Modern times have provided us with a diverse selection of food and, with it, a great deal of stress when it comes to planning diets and healthy eating. Both diet and your emotional state can influence the quality of your digestion. If you suffer from abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, loose stools, or a combination of these, Traditional Chinese Medicine can often provide relief and help with digestion.
Large intestine health, how it is affected by your diet and emotions, and how this affects your digestion is the topic of this Acupuncture Calgary post. Many people are experiencing issues with their digestive function these days and so it can help to know what influences digestion.
The main function of your large intestine is to receive food from your small intestine and then absorb fluids and excrete the remainder as waste. Digestion and one’s bowel movements can give a lot of clues about someone’s health and can be an important part of a practitioner’s diagnosis.
From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the most common problems affecting the large intestine health involve a person’s diet and emotions.
Diet can directly affect the large intestine health when there is…
- Excessive consumption of cold or raw foods (e.g. Salads, smoothies, ice cream). They can cause cold in the intestines resulting in diarrhea, loose stools, often accompanied by discomfort or bloating not long after consumption of the foods.
- Excessive consumption of greasy or hot foods (e.g. fried foods, rich foods, excessive meat and dairy). They can lead to damp-heat in the large intestine resulting in foul, urgent, and loose stools that may be accompanied by burning or mucous. If excessive consumption of hot foods is sustained, constipation can result.
- Overeating and inconsistent eating (e.g. skipping meals, eating right before going to sleep) can also have a negative impact on digestion.
Furthermore, emotions play a part in a change in bowels instead of something that you might have eaten. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we do see many common patterns. With the large intestine specifically, we look to its organ pair: the lung. Both of these organs belong to the metal element, which is most commonly affected by sadness and worry. Worry affects lung qi, which is normally sent down to the large intestine. When the lung qi becomes deficient, the large intestine stagnates, causing abdominal pain and constipation. Stagnation of the liver can also affect the intestines in this same way with stress resulting in diarrhea or constipation, depending on the pattern.
If you are experiencing symptoms like these and are unsure if your diet or emotions are affecting your intestines, you might want to have a talk with your practitioner to pinpoint the cause of your gastric issues.
You can also book an appointment with Traditional Medicine Doctor Cheryl Lee here to discuss this further and cut to the root cause of your symptoms.