Treating IBS with common sense

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” – Buddha

Treating IBS with common sense

IBS-Health.com has been written and compiled by IBS sufferers.  The aim of the site is to alleviate the misery IBS can cause particularly in severe sufferers.  The information currently available has a tendency to be too general to actually help sufferers.  Whilst there is some medication available for IBS, the wide range of symptoms and the general lack of clear knowledge as to the trigger for IBS ensure that its symptoms can become a dominant factor in a sufferers life.

Whilst we would always recommend the first port of call should be a medical practitioner, we are here for those who wish to look at IBS through the eyes of fellow sufferers and to discover the methods which have assisted our readers. We will also print up to date IBS articles and allow you the sufferer to select the path that best suits you.

The digestive process is spectacularly complex, figuring out why you’re own particular digestive system is misfiring is never simple.  It must be made clear that we do not distrust, or ignore medical science, however we do feel that there are significant gaps in scientific knowledge regarding the digestive system.  Science knows how the process works, however when it malfunctions the sheer volume of possibilities as to why this is happening makes successfully diagnosing the cause very difficult.  IBS is clearly something that effects the quality, but not the length of life and therefore it is understandable that research around IBS is not on the scale of life threatening illnesses.  However, as many IBS sufferers will know the impact of severe IBS is massive.

Due to the lack of clear understanding about IBS, we suggest that you follow, the route which works for you.  Keeping an open mind and most importantly trusting the information that makes common sense to you and your own personal symptoms.  The fact that IBS is a label which covers symptoms as tangent as constipation and diahorea, gives you an immediate feeling for broadness of the term ‘IBS’.   A more honest label would be digestive dysfunction, as an IBS sufferers symptoms may be generated at any point in the digestive process, not necessarily in the small or large bowel.

Our approach is to alleviate the stress on the digestive system.  We must repeatedly state that the long term aim, must always be a healthy balanced diet, however in the short term, and in times of need the suggestion we put forward will hopefully provide comfort for you.  We do not and can not guarantee success, IBS can take a very long time to come to terms with, due to the often unique nature of the symptoms.

To alleviate the stress on the digestive system, throughout the website you will find tips, which will assist you to reduce the strain on your digestion.  This is a simple common sense process, which has worked for us. Far too much information regarding IBS does little to actually alleviate the symptoms.  We believe that our position as lifelong sufferers give us a unique opportunity to understand the actual condition in a way others would fail to.

To these ends we also tackle the psychological impact of IBS.  Far too often neglected by most IBS sites and products, psychologically IBS can become a crippling disorder.  It can define, when and where we go, casting a shadow over our day to day lives.  Overcoming the psychological aspect of IBS can be more difficult than the physical, as results are not instant.  IBS sufferers end up with a conditioned response, which can take time and patience to overcome.

Our aim is to help as many sufferers live their lives to the full, as we do now.  The sense of liberation, when you are able to do the things you want, when you want is immeasurable.  We hope we can make a difference in your life.

Yours sincerely

IBS-Health.com Team

Why trust IBS-Health.com?

Why trust IBS-Health.com?

Choosing who to trust in this day and age is not easy.  Everyone seems to have an agenda, everyone wants to sell you something.  IBS-Health.com is a site dedicated to offering free advice and assistance to fellow sufferers, as we know what they endure.

After years of struggle with IBS, I finally find myself in a place where I am in control of my life.  To this point IBS has been in charge.  It has affected my work, my social life, my family and my ability to function as a normal human being.

As a teenager I developed the usual skin problems and was prescribed the antibiotic ‘Oxytetracycline’.  Meant to be taken as a short course, I ended up taking it for four years constantly.

Antibiotics and the stomach do not get along.  I was left with an utterly useless digestive system.  Every single time I ate, a fear would ensue that I’d have to rush to the closest bathroom.  Most times I’d make it, occasionally I would not.

As fellow sufferers will know, this then generates anxiety issues.  If I went anywhere I had to know that there were bathrooms available.  I had to avoid busy areas and tended to avoid unfamiliar places.  I did not wish to tell my friends and family why I was so stubborn about where I wished to go, this is not a problem that is easy to share, it’s embarrassing and hard to find any sort of empathy from those who are not blighted.

The problems continued for some time before I visited the Doctor.  This time I was prescribed Codeine to solve the IBS.  Codeine works to a degree, however it takes a psychological toll and is horribly addictive, as I was to discover when I stopped taking them.

Then I met with a nurse.

