Blog & Columns
Useful information about health and Korean medicine.
Total 10 posts
Acid that comes up the moment you lie down: three things you can change tonight
During the day it's more or less manageable. The problem is the moment you lie down. So you stack two or three pillows, and some nights you fall asleep propped up on the sofa. When you lie down, the esophagus and stomach become level, and during sleep you swallow less of the saliva that washes acid back down. Three ways to reverse those conditions have been confirmed with numbers.
The night you skipped your stomach medicine: why did it get worse?
I've been feeling a bit better lately, so maybe I'll skip it tonight. Then a few nights later, you wake up to acid worse than before. Drinking water in the early hours, you conclude: my stomach just can't do without the medicine. But that night may not be proof that your stomach is broken. It may be a predictable reaction that happens when a medication is suddenly taken away.
Acid that comes back up when you stop the medication
It's fine while you take the medication, but within a week or two of stopping, it comes back up. There's a mechanism behind this called rebound. Even in healthy people with no reflux symptoms at all, 44% developed acid regurgitation and heartburn after taking an acid-suppressing drug for 8 weeks and then stopping. We've summarized the evidence on what you can do without stopping your medication on your own.
Feeling bloated after meals and burning on an empty stomach are not the same thing
"My digestion is bad." Inside these words there are actually two different people. One feels bloated, as if the pit of the stomach is blocked, every time they eat. The other feels a burning pain in the pit of the stomach when it's empty. Both were told their endoscopy was normal, and both think the same thing: if it's normal, why does this keep happening?
When Your Endoscopy Is Normal but Your Stomach Still Isn't Right
Even after tests for indigestion, more than three in four people get no clear cause. It isn't a problem with the stomach's structure but with how it moves and senses, so tests don't pick it up. It's not in your head. In a trial of 278 people whose main symptom was fullness after meals, acupuncture did better than sham acupuncture, and the effect lasted up to 12 weeks. Here's what we look at and what we aim at.
When everything you eat leaves you bloated and you feel nauseous in the morning
Whatever they eat, they feel bloated, and especially about thirty minutes after waking up, a wave of nausea comes over them. As a result, they eat less, and soon they don't even feel like thinking about food. Not eating makes them weak, and being weak makes the stomach worse — a loop forms.
When your child often has stomachaches and goes to the bathroom a lot
If there's blood in the stool, the pain wakes your child at night, they're losing weight, or a fever keeps going, see a pediatrician first. When there are none of these signs, tests haven't found anything in particular, and it keeps happening, there's something we can look at.
When it's fine only while you take medicine, and the burning soon comes back
They're comfortable while taking the medicine, but the burning returns soon after they stop. A prickly throat and frequent burping after meals come with it. Many say this happens even though they don't lie down right after eating.
When stomach discomfort comes with headaches and fatigue
They feel nauseous every time they eat, and in the afternoon a pain rises from the temples and spreads to the back of the head. They say they slept enough, yet they're already worn out in the morning. Some come in for the stomach; others come for headaches, and the stomach comes up when we ask.
When you've taken stomach medicine for years but still feel something stuck in your throat
They've taken stomach medicine for a long time, and the heartburn has eased — but the feeling of something stuck in the throat and a dry cough are still there. Many also mention a feeling of something constantly running down the back of the throat.