Consider stomach qi

Chinese medicine offers us a lot of wisdom on digestion.

Digestive capacity is central to health, and some ancient masters of the medicine even documented their observations and conclusions that all disease arose from impediments or harms of the digestive system.

Modern biomedicine tells us that our digestive health is strongly related to our physical and mental health.

There are so many advancements happening right now in the realm of digestive research and medical science. Yet, simultaneously, nearly every person I have the opportunity to work with has a digestive challenge.

So today I want to share a note on stomach qi and why you may want to consider it if you are having issues with symptoms of reflux (sometimes used interchangeably with GERD or heartburn in our modern discourse).

Stomach and Spleen

The stomach and spleen (spleen in Chinese medicine is sometimes understood as pancreas today) are the core of digestion. The qi of these organs move in complementary ways in order to help the body make the most efficient, graceful use of foods. From a Chinese medicine perspective, the qi of the stomach needs to descend, whereas the qi of the spleen needs to ascend. The stomach prefers to be mildly cool and wet, while the spleen prefers to be drier and warmer (not hot).

Wet-cooked, neutral, or cool foods help the stomach qi descend. This means that these foods move the qi of the stomach downward. Very simply put, strong, healthy digestion depends on the descension of stomach qi. This downward movement carries food downward, where the spleen can then sort the food into clear and turbid substances and send these different substances onward (either into the body as nutrients or toward elimination).

Heating Foods

When we eat too many heating, aggravating foods, we can impair the stomach qi’s ability to descend, leading to a disharmony called rebellious stomach qi in which the stomach qi actually goes upward instead of downward (it gets rebellious!).

Rebellious stomach qi can lead to a collection of symptoms you might be familiar with, including but not limited to:

• Belching

• Hiccups

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Fullness/distending pain in the epigastrium

• A burning sensation in the epigastrium

• Poor appetite

• Abdominal pain

As you may remember from a previous note on energetics, heat rises and cold falls. You can find many examples of this pattern in nature and science. This is true for food energetics too. Hot foods tend to ascend, whereas cool or cold foods descend. (If you’re looking for even more on food energetics and Chinese medicine dietary practice, check out Andrew Sterman’s intro video lesson.)

When we eat heating foods in excess, we introduce a lot of upward energy to our digestive system, which can influence the directionality of the stomach qi.

Note: Excess can mean different things for different people. For some, eating fried food once a week is excess. It depends on a person’s current health status, body constitution, and digestive strength.

All of these foods bring heat into the body and exert an upward influence on the stomach qi. As you can imagine, these foods are super common in our modern lives and, unsurprisingly, a lot of people struggle with reflux.

When working with people experiencing reflux symptoms, I always look carefully at the presence of these hot-natured foods in their diet and the frequency with which these foods are eaten. It can be very helpful to decrease - or in some cases eliminate - these foods so that digestive capacity can be restored and the root cause of reflux can be addressed. At the very least, it can be instrumental to observe how you feel after eating these kinds of foods.

With a bit of Chinese medicine food energetics in mind, we can zoom out and look at everything we’re putting into our bodies. What are the energetic characteristics of these foods and drinks? How do they influence the energetics of our bodies? How can we personalize our choices to bring the most harmony to our health?

Let me know if you have thoughts on food energetics or if there is a specific dish or cuisine you want to learn more about. I love food - I love to cook, talk about food, and share what Chinese medicine tells us about food so that we can all enjoy food and health. It truly is one of my favorite parts of this multi-faceted and expansive medicine.

Warmly,

Artemisia

Clinical Herbalist | Chinese Medicine

innervillagehealth.com