Gut Health · Bloating
Bloating, indigestion and that heavy, full feeling after meals are some of the most common things we see — but they rarely come from a single cause. In Korean medicine the same bloating can come from very different patterns inside the body. Find your pattern, and the treatment, herbal medicine and diet can finally fit you.
Bloating flares with stress. Tight, stuffy chest and sides, frequent sighing, irritability.
From overeating, greasy food and drinking. Upper-belly fullness, belching, heaviness, bad breath.
A weak gut lets fluid and phlegm pool. Fullness on little food, puffiness, gurgling, tiredness.
A cold belly that prefers warmth. Dull pain eased by heat, gurgling, frequent loose stool.
Herbal Medicine · Acupuncture · Pharmacopuncture
Once we identify your condition, we personalize a treatment plan just for you. We carefully combine herbal medicine, acupuncture, and pharmacopuncture to suit your body. Our goal is to not only ease your immediate bloating, but to address its underlying cause.
The exact herbal formula, dose and treatment are decided individually by Dr. Jeong after your consultation. All formulas can be re-shipped to your home country by EMS; PayPal accepted.
How It Works
Filling in a quick symptom survey when you book makes your consultation faster and more precise.
Pick a time that suits you and reserve your spot.
Tick the symptoms you have. It takes about 5 minutes — there are no right answers.
Dr. Jeong reviews your answers and confirms your pattern with tongue & pulse exam.
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth
Most of your gut bacteria are supposed to live in the large intestine, at the end of the line. SIBO means too many of them have moved up into the small intestine — the part where food is still being digested and absorbed.
When that happens, the bacteria reach your meal before your body does. They ferment the carbohydrates in it and release gas right there in the small intestine. That is why the belly swells so fast after eating, and why it can look and feel completely different in the morning than it does at night.
SIBO is easy to live with for years without a name for it. These are the signs we hear most often from patients who turn out to have it.
A hospital breath test can confirm SIBO, and we are glad to work alongside those results. At the clinic we assess it the Korean medicine way — pulse reading, tongue reading and abdominal palpation — which also tells us why it happened in your body.
Antibiotics can clear the bacteria, and many patients do feel better for a while. But relapse is common, because the bacteria are not the beginning of the story. Something let them settle there in the first place.
Between meals, the small intestine runs a slow cleaning wave that pushes leftover food and bacteria downstream. Constant snacking, stress and shallow chest breathing all switch that wave off. Nothing gets swept out, so bacteria stay and multiply.
Bile does more than break down fat — it is naturally antibacterial and keeps the upper gut clean. When bile is sluggish or thickened, that protection drops away and the small intestine becomes a comfortable place to live.
Acid is the first gate: it sterilises most of what you swallow. Long-term acid blockers, eating too fast, and age all lower it, and more bacteria survive the trip into the small intestine.
The Korean Medicine View
Korean medicine has been treating this picture for centuries, under different names. What modern testing calls SIBO usually maps onto one of the patterns we look for during your examination.
Liver-Qi Stagnation — stress holds the gut in a tight, stalled state, so the cleaning wave never runs properly. Spleen Deficiency with Damp-Phlegm — the digestive engine is under-powered, food sits too long and ferments. Liver-Gallbladder Damp-Heat — bile is thick and stagnant, and the upper gut loses its natural defence. Stomach Yin Deficiency — the stomach lining is dry and depleted, digestion is weak and irritable.
This is why two people with the same breath test result do not get the same prescription here. We treat the reason your gut allowed the overgrowth, so the clearing lasts.
Clearing the overgrowth is the easy half. Keeping it clear is what the treatment plan is really built around. Our first-line herb for this is the lacquer tree.
Rhus verniciflua — urushiol-removed extract
The lacquer tree has been used in Korean medicine for generations, and it is the herb we reach for first when the small intestine has been taken over by bacteria. We use only the urushiol-removed extract. Urushiol is the compound in raw lacquer that causes skin rashes; it is taken out during preparation, so the extract keeps the medicinal action without that risk.
Lacquer tree is strongly antibacterial. Its flavonoids, catechins and polyphenols act directly on the bacteria that have settled where they do not belong, which is exactly the problem in SIBO.
It strengthens digestive function and encourages normal bowel activity — the cleaning wave that flushes the small intestine between meals. This is the part antibiotics cannot do.
Lacquer tree improves circulation and calms inflammation in the gut wall. Better blood flow through the abdomen is what allows the intestinal lining to recover after months or years of irritation.
Before you take it: please tell us if you have ever reacted to lacquer — for example a rash after eating lacquer chicken or handling lacquerware. Some patients also notice looser stools during the first few days as the gut clears, which usually settles. We will go through this with you at your consultation.
Our DE-BLOAT and DE-BLOAT GOLD herbal formulas work on the two things that let SIBO settle in the first place: sluggish bile and a small intestine that has stopped moving food along. Which one you receive depends on your examination findings.
Where stress, weak digestion, damp-heat or a dry stomach lining is driving the problem, that layer is prescribed for directly. This is the part that decides whether the improvement holds after treatment ends.
Pharmacopuncture, cupping and manual therapy over the digestive back points relieve abdominal tension and improve blood flow through the gut, which supports the herbal work between visits.
Leave 4–5 hours between meals with nothing in between, so the cleaning wave can run. Eat slowly and chew properly. Keep food and drinks warm rather than iced. Practise belly breathing — the diaphragm is what pumps circulation into the abdomen, and chest-only breathing starves it.
Please note: DE-BLOAT GOLD contains water-soluble bezoar, an animal-derived ingredient. Let us know if you prefer a plant-only formula and we will prescribe accordingly. All herbal formulas can be re-shipped to your home country by EMS, and PayPal payment is accepted.
Please remember to submit the symptom survey above after you book — it helps Dr. Jeong prepare for your visit.
This information is for general education and is not a medical diagnosis. Your pattern, treatment and any herbal prescription are decided individually by Dr. Jeong at SOOA Korean Medicine Clinic.