Acupuncture and The Medical Treatment of Gallstones

Acupuncture treatment together with traditional Chinese herbal medicine can successfully help reduce pain, decrease severity of symptoms and dissolve gallstones. However, it depends on the exact location where the gallstones are lodged and the size of the gallstones. Of course, the bigger the stones the slower the recovery.

If you wish to consult an acupuncturist and Chinese herbal medicine doctor for your gallstones, be sure to consult an experienced practitioner because there may be complications of gallbladder pain and gallstones.

There are excellent Chinese herbs and acupuncture points dedicated to dissolving stones and relieving symptoms. Herbs such as Jin Qian Cao Lysimachia Christinae, Hai Jin Sha Lygodium Japonicum and others are very effective.

But the herbal formula, which could consist of a blend of 10 to 15 herbs, needs to be balanced to suit each individual. The same applies for acup point formulation.

And if cholesterol level is high, other herbs will need to be added to the formula.

Now let's look at western medical treatment.

Currently, laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the gold standard for care of symptomatic cholelithiasis. It is one of the most common operations performed in hospitals today.

But there are also other treatment methods.

- Medical dissolution, using both high-dose and low-dose chenodeoxycholic acids (CDCA, chenediol), was successful in only around 14% of cases. It requires a long period of administration as well as a lifetime of maintenance therapy.

- Urodeoxycholic acid (UDCA, ursodiol) is a more contemporary medical therapy, but successful in only about 40% of cases.

Note that both CDCA and UDCA therapies are useful only for gallstones formed from cholesterol.

- Surgical treatment -- electro-hydraulic shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL).

Keep in mind that after cholecystectomy surgery, dyspeptic symptoms occur in about 30% of patients. Complaints usually include right upper quadrant abdominal pain, flatulence, fatty food intolerance. Complications such as jaundice and cholangitis can also occur.

So it can be said that for 30% of sufferers, surgery is not successful.

Post-cholecystectomy symptoms occur most frequently in women, in those who had the disease for more than 5 years prior to surgery and in those patients when the operation was done for gallbladder disease without gallstones.

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