How long does it take to treat digestive disorders

There is actually no standard answer to this question. If the disease is mild, it can be basically relieved by adjusting the diet and rest within 1 to 2 weeks. If the disease lasts for a long time, is combined with emotional problems or has underlying gastrointestinal diseases, it may take months or even years of long-term conditioning to stabilize.

A while ago, I met a 22-year-old girl who had just started her job. She ate takeout heavy in oil and salt for 20 consecutive days in order to catch up on a project, and stayed up until two or three o'clock every day. During that time, she would suffer from gas and acid reflux at every turn, and her stools were either unable to pass or were as thin as water. She had no problems after a gastrointestinal endoscopy. It was a typical transient digestive disorder. After she returned home, she obediently gave up all the iced milk tea and late-night barbecues. She ate about 70% full at each meal, and walked around the neighborhood for 20 minutes after meals. She also took probiotics for a week. On the 9th day, she sent me a message saying that she had not had stomach upset for three consecutive days and the flatulence was gone. This is a typical mild disease that goes away as quickly as it comes.

But not everyone has such good luck. Aunt Zhang, who lives downstairs in my house, has had digestive disorders for almost three years. When she was young, she opened a restaurant and couldn’t take care of eating. Later, her son was anxious about the college entrance examination for more than half a year. Now, if he encounters something cold or spicy, or even feels a little bad that day, he immediately starts to suffer from abdominal pain and diarrhea. In the past two years, she has changed countless types of traditional Chinese medicine, probiotics, and medicines for regulating gastrointestinal motility. Now her symptoms are 80% lighter than before, but she still occasionally eats the wrong things. The doctor said that she has developed into irritable bowel syndrome, which is a relatively stubborn functional disorder. She cannot rush and can only take care of herself slowly.

There are two different opinions in the circle now. Some doctors believe that functional disorders do not have organic diseases in the first place. As long as the triggers are removed, the disease can be cured in three to five days. Some doctors say that the disease is too closely tied to living habits and emotional states, and is particularly prone to recurrence. It cannot be said to be a "radical cure" at all, but can only be controlled in the long term. In fact, there is nothing wrong with either statement. After all, the cause of the disease is different for everyone. If you just stay up a few nights and eat a few big meals, you will naturally get better quickly. If you have been stressed and anxious all year round, and you have basic diseases such as chronic gastritis and cholecystitis, and you still can't change your problems of staying up late and eating too much, then it is definitely impossible to adjust it in a short time. You can't torture your stomach and expect to take medicine for two days to return to normal, right?

Speaking of the stomach, it is like a delicate little housekeeper. If you occasionally let it work overtime and eat something indigestible, it will complain a few words. If you give it two days off to eat something light and easy to digest, it will recover quickly; if you squeeze it all year round, overload it at every turn, always stuff it with garbage, or even let it suffer from emotions every day, then it will definitely go on strike for a long time, and it will naturally take more patience and time to coax it.

Among the patients I have come into contact with, the quickest one had almost no symptoms after 3 days of adjustment, and the slowest one took almost 5 years before finally having few recurrences. To put it bluntly, the adjustment time depends partly on how hard you have treated your stomach and intestines before, and partly on how cooperative you are during the adjustment. There is no fixed timetable.