Using acupuncture to treat chronic gastritis

Condition analysis:
Chronic Gastritis may imply certain different kinds of chronic inflammation of gastric mucus caused by several possible factors.  Depending on the pathological changes, there may be three types of chronic gastritis: hypertrophic, atrophic and superficial gastritis. These types have their own unique symptoms although basically the common shared symptoms of chronic gastritis include belching, vomiting, nausea, dyspepsia, anorexia, pain and discomfort in the upper and middle stomach, and recurrent fullness. Gastritis can have symptoms like stomach fullness and epigastralgia that may mimic other conditions. Based on traditional Chinese medicine, this condition can come about due to qi and blood stagnation, stomach yin deficiency, asthenia, longstanding conditions that cause blockages in the liver qi, overstrain, poor diet and emotional upsets.

Instructions:
Treatment
1. Body acupuncture – acupuncture points include: ST 36 or Zusanli point; ST 21 (Liangmen point); SP 4 (Gongsun); PC 6 (Neiguan), CV 12 (Zhongwan).

Additions:
For distention and fullness in stomach and epigastrium, the BL 20(Pishu), ST 19 (Bu-rong), and LR 13 (Zhangmen) are also needled.

For abdominal heat, ST 44 (Neiting) is needled.

For stagnation of blood in the collaterals, BL 17 (Geshu) and SP 10 (Xuehai) are needled.

For stomach yin deficiency, P6 (Sanyinjiao) and Kl 3 (Taixi) are needled.

For asthenia-cold in the abdomen and spleen, BL 20 (Pishu) and BL 21 (Weishu) are needled

For liver qi invading the stomach, LR 3 (Tai-chong), LR 14 (Qimen) and BL 18 (Ganshu) are needled.

Performance
For the stagnation of blood in the collaterals and for liver qi invading the abdomen, reinforcing and mild reducing needling techniques can be utilized

For stomach yin deficiency and asthenia-cold in the abdomen and spleen, reinforcing needling technique can be adopted.

For the asthenia-cold syndrome therapy, moxibustion can be applied as an adjunct for acupuncture.