IBS & Sleep

The Importance of Sleep 

Sleep is so rarely mentioned in relationship to IBS despite the key role it plays in ensuring that mentally and physically you are in prime condition.  If you are struggling with IBS then taking sleep seriously can really assist you, hence we have included a few tips:

Healthy Brain Function and Emotional Well-Being

Sleep helps your brain work properly. While you're sleeping, your brain is preparing for the next day. It's forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information.

Studies show that a good night's sleep improves learning. Whether you're learning math, how to play the piano, how to perfect your golf swing, or how to drive a car, sleep helps enhance your learning and problem-solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, make decisions, and be creative.

Studies also show that sleep deficiency alters activity in some parts of the brain. If you're sleep deficient, you may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior, and coping with change. Sleep deficiency also has been linked to depression, suicide, and risk-taking behavior.

Children and teens who are sleep deficient may have problems getting along with others. They may feel angry and impulsive, have mood swings, feel sad or depressed, or lack motivation. They also may have problems paying attention, and they may get lower grades and feel stressed.

Physical Health

Sleep plays an important role in your physical health. For example, sleep is involved in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. 

Sleep deficiency also increases the risk of obesity. For example, one study of teenagers showed that with each hour of sleep lost, the odds of becoming obese went up. Sleep deficiency increases the risk of obesity in other age groups as well.

Sleep helps maintain a healthy balance of the hormones that make you feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin). When you don't get enough sleep, your level of ghrelin goes up and your level of leptin goes down. This makes you feel hungrier than when you're well-rested.

Sleep also affects how your body reacts to insulin, the hormone that controls your blood glucose (sugar) level. Sleep deficiency results in a higher than normal blood sugar level, which may increase your risk for diabetes.

Sleep also supports healthy growth and development. Deep sleep triggers the body to release the hormone that promotes normal growth in children and teens. This hormone also boosts muscle mass and helps repair cells and tissues in children, teens, and adults. Sleep also plays a role in puberty and fertility.

Your immune system relies on sleep to stay healthy. This system defends your body against foreign or harmful substances. Ongoing sleep deficiency can change the way in which your immune system responds. For example, if you're sleep deficient, you may have trouble fighting common infections.

Daytime Performance and Safety

Getting enough quality sleep at the right times helps you function well throughout the day. People who are sleep deficient are less productive at work and school. They take longer to finish tasks, have a slower reaction time, and make more mistakes.

After several nights of losing sleep—even a loss of just 1–2 hours per night—your ability to function suffers as if you haven't slept at all for a day or two.

Lack of sleep also may lead to microsleep. Microsleep refers to brief moments of sleep that occur when you're normally awake.

You can't control microsleep, and you might not be aware of it. For example, have you ever driven somewhere and then not remembered part of the trip? If so, you may have experienced microsleep.

Even if you're not driving, microsleep can affect how you function. If you're listening to a lecture, for example, you might miss some of the information or feel like you don't understand the point. In reality, though, you may have slept through part of the lecture and not been aware of it.

Some people aren't aware of the risks of sleep deficiency. In fact, they may not even realize that they're sleep deficient. Even with limited or poor-quality sleep, they may still think that they can function well.

For example, drowsy drivers may feel capable of driving. Yet, studies show that sleep deficiency harms your driving ability as much as, or more than, being drunk. It's estimated that driver sleepiness is a factor in about 100,000 car accidents each year, resulting in about 1,500 deaths.

Drivers aren't the only ones affected by sleep deficiency. It can affect people in all lines of work, including health care workers, pilots, students, lawyers, mechanics, and assembly line workers.

As a result, sleep deficiency is not only harmful on a personal level, but it also can cause large-scale damage. For example, sleep deficiency has played a role in human errors linked to tragic accidents, such as nuclear reactor meltdowns, grounding of large ships, and aviation accidents.

How Much Sleep Is Enough?

The amount of sleep you need each day will change over the course of your life. Although sleep needs vary from person to person, the chart below shows general recommendations for different age groups.

Age	Recommended Amount of Sleep
Newborns	16–18 hours a day
Preschool-aged children	11–12 hours a day
School-aged children	At least 10 hours a day
Teens	9–10 hours a day
Adults (including the elderly)	7–8 hours a day

If you routinely lose sleep or choose to sleep less than needed, the sleep loss adds up. The total sleep lost is called your sleep debt. For example, if you lose 2 hours of sleep each night, you'll have a sleep debt of 14 hours after a week.

