🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Gastric ptosis commonly occurs in individuals with slender body types. Modern medicine considers this condition a functional disorder, not a structural lesion. Dr. Zhang Min from Jinyu Hospital in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, treated 52 cases of gastric ptosis using modified Banxia Chengqi Decoction between 1987 and 2002, achieving satisfactory results. This study was reported in Issue 12, Volume 24, 2003 of *Jiangsu Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine*, including one case report.
All 52 cases were outpatient patients treated with modified Banxia Chengqi Decoction, composed of processed Pinellia, fresh ginger, cinnamon twig, Bupleurum, tangerine peel, Poria, Citrus aurantium, magnolia bark, and processed rhubarb. One dose per day, decocted in water and taken twice daily. After treatment, 34 cases (65.4%) were cured, 16 (30.8%) improved, and 2 (3.8%) showed no improvement, yielding an overall effective rate of 96.2%.
Dr. Zhang Min observed that many physicians tend to mechanically diagnose gastric ptosis as "deficiency" or "spleen-stomach qi deficiency," often prescribing formulas like Huangqi Jianzhong Decoction, which frequently yields poor results. Dr. Zhang Min believes that gastric ptosis primarily stems from dysfunction of the spleen-stomach pivot mechanism—leading to failure of clear qi to ascend and turbid yin to descend—causing various symptoms. Patients exhibit low gastric tone, accumulation of gastric juice and food in the middle burner, internal retention of fluid, constrained central yang, and impaired transformation of food essence, resulting in symptoms such as abdominal distension, nausea, rumbling sounds in the stomach, dizziness, and fatigue. The key to treatment lies in regulating the spleen-stomach pivot, warming the middle burner, elevating clear qi, and expelling turbid yin. The modified Banxia Chengqi Decoction used here is based on Xiao Banxia Tang (to warm yang and elevate clear qi) and Xiao Chengqi Tang (to remove fullness and promote passage), combined with warming, spleen-strengthening, and phlegm-transforming herbs like cinnamon twig, dried ginger, tangerine peel, and Poria. Hence, it achieves satisfactory results. Clinical observations confirm the effectiveness of this formula in treating gastric ptosis, supporting Dr. Zhang Min’s view that it merits wider clinical application.