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IBS
What is it?
IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) is a functional bowel disorder of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It’s a chronic condition that seems to be affecting more people with about one in six people in the UK having typical symptoms (that’s about 5-8 million people). Even whilst reading this, many of you may be surprised at just how many people around you often suffer in silence. For many, it’s a condition that’s difficult to talk about at the best of times. It can last from a few months to a few years, and appear intermittently without obvious reason.
Symptoms
Symptoms and the severity vary between people, but the most common are:
* Abdominal pain and cramps,
* Bowel