Gastroduodenal ulcer (GU), also more popularly known as peptic ulcer disease (PUD), is a gastro intestinal disorder. This kind of ulcer is located close to the pylorus, in most cases in the duodenal bulb. Approximately 10 to 12 per cent of global population is estimated to develop GU.
Ulcer is considered to represent an abnormal reaction of the gastric and duodenal mucosa to the presence of hydrochloric acid and pepsin. It was found that the presence of the acid in the gastroduodenal lumen is required for the development of ulcer.
A study was done by C Ionescu-Tirgoviste, M. Bigu, Camelia Ionescu at the clinic of Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases, Bucharest in Romania to analyse the clinical results obtained by acupuncture applied in a group of patients suffering from gastric or duodenal ulcer. A number of 32 patients (23 men and nine women), aged between 20 and 52 years with a history of ulcer were treated by acupuncture. Five of the 32 cases were suffering from a recently discovered ulcer that had not been previously treated. The other 27 patients were taken under treatment after a longer period of evolution. The diagnosis was established according to clinical findings. Numerous points were used in the acupuncture treatment. Choice of the basic therapeutic formula was established taking into account the necessity of influencing both the central nervous system and gastric secretion and motility.
The data from the study demonstrate that acupuncture may represent one of the most efficient methods of treatment of a disease in which all the classical therapeutical methods have not been able to prevent the onset of renewed relapses. Their findings, together with experimental data, may be added to the numerous clinical observations assessing the value of acupuncture in the treatment of gastroduodenal ulcer.
The importance of the autonomic tonus in gastroduodenal activity has been emphasised by all the authors of the study. Gastric secretion and gastric motility are strongly induced by electrostimulation of the vagus nerve. Compared to the classical data, today it is admitted that intervention of the vagus nerve in the regulation of acid secretion is very complex. The vagus contains both stimulator and imhibitor fibres of gastric secretion. The stimulation of gastric secretion is induced either directly by reflex nervous mechanism, or indirectly, mediated by gastric secreted by the pylorus antrum, which has a powerful acid-secretory action.
Gastric acid hypersecretion is the consequence of the imbalance between the two opposite forces, an imbalance which appears to be kept off by stimulation of the specific acupuncture points.
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