She recommended a variety of ways to approach the IBS, firstly get off the antibiotics and codeine, secondly sort out my diet.  Like anything worthwhile the road to recovery was slow and often painful.  While my stomach improved, I was still left with anxiety issues.  Learning to trust your stomach is very difficult when it has been such an Achilles heel for so long.

Then I met a clinical psychologist.

She then took the physical improvements and taught  me techniques to relieve the symptoms of anxiety.  None of these issues work instantly, however the feeling of gradually clawing your life back is empowering and wonderful.

Along the way there have been many ups and downs, however it now feels as though I have won this battle, and this website is dedicated to helping others through a condition that is all too often dismissed. When IBS is at it’s worst it can utterly dominate your life.

I’ve spent a fortune on thousands of different products, had my hopes dashed time and again when presented with yet another miracle cure. I’ve looked at the psychological and the physical side of the condition and am now able to offer you the benefit of all that experience.

I can offer no miracle cure, no instant fix.  I can help you to improve your IBS, I can support you to improve your quality of life and I can be there for you through your highs and lows in a way that only a fellow sufferer can, with kindness and empathy.

Simply visit www.IBS-Health.com to start your road to recovery.

IBS Diets

IBS Diets

Diets, like clothes, should be tailored to you.
Joan Rivers

Eat more fibre, no actually eat less fibre.  Eat plenty of fresh fruit, no on second thoughts don’t do that either.  For most IBS sufferers,  conventional  dietary advice would have catastrophic consequences.  Learning to tailor a diet to your own personal  IBS requirements should be one of the first goals in tackling IBS.

Whilst certain foods have universally detrimental effects,  for most of us, it is a case of trial and error.  Going through the painfully slow process of tracking these issues may seem to be excessively time consuming, however the long term benefits will always outweigh the negatives.

Unique

We are unique, despite this we have a tendency to try and  pigeon hole most phenomena.  The broadness of the term IBS renders the use of simple dietary tips pointless.  A constipation sufferer, will not improve if given the identical advice of a diahorrea sufferer, however both fall under the IBS bracket.

Individual foods can also provoke different reactions in different people.  Certain foods high in fructooligosaccharides,  such as peppers and onions may cause bloating and discomfort, but not rapid movements.   Some may be able to digest gluten, others not.  Learning what is right for you and you alone should be your priority.  As stated some foods are notorious and offer a starting point, however it can be highly surprising so of the foods that you personally can eat.

Our advice  on the subject of IBS diets is clear, tailor any diet to your own condition.  Always do your very best to try and get a balanced diet, however do so in a way that leaves you comfortable.  For those who end up with a highly restricted diet, supplementation may need to be investigated to ensure that the body is nutritionally balanced.

www.ibs-health.com

IBS- My Kingdom for a pill

IBS – My Kingdom for a pill

Anyone who has a lifelong condition, must surely dream of the day an extraordinary scientist creates the pill which cures their ailments  in the blinking of an eye.  As an IBS sufferer that yearning never dies.

Learning to accept, that as with most of life’s difficulties there is no easy answer is really the first step in gaining control of IBS.  I have known many deeply intelligent individuals who have been swept away on the carousel of promises made by so many of the products out there only to be crushed time and again.

It is entirely natural to wish for a miracle cure, it is mentally healthy to wish for a miracle cure.  What is important though, is to acknowledge that for most severe sufferers of IBS no such things exists.   When you have to endure a restricted lifestyle or diet as a result of a condition, there needs to be a way of ensuring that we are able to offer a clear concise benefit for doing so.

There are a plethora of quotes out there about the importance of living life to the full, from Lincoln to  Joan Rivers.  Due to the subtle, incremental nature in which IBS gradually dominates your life, it is hard to sometime realize the full extent to which it has.  One thing I can assure most severe IBS sufferers is that it has affected the way you think, the things you do and when you do them.  For most it becomes the dominant factor in life.

The simple message is to stop waiting for the magic cure, and start taking the steps which will liberate you, to live your life to the full.  I personally wasted a big chunk of my life expecting one of the thousands of products I tried to be the one which ‘fixed’ me, only to be disappointed.  It cost me money and more importantly time.

Accept that to live a full life, sacrifices will have to be made.  That is the beginning of the journey to recovering your life from IBS.  To find out how visit www.ibs-health.com.

IBS Psychology

IBS Psychology

One of the big features of IBS-Health.com is the attention to the often neglected psychological element of life with IBS.  Long term sufferers will suffer as a result of the symptoms without exception.   The following touches upon a few of these issue,  however the website deals with the issue far more conclusively.