Some people nap as a way to deal with sleepiness. Naps may provide a short-term boost in alertness and performance. However, napping doesn't provide all of the other benefits of night-time sleep. Thus, you can't really make up for lost sleep. Some people sleep more on their days off than on work days. They also may go to bed later and get up later on days off.

Sleeping more on days off might be a sign that you aren't getting enough sleep. Although extra sleep on days off might help you feel better, it can upset your body's sleep–wake rhythm. Bad sleep habits and long-term sleep loss will affect your health. If you're worried about whether you're getting enough sleep, try using a sleep diary for a couple of weeks.  

Write down how much you sleep each night, how alert and rested you feel in the morning, and how sleepy you feel during the day. Show the results to your doctor and talk about how you can improve your sleep. You can find a sample sleep diary in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's "Your Guide to Healthy Sleep."

Sleeping when your body is ready to sleep also is very important. Sleep deficiency can affect people even when they sleep the total number of hours recommended for their age group. For example, people whose sleep is out of sync with their body clocks (such as shift workers) or routinely interrupted (such as caregivers or emergency responders) might need to pay special attention to their sleep needs.  

If your job or daily routine limits your ability to get enough sleep or sleep at the right times, talk with your doctor. You also should talk with your doctor if you sleep more than 8 hours a night, but don't feel well rested. You may have a sleep disorder or other health problem.

Who Is at Risk for Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency?

Sleep deficiency, which includes sleep deprivation, affects people of all ages, races, and ethnicities. Certain groups of people may be more likely to be sleep deficient. Examples include people who:

• Have limited time available for sleep, such as caregivers or people working long hours or more than one job
• Have schedules that conflict with their internal body clocks, such as shift workers, first responders, teens who have early school schedules, or people who must travel for work
• Make lifestyle choices that prevent them from getting enough sleep, such as taking medicine to stay awake, abusing alcohol or drugs, or not leaving enough time for sleep
• Have undiagnosed or untreated medical problems, such as stress, anxiety, or sleep disorders
• Have medical conditions or take medicines that interfere with sleep

Certain medical conditions have been linked to sleep disorders. These conditions include heart failure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke or transient ischemic attack (mini-stroke), depression, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

If you have or have had one of these conditions, ask your doctor whether you might benefit from a sleep study.

A sleep study allows your doctor to measure how much and how well you sleep. It also helps show whether you have sleep problems and how severe they are. For more information, go to the Health Topics Sleep Studies article.

For more click here

Good Foods for IBS - Rice

The Joys of Rice

Few ingredients are as kind to the digestion as rice 

White Rice

White rice is a bland, low-fiber food because it is processed, like white flour and bread. White rice is easy on your digestive system, making it a suitable item on bland menus for people recovering from various digestive ailments like an upset stomach, gastroenteritis and diverticulitis. You can eat plain white rice or derivatives like cream of rice hot cereal or plain rice porridge, according to San Francisco State University Student Health Services. White rice's low fiber content makes it less likely to irritate your intestines, and it does not contribute to diarrhea.

Brown Rice

 

Brown rice is a high-roughage food rich in insoluble fiber on its outer part, with soluble fiber inside. The soluble fiber controls blood sugar and lowers cholesterol, but the insoluble fiber promotes good digestion. Unlike the soluble type, which changes its form into a jelly, the insoluble type retains its shape and resists digestion. This allows it to move other digestible foods along more efficiently. The insoluble fiber also absorbs water that moisturizes stool, and it bulks up your waste product into soft but solid pieces.

The beauty of rice, is now its versatility with all manner of wonderful noodles and flours available, today we include one of our favourite rice based recipes from our low FODMAP recipe website.

Low FODMAP Chicken Pilaf

1 tsp sunflower oil

1 stick celery, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

6 tomatoes

1 large or 2 small boneless, skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut into chunks

2 tsp low FODMAP curry paste

a third of a mug basmati rice

two-thirds of a mug low FODMAP chicken stock

half a mug frozen leaf spinach

Method

Heat the oil in a frying pan, then fry the carrot and celery for 5-6 mins until softened. A

dd the chicken pieces, fry for a further couple of mins just to colour the outside, then stir in curry powder and rice.

Cook for another min.

