus temporary, in order to make the nasal cavity to open up to make breathe through the nose. However, if there are too much phlegm/mucus at the nasal cavity, after they are filled at the sinus, the left-over phlegm/mucus will stay at the nasal cavity, due to no way to go. So you’ll feel the blockage of the nose. Many patients couldn’t breathe through the mouth, therefore, their oxygen level(SPO2) may be going down, leading to be going the stress hormone up, eventually, the patients may have the vivid dreams, palpitation, sometimes panic attacks, and waking up during the night with taking long time to sleep back due to the high level of cortisol level.
Why does the patients have too much phlegm/mucus?
Lung is the major organ to take the oxygen inside of our body through the gas exchange at the alveoli of Lung. But, with many reasons, which are two main reasons such as the infection which is leading to the inflammation of LUNG(major tissues are the alveoli) which is configured with Alveoli, Bronchi, Trachea, and LUNG has the inflammation, leading to produce lots of mucus, which is the property to cool down the effect of the inflammation. But if you have too much mucus, those mucus are filling the empty space of Alveoli, Bronchi, Trachea, Sinus, and nasal cavity. If your Alveoli have filled with the mucus, the Alveoli couldn’t exchange the air for in-taking oxygen and expelling the carbon dioxide. So, your oxygen level may be downed.
The problem is during the night when you are lying down on your bed and sleep. You may be easily getting sleep. However, you woke up during the night for few times with lots of vivid dreams and/or palpitation. And after you woke up during the night, you may be difficult to get the sleep back by the reason I already mentioned from the above.
The reason is when you are stand or sit up, the mucus is getting down to lower bottom of LUNG, so, your nasal cavity is open to make breathing, even if your breathing may be shallow and/or shortness of breath.
Therefore, I recommended my patients that you might be needed to sleep with high pillow, sleep with recliner bed and/or with sleeping on one side to open up your nasal cavity to breath.
Incense
Many people are using Incense which are smelly stuffs such as Deodorant, Perfume, Smelly Fragrances, and Smelly Candles.
Those incense are mainly synthetic fragrances coming from chemical factories to make smell nice, but they are harming your Lung. If you are inhaling the air which is polluted by those incenses, you are inhaling the chemical ingredients to affect your Lung getting inflamed, leading to lots of phlegm. Eventually, you are sinus problems.
Safety Considerations:
- Air Quality: Incense smoke is a major source of indoor pollution, often exceeding cigarette smoke in PM2.5 levels, and can cause breathing issues.
- Health: The smoke acts as an air pollutant and, in some cases, has been linked to cancer and decreased cognitive performance.https://www.facebook.com/9NewsSydney/videos/scented-products-and-the-health-impacts/645926768137318/
Thyroid Disorders
The thyroid gland is located below Adam’s apple. That is relieving thyroxine to your blood stream. Many function is relieving the thyroxine to the blood stream to make the energy metabolism.
Thyroxine is affecting several areas such as your energy metabolism, weight gain or loss, sleeping pattern, skin and hair, fertility and menstruation, memory and concentration, bone strength, cholesterol. If your thyroid is not functioning properly such as hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism due to various reasons, you have problems. The brain stimulates the thyroid through TSH (Thyroid Stimulation Hormone) to make thyroxine by thyroid. If your thyroxine level is going too high, your brain will reduce TSH to reduce stimulation of thyroid, leading to reduction of thyroxine. If your thyroxine level is too low, your brain will produce more TSH to stimulate thyroid, leading to production of thyroxine.
If you visit your doctor, your doctor will do the blood test for TSH, Free Thyroxine T3, T4, and thyroid antibodies for checking your thyroid functions. So, if you are tired and/or easily infected with various signs and symptoms, I recommend that you may need to have the blood test.
Problem is when your thyroid is not functioning properly with a certain reason thyroxine is not regulating as desired.
The major problem is the inflammation of thyroid for many reasons such as stress, cancer, autoimmune disease etc.
However, from my clinical experiences, if you are under the stress for a while, you might be affecting your thyroid. It doesn’t matter male or female. Usually, the female patients are prone to develop this thyroid disorders.
Hypothyroidism
If thyroid is inflamed, thyroid is not producing enough thyroxine even though stimulation of TSH.
Hyperthyroidism
Or if thyroid is inflamed, thyroid is producing too much thyroxine which is not controlled by TSH.
If your thyroid relieves not enough thyroxine, your body temperature may be going down according to energy metabolism deteriaton.
If your body temperature is going down, you are easily getting infected. it is leading to the inflammation of LUNG.
Section 3. Allergy
Section 4. Ear. Nose. Throat. Mouth. Taste. Smell
Section 5. Cognitive Health
Dementia is quite scare disorder which is lots of old people are worried about their cognitive functions.
Recent article (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2846712) mentioned that higher meat consumption was associated with better cognitive trajectories and lower dementia risk among individuals with APOE34/44 genotypes and the expected cognitive disadvantage among individuals with APOE34/44 genotypes was not observed at high meat consumption, suggesting clinical and public health relevance.