Today I would like to talk about diarrhea.
Basically there are 2 kinds of diarrhea. One is caused by food poisoning. The other one is caused by coldness. During an acupuncture treatment, it is very effective to burn moxa (dried herbs) on the feet. For food poisoning type diarrhea moxa is burned on the sole close to second toes and for cold type diarrhea it is burned on the little toes.

There are other kinds of diarrhea such as ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome etc., which are considered difficult to treat by Western medicine. However, acupuncture is effective to control and treat these symptoms. The treatment is not complicated, but it is necessary to continue the treatments for some time, even if the symptoms disappear, in order to change constitutions. In these types of cases it is well worth trying acupuncture if you can find a good acupuncturist.

Now I will tell you what you can do at home for food poisoning type diarrhea. I will tell you about cold type diarrhea next week.

Diarrhea caused by food poisoning:
Please be careful about the freshness of food during the warmer weather. As prevention, when you eat meat or fish, it is better to eat these with ginger, labiates, wasabi, daikon or umeboshi, etc. which will neutralize any poisons. Also, it is better not to drink too much water during meals, because it makes the acid in the stomach thin, leading to a lower power of sterilization. Of course, soda, juice, milk, etc. are not recommended. Instead, take soup with salt. Salt increases the secretion of acid in stomach. To treat this kind of diarrhea, it is good to drink Ume-sho-bancha. It neutralizes and excretes the poison.
Umeboshi (pickled plum) --------------------------1 piece
Shoyu (soy sauce) --------------------------1 table spoon
Grated ginger-----------------------------10% of Umeboshi
Bancha (Roasted twig tea) --------------------------1 cup
Crush Umeboshi in a cup, put shoyu and grated ginger, and pour boiled roasted twig tea. Drink it hot.