IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME
 by Christine Hargan, BSc (Hons) Psychology, based in Spain
 www.psychologicalsolutionsforme.com 
 
Embarrassing… or what! So why is it that we are so embarrassed about our bodily functions?

Fear melts when you take action towards a goal you really want.

So what is IBS? Like many other conditions it’s simply a label for a condition which includes pain in the abdomen and the label means different things to different people. Like many other conditions it has a collection of symptoms including:
• Change in bowel habits, diarrhoea, constipation, passing bullets, or mucus, or you may change, or alternate between any of these, but when you get an attack it is normally the change in bowel habit that marks the onset of the condition.
• Pain in the abdomen, the pain can be mild, or severe, pains can be griping, crampy or aching, or any combination.
• Flatulence, it can be trapped wind, or enough to fly a kite
• It may come on at a particular time of day, or in women time of the month
• Bloating of the abdomen
• Nausea
• Indigestion
• Uncomfortable fullness

Different people suffer different symptoms and therefore you are unlikely to suffer from all of them. Research has shown that probiotics, otherwise known as friendly bacteria, such as Acidophilus, (the capsules are much cheaper than the yogurt drinks and are vital if you have a dairy intolerance) or yogurts or drinks containing friendly bacteria can help some people, these drinks can also help control thrush or fungal infections because the good bacteria simply neutralises the bad.

Diet is anther factor; particularly if it contains a lot of processed food, simply because many of the modern farming methods include the use of antibiotics, or heat to destroy bacteria in our food so that it remains fresh for longer. One of the side effects of antibiotics, whether taken as a medicine, or as part of the food chain is that they kill off the good bacteria in the stomach causing problems such as constipation.

Food intolerance is another major cause, if you suffer from the symptoms of IBS try keeping a diary so that you can look for patterns, what did you eat and drink before each attack? what were you doing? What was your mood, happy, sad, depressed, lonely, frustrated? Were you angry with, or about anyone, or anything? Once you’ve established a pattern simply eliminate the food, or drink and keep the diary to check the results. Research by the Isr Med Assoc in 2001 by the University of Mexico, on Brain-gut interaction in irritable bowel syndrome, has shown that many people suffering from food intolerance/allergies are also stressed and this is a ‘vicious cycle’ because intestinal permeability, or leaky gut syndrome, leads to more allergic reactions that leads to more inflammation, that leads to more intestinal permeability etc.

There’s a link between the brain and the digestive system because both use the same neuro-receptors, and in fact the intestines are now known to have the highest concentration of nerve cells within the body other than in the brain and one of the common receptors is serotonin a neurotransmitter that also affects mood. Therefore, its quite logical that a disturbance in one, will affect the other. Simply once the stress disappears, so does the IBS. How can alternative therapies help?

When the body gets stressed blood is redirected from the gut to the muscles in order to either run, or to fight and any alteration in the brain function will have a strong reaction on the activity of the gut. Therefore, the digestive system is shut off until the danger passes – this is the point where constipation sets in… when the danger passes the gut the digestive system over compensates and knows it needs to eliminate the waste quickly – diarrhoea. Hypnotherapy helps because it involves deep relaxation a good therapist will find the cause, or causes of the stress and treat them. The therapist will also teach the client how to recognise signs of stress and to treat them as they occur and therefore effectively treat the condition.
 

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Christine Hargan, BSc (Hons) Psychology; Specialises in and treats the causes and effects of emotional disorders, confidence and addiction based issues with hypnotherapy, NLP and psychotherapy.