# Acupuncture and IBS



## 22521 (Oct 2, 2006)

Hi been diagnose with IBS, I get the feeling of needing to go the toilet from the moment i wake up to the moment i go to bed, i go around three to four times a day although its not diarhoea, sometimes it can be and sopmetimes it can be constipation,i get tired all the time and REALLY bad cramps. I was prescribed colofac which help to a certain degree but not completely. My doctor doesnt seem to care about anythin i tell him, so i was looking up remedies and found the continous advice on ACUPUNCTURE, people saying it can cure 100%. Iwent to an acupunctuist and told him the deal, he said fine not a prblem. I asked if i need to come off the medication-colofac, he said he recommends i do it slowly. What i would like to know is , is how many sessions will it take, do i need to come off the medication straight away? What is the distance between the sessions, please if you have any experience can you help me, thanks, peter .


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## 23392 (Jan 31, 2006)

my experience with acupuncture is that some things are changed quickly, while others take many appointments. This can vary a little bit per person.I found the acupuncture helpful for post-injury tight muscles that tended to spasm, but it took a looong time--maybe even a year. I actually gave up on it as far as IBS in favor of the hypnosis tapes [which do seem to be working well]. It might have taken far less time than I thought it would but I'd been going for about 2 months with only some improvement after each treatment, that did not last.However, I proved to have a vitamin B deficiency that accounted for my most distressing symptoms. Your case might be different or faster. Ask your acupuncturist how long it takes! If he has treated this before, enough to speak wiht authority, he/she will have a ballpark for you!


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## 23392 (Jan 31, 2006)

New medical study on acupuncture, btw. An MRI study, where they stimulated the right thumb [not acupuncture; just stimulation] and did an MRI--certain region of the brain lit up. Then they did ear acupuncture *for* the right thumb. Same area of the brain lit up--in the same way. This might be interesting in light of the other medical study indicating lowered blood flow to tthe brain in certain conditions such as chronic fatique syndrome, fibromyalgia, IBS and others. Now if we can just figure out which area of the brain and which acupuncture points stimulate it...  or maybe they already have, and if an MRI was done on someone with needles in the IBS points, they would find increased blood flow. Be an interesting test...


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## Nick65 (May 29, 2006)

Well I started off having A for my IBS, but it did not work that well (Directly speaking) but more importantly it helped many of my problems which directly affected my IBS - Pain in the legs from Arthiritis etc etc etcSo I would recommend it if you have underlying medical conditionsGood luckCheersNick


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## 23392 (Jan 31, 2006)

acupuncture is great and immediate for some things. Hemorrhoids, for instance. One type of hemorrhoids can be caused to withdraw/vastly decrease in swelling, with *one* acupuncture treatment. it also has a very high rate of turning breech babies, if it is performed in teh right part of the pregnancy.Other things take longer or require more treatments. I was impatient and shifted to the hypnosis tapes as far as IBS, but as far as the injured/tight muscles, nothing was better than acupuncture! Nothing worked as well. And it did get rid of the problem--but very slowly, over a lot of treatments. Meanwhile I was far more functional than I would have been, though!Some muscle release things are fast, too. Typically the more acute the muscle problem, the easier and quicker and fewer treatments, it seems--but that is only in my personal experience, you'd have to ask an acupuncturist!


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