Annabelle, thank you so much for this incredible research. I will definitely read the article that you shared, and discuss it with my acupuncturist. Are you having success with it? I'm eager to hear.

To answer your question, I have had only modest relief from acupuncture for my GI symptoms, though it has been more effective for muscle tension in the pelvic floor and laryngeal areas. My acupuncturist mostly works along the liver meridian. She is from Shandong in China and is very good, but her English is modest. I'm not sure whether she'll be able to engage with the research, but I'll try.

Fwiw, my GI issues appear to be more accelerated gastric emptying than gastroparesis. I had a gastric emptying study last summer that showed the opposite of what was expected, faster movement through the digestive tract rather than paralysis. Gastric dumping is a diagnosis of accelerated gastric emptying that is usually associated with gastric bypass surgery, which I have not had. But even in that case, the root cause is nerve damage or irritation, so this makes sense to me.

So I assume that some combination of nerve damage, compression, or irritation is causing my stomach to release its contents prematurely into the digestive tract, before it's fully digested, fueling the massive gas, bloating, and increasing food intolerances that have followed. The stomach does important work I should not be bypassed! So I assume that dumping these poorly digested foods into my intestines has caused much of my GI damage.

After 3 years, I'm still hoping to make some progress, but I'm not sure what to expect because there appears to be some physical changes as a result of all this, though potentially recoverable. An endoscopy showed flattening of the duodenum (?), the lining of the small intestine, which is a hallmark of celiac disease. I did not have celiac symptoms before all this began, but I have the gene and the disease has clearly now been triggered by all this. And the fissures in the intestinal lining caused by celiac allowed lactose protein irritants where they do not belong, causing the massive intolerance that I now have to all milk, cheese, and even butter, even if I take 10 lactase tablets. (And over the same period, developing intolerances to cucumbers, salmon, and other previously tolerated foods.) I'd be very grateful to know if others have had success reversing this kind of progression.

The last thing I'll note is that I did try CBD in the last week, and found it moderately helpful. I had a minor surgery on my vocal cords to try and make it easier to project, which did not help terribly, but did aggravate my other vagus nerve irritation points, including GI. In desperation, I tried a variety of CBD products for help. I got no benefit from those with THC and did not like the headache it gave, but I did find some benefit from CBG. So far, it did not help the GI symptoms directly, but it makes it easier for me to fall back asleep even when I am awakened by them or have to take medication in the middle of the night to relieve them. More sleep at night makes it easier to bear the other symptoms during the day.

Apologies for having written a short novel... I'm just so grateful to be able to share experiences with others of you fighting the same battles. I hope that by sharing all this information we can help each other move forward!

There is no control group in this study! Do you have access to the entire study and not just the abstract? Also, there is no agreement among practitioners as to what are appropriate sites.