Chinese Medicine Gem

Vomiting after eating might be one of the most harmful things to the health. According to Chinese medicine, our blood and body fluids are one of most important elements for our health. What is the source of that nourishment which maintains our growth and replacement of tissues on daily basis? Chinese medicine considers that all those fine essential substance comes from water and grain transformed by our spleen and stomach.

So it is quite simple that what is the immediate reason for vomiting after eating might contribute to worsening health. How could our body function properly without the adequate supply of energy?

Types of vomiting after eating

According to the difference of clinical manifestation, vomiting can be classified as three different types.

• Vomiting with both sounds and contents;
• Vomiting with sounds but without contents;
• Vomiting with contents but without sounds.

Actually clinically these three types of vomiting are very difficult to tell them apart completely. Vomiting after eating is a symptom of many diseases in western medicine, such as acute gastritis, nervous vomiting, cardiac spasm, pyloric spasm and the obstruction, pancreatitis and gall bladder disease.

Vomiting after eating and spleen- stomach

Since we know that vomiting is the involuntary emptying of stomach contents through the mouth, which is one of common symptoms in a variety of acute and chronic diseases. If vomiting after eating keeps occurring for some time, it would cause some serious consequence to the health, even life threatening in some cases.

From the perspective of Traditional Chinese medicine, stomach is the ocean of water and grain for our body, namely the storage and manufacturer of all the nutrient supplies. Stomach likes moisture while disliking dryness. The descending stomach Qi is the normal form. If stomach Qi rises, food, phlegm and fluids would be vomited through the mouth. Thus vomiting after eating is caused by the imbalance of stomach Qi.

Specifically, there are four different causes in terms of vomiting after eating.

Causes of vomiting after eating: The invasion of exogenous pathogen

The exogenous pathogens, such as pathogenic wind, cold, dampness and turbid Qi, attack the Fu viscera of the stomach, which causes the imbalance and rising of the stomach Qi, in turn the contents would follow the rise of stomach Qi, thus vomiting occurs.

According to the comments in “Vomiting – Ancient and Modern Medical Commission”:

“Vomiting after eating occurs suddenly. It must be caused by the invasion of exogenous pathogen in Fu viscera of the stomach. During summer, vomiting is committed by pathogenic heat. During autumn and winter, vomiting is committed by pathogenic wind and cold.”

Causes of vomiting after eating: Improper eating habits

Eating too much, cold greasy food, or contaminated food can result in the damage of the spleen and stomach, which finally lead to the stagnation of food and failure to transform into nutrient supplies. Then the stagnation blocks stomach Qi from descending, therefore stomach Qi rises to force the vomiting.

Causes of vomiting after eating: Emotional disorders

Anger injures liver. The liver Qi fails to stretch out smoothly. And then the stagnated liver Qi goes nowhere but invading the stomach. The attacked stomach Qi is forced rising to cause the vomiting.

Anxiety or worry injures spleen. The spleen fails to function properly. And then the food can not consume and transform into the nutrient supplies. The stagnated food makes the imbalance of the stomach Qi. Finally the rising of stomach Qi lead to the vomiting.

Causes of vomiting after eating: Deficiency of spleen-stomach

Overwork might deplete and injure the Qi in middle burner. Or chronic illness might also lead to withered Yang in middle burner. The deficient spleen can not afford the water and grain and fail to transform them into Qi and blood. The stagnation of cold and turbid contents in the spleen thus causes vomiting. Or the accumulation would transform into phlegm by the processing of stomach heat. Thus when the pathogenic fluid-retention turns upwards, vomiting occurs especially after eating.

Anyway, vomiting after eating also can be triggered by deficiency of stomach Yin. Because of lack of the moistening of stomach Yin, the Qi of stomach fails to be guided downward. In this case, vomiting after eating might occur thereby.

“Supplement of Syndrome Treatment • Vomiting” ever said:

“Vomiting can be caused by not only the illness of stomach, but also the deficiency of Yin. That is to say, vomiting can be triggered as well by depletion of stomach Yin”

The basic rules on the treatments of vomiting after eating

The first rule for treatment of vomiting after eating is to identify the syndrome is deficiency type or excess type.

• Most excess types of vomiting might be caused by exogenous pathogens or improper diet habit, which are usually acute and last short duration.
• Most deficient types of vomiting might be caused by receded capabilities of spleen-stomach, in which onset usually is slow and tends to last longer course.

“Jing Yue Quan Shu” classified vomiting as two different types according to syndrome differentiation.

• The excess type of vomiting should be treated with expelling exogenous pathogens and eliminating pathogenic fluid-retention, in combination with harmonizing the stomach and guiding stomach Qi downwards.
• The deficiency type of vomiting should be treated with warming the middle burner and strengthening the spleen, in the combination with nourishing Yin and benefiting stomach plus strengthening the vital Qi.

Vomiting after eating sometime can occur in some severe diseases, such as blocked intestine, gall bladder diseases, brain cancer, ulcers, meningitis, appendicitis and migraine headaches etc. Anyway, no matter what the diseases they are, the treatment of vomiting after eating by Chinese medicine should stick to the basic rules and basic types. In the treatment of vomiting after eating, the versatile principle of syndrome differentiation in Chinese medicine makes sense as well.