Eating Disorder Recovery can be Enhanced with Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine Helps in Recovery from Eating Disorders

Did you know that Traditional Chinese Medicine offers holistic treatments that support the long term recovery of eating disorders?

by Jamie Lieber, CA Board Certiﬁed Acupuncturist

Jamie Lieber

The awareness and treatment of eating disorders has improved dramatically in recent years. There’s an increased understanding that the behaviors associated with this diagnosis are often a desperate attempt to deal with different pressures of daily life. The internal and external pressures that a patient experiences are caused in part by unrealistic expectations and the stress of living in a highly developed society.

Eating Disorders are Complex

Left undiagnosed and untreated, chronic eating disorders can easily lead to more severe medical and emotional issues. Due to their complex nature, they tend to be a real challenge for our managed health care system to adequately address. Eating disorders include patterns such as yo-yo dieting, binge eating, anorexia (withholding of food), and bulimia (purging) as well as obsessive thoughts about food.

It’s really important to note that “on the surface”, these behaviors and thoughts may cause minimal disruption in a person’s life. But eating disorders can lead to severe and life threatening mental and physical health concerns.

Traditional Chinese Medicine for Recovery and Maintenance

Once the primary destructive behavior has been resolved, acupuncture and herbal therapies are often helpful in addressing these digestive complaints. Many of the common physiological symptoms that result from eating disorders can be treated by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Symptoms most often associated with eating disorders are digestive disruptions and discomforts. These include abdominal bloating, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and acid reflux.

Headaches, gynecological disorders, sleep disturbances, and emotional imbalances are often additional side effects of eating disorders. And these can be addressed through appropriate TCM treatments as well.

The Role of TCM in Emotional Healing

Long lasting recovery from eating disorders also includes emotional healing.

One cannot underestimate the importance of the healing power of the direct “touch” aspect of TCM treatments.

Touch not only conveys connection and warmth but validates the patients’ need to learn how to love and nurture themselves again. Trust and the feeling of safety between the practitioner and patient are crucial to recovery. It’s an important element to emotional healing…and must take place to develop the confidence and positive energy necessary to become more proactive and empowered in the patients’ journey toward recovery.

A Complementary Approach is the Foundation to Long Term Well-Being

In more severe and life threatening cases conventional western medicine clearly has a crucial and primary role in addressing organic and systemic failures and overloads. However once the patient has moved into the “recovery” and maintenance phases, TCM is invaluable in providing the kind of holistic treatments necessary for a successful long term recovery.

A true complementary approach where allopathic physicians (western medicine), TCM practitioners and other health care professionals (nutritionists, therapists etc.) team up together is an ideal paradigm. This approach provides the foundation for the ultimate resolution of emotional and physical issues and for the long term health and well-being of the patient!

Jamie Lieber is a California board certiﬁed acupuncturist, Chinese herbal medicine practitioner, and a Shiatsu massage therapist. She received her BA in Kinesiology at the University of Colorado and her MS in Chinese Medicine at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM) in San Francisco. She has also visited Zhejiang Chinese Medical University in Hangzhou, China which helped solidify her professional goals and approach.

Jamie currently has a private practice in the Marina District of San Francisco. She individualizes treatment for healing and health maintenance, focusing on: chronic illness, pain management and women’s health. Jamie also provides care at a community acupuncture clinic in the Mission District. You can learn more or contact Jamie by visiting her website at JamieLieber.com.

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