What are the Chinese medical treatments for Barrett’s esophagus?

  Barrett’s esophagus is a difficult area in the treatment of GERD, and treatment guidelines were published in 2014 by the US, UK and our Western medical community. The common opinion is that “PPI remains the most effective drug for treatment at present”. If ineffective, surgical treatment is indicated. PPI is a rabeprazole-based gastric acid inhibitor, but it is internationally recognized that PPI cannot reverse the enterization of Barrett’s esophagus.  After 7 years of clinical thematic research, Chinese medicine was found to have the efficacy of reversing the intestinalization of Barrett’s esophagus. In 2012, a disciple of my studio reported in the Journal of Modern Integrative Medicine that I had cured 4 cases of Barrett’s esophagus, including 1 case of Chinese American Ms. Wang, who suffered from GERD in Pennsylvania, USA and was given PPI for 5 years at the local Lancaster Hospital, but her symptoms recurred. In October of that year, she returned to China and was referred to the clinic. After analyzing the evidence, she was advised to stop taking PPI and was given Chinese herbal medicine for 2 weeks to improve her symptoms. This year, she brought her gastroscopy pathology reports from 2012 and 2013, and no intestinal lesions were found. The gastroscopy biopsy at Lancaster Hospital requires a specimen from the lower 4 quadrants of the esophagus, and the examination is rigorous. Ms. Wang referred Mr. Zhan, a local university teacher in the United States, to come back to the clinic in January this year with her own experience, and was treated with Chinese herbal medicine to supplement and clear the stomach. The patient continued to take Chinese herbal medicine after returning to the United States, and his symptoms are gradually improving, and he continues to take Chinese herbal medicine. Other patients in our city are also improving, and no one has deteriorated yet.  In the treatment of Barrett’s esophagus, TCM is characterized by the principle of treatment guided by the philosophical view of the balance of yin and yang, which is to support the positive and eliminate the evil. According to the dialectical analysis of TCM, the proposed Tonic Clear Gastric Soup contains the anti-reflux, anti-inflammatory and stomach acid inhibiting functions of the Western medical concept; it also features the simultaneous improvement of blood supply to the esophagus and stomach tissues, the replenishment of energy to promote metabolism and the enhancement of self-immune regulation, so that the local intestinalization can be gradually reversed to normal. In some patients over 70 years old, not only the atrophy of the esophagus but also the atrophy of the gastric mucosa has been reversed.  Treatment of the disease at the same time, patients are required to cooperate with the following three measures: (1) proton pump inhibitors for more than 12 weeks can be discontinued; (2) during the treatment period, the diet pay attention to “two to four don’t”: two to: one to eat seven minutes full; two to chew 30 times before swallowing; four don’t: one avoid tobacco, alcohol, coffee and carbonated beverages The four don’ts are: one should avoid smoking, alcohol, coffee and carbonated drinks; two should not eat too much sweet and sour fruits; three should not eat more fried, spicy and pickled products; four should not eat more fresh beans that are not fried through, so that the esophagus is not overly stimulated and damaged.  (3) Counsel patients to make self-thoracic and abdominal massage for 5 min in Shaoyang meridian 1h after each meal to strengthen the normal dynamics of the esophagus and gastrointestinal and improve the anti-reflux function.