Pour in the chicken stock and throw in any larger bits of frozen veg.

Bring to the boil, lower the heat, then cover the pan with a lid. Cook for 10 mins, then stir in the remaining veg.

Scatter over the spinach, cover, then cook for 10 mins more until all the stock is absorbed and the rice is tender.

Give everything a good stir, season to taste, then tuck in.

Recipe adapted from: Good Food

Can you still enjoy food with IBS?

Can you still enjoy food with IBS?

 It is surprising the number of IBS sufferers we meet who have a passion for food.   Despite the fact that many have to endure a highly restricted diet  food remains in their hearts. So how can you maintain a sincere and genuine love of food, when so many of the great treats remain problematic to sufferers of IBS?

Before proceeding  I must come off the fence at this point and confess that the first ten years of my career centered around the hotel and restaurant industry in a variety of guises.  I entered the profession as I had a bona fide passion for food and cooking and could imagine little else.  Despite going on to gain other professional qualifications and a degree the passion remains strong.

There remains some debate about the role of diet in IBS.  While it is a source of frustration, we have always struggled to see how it could not have an effect.  The nature of the modern world means that our diet bears little resemblance to that which our bodies were designed.  Our increased life expectancy suggests that it is not all bad, however only the churlish would suggest that a good diet is not a valuable tool in maximising our potential.

Say goodbye the good stuff

When tackling IBS there are foods which commonly cause problems.  In the past we have detailed how and why that is (click here for more), however the bottom line is that for foodies they mean eliminating some of the tastiest food around.  We talk of gluten and dairy.

While gluten free food has improved dramatically, it is never going to be as silken and as a delicious wheaty treat.  Much of the gluten free bread available is dry unless warmed, and without gluten lacks the texture of a good bread.  The flavour is often impaired by excess sweetness and some of the flours used contain distinct flavour tones, which may or may not be to your taste.

Dairy omission, is equally hard when you consider what you may lose.  One of lifes simple pleasures is a good lump of cheese* and warm bread.  With IBS that pleasure may be gone forever.  Although many soya, oat and rice based milk products exist, some of which are very good, they are not ideal replacements for lovely cheese and cream.

So as an IBS foodie, you already lose wheat and dairy, the next hammer blow is spice.  While not everyone has a passion for exotic spicy food, for those of us who do, the repercussions of indulging in a spicy meal can be quite dramatic.  Pepper of any variety can upset the digestive system, from chilli to simple ground black pepper, a whole world of food enlivenment can be removed.

 The food news for an IBS foodie

 It would be easy to fixate on the omissions, however that would failing to acknowledge a number of truths and some good news.  Firstly that while we mentioned a humans ‘natural’ diet earlier it must be remembered that until relatively recently we ate what was local and in season.  Everyone man woman and child around the world has a naturally healthy diet based on geography.  By fixating upon what we are no longer able to enjoy, we are simply failing to acknowledge this basic and obvious fact.

We also need to acknowledge that wheat and fatty dairy are not great for us anyway.  They are clearly not evil and both contain benefits, however they are rarely at the forefront of any healthy diet, whether you are reducing fat or carbs, in many senses an IBS restricted diet can remove some of the temptations  which would have a negative effect.

Finally, while gluten free bread products may not be great, if you need an unhealthy treat, gluten free flours are often very short, thus they make great crisp biscuits and pastry.  You can also make wonderful crispy coatings using gluten free products, it is only the bread which represents a problem.  We realise that this contradicts our healthy point above, however no one suggests that the occasional treat in moderation is a bad thing.

Chance to experiment and create

The reality is that even if you are the most rabid food lover, the omissions recommended are only really a problem if you fixate upon them.  There are still thousands of alternative and thousands of new idea to be discovered.  Even a heavily restricted diet such as the low FODMAP diet will leave you with lots of choice, we now have in excess of two thousand recipes and counting on our sites.

So while a food lover with IBS will have to make concessions there is no doubt that we are in fact very lucky.  There are still lots of ingredients to play with and most importantly it is our choice,(unless you are a celiaic obviously).  If you want to enjoy so of the known IBS trigger foods you can, it is your option and yours alone,  we all know the consequences.

 *Many cheeses use their lactose content up during the ripening process.  Do check to see if you are completely dairy intolerant, or whether it is just lactose.  If it is just lactose then the degree of dietary omission will drop significantly and few products are unavailable.