Conditioning

The key psychological issue facing IBS sufferers is gradual conditioning generated by IBS.  Incremental steps towards conditioning are made daily and generate conditioned responses in the manner of  Pavlov’s dogs.  In the case of IBS the stimuli is the most powerful – fear.    With or without IBS,  as  a species certain places will be equated to certain reactions and emotions.

As an IBS sufferer,  you may equate a certain place where you had an incident, or a certain activity to needing the bathroom.  Whenever you step into that environment you are instantly filled with the same sense of anxiety, which often leads to a need for the bathroom.

Breaking a conditioned response is very difficult.  At present some clinical psychologists are known to try self hypnosis.  Hypnosis, sadly carries with it the stigma of fraudulent entertainment, however in this context it is used to try to condition a suffer or IBS or anxiety to relax, upon a given stimuli or condition.  This works for some, certainly not all and is always worth a try as the benefits outweigh the costs.

Avoidance

When IBS is at its worst, a sufferer can become prone to avoidance.  Avoidant personality disorder, is something featured on the site, and a condition that many sufferers will relate to.  The unwillingness to risk trusting your condition may lead to sufferers choosing to avoid social situations.  This ends up with a suffocated lifestyle.

For a deeper insight into this area please go to our website www-ibs-health.com

Life with IBS

The daily effects of IBS

How does IBS effect sufferers on a daily basis?  One of the fundamental issues with IBS and it’s treatment is its lowly status.  More often than not IBS is considered an irritant.  It is clearly not life threatening, and its effects do not generally cause any apparent lasting damage, so why do sufferers become so immersed in the condition.

Due to the generic use of IBS as a ‘stomach’ condition denoting digestive issues, the impact on severe sufferers is lost.  Those who do not suffer with the condition, or those who may have suffered with a mild case will not be able to empathise with the level of distress IBS can cause.  When suffering with a bout of colitis or severe IBS,  most decisions are made around the condition.   Sufferers have to plan where toilets are, and to be situated close to accessible facilities.

Most variations of IBS involve constant discomfort, manly through cramps and bloating.  Whichever form the symptoms take they provide a constant and uncomfortable reminder of the condition.  What those who do not suffer fail to comprehend is the constant nature of the complaint, this is not an infrequent bloating of stomach ache, this is more often than not a perpetual ache.

Moods can be effected, depression is not unknown amongst severe suffers.  To be unable to have control over your own bodily functions is a deeply unpleasant sensation.  Sufferers  have to eat heavily restricted diets and to have to be constantly  conscious of diet. 

The psychological effects of IBS are far too often ignored.  The chance is that many IBS sufferers will have experienced situations whereby they did not make it in time, and such events leave dark imprints in the memory which can take a very long time to erase.   Such feelings are often then combined with stress and anxiety.

Please do not mistake this blog for a ‘poor us’ article, there are thousands of conditions which are far worse.  This blog is simply trying to draw awareness to the fact that severe IBS can lead to a loss of freedom.  Freedom is something that we can often think of in quite narrow terms, however we can all become prisoners to our condition.

 IBS-Health.com

Why IBS?

Having lived with IBS throughout my life, I decided it was time to provide a website that truly helped with this deeply affecting disorder.   IBS has become a ridiculously broad term for digestive disorders.  Only really Crohn’s and Coeliacs and Colitis have been clearly defined in terms of symptoms and causality.   Almost all other digestive disorders have been lumped together as IBS.  Symptoms as disparate as diarrhoea and constipation have been grouped together under the misleading IBS banner.

This in turn increases the difficulty of finding the right treatment.  If no major or obvious disorder is discovered after thorough medical examination the likelihood is that the doctor will pull out the IBS card.   The digestive process is spectacularly complex and any one of hundreds of bodily functions could be at fault in creating your problems however not enough is known to be able to isolate your personal often unique problems. Too often the treatments offered could be likened to putting your ankle in plaster, to deal with a broken elbow.

Few of us are lucky enough to have a doctor who specializes in digestion and therefore most of us receive advice which whilst well intentioned is often wrong.   More and more information is being discovered regarding diet and digestion as there is a growing appreciation of the importance of the body’s core, its engine.  Despite the fact that physicians such as Dr. F.X. Mayr began preaching about the importance of diet in the late nineteenth century, it has only been in the last twenty years that the effects of diet on health and performance have been accepted en mass.

IBS-Health.com is a website and company that aims to seek solutions for the individual as opposed to suggesting that one cure suits all.  There are many principals which can be adopted by most people however the key feature of IBS-Health.com and its sister clinic site, is its dedication to helping and it’s recognition of the individual.

This will be the first of many posts on this subject, and we hope that our blogs and website and upcoming book will help as many people as possible.  

http://www.ibs-health.com/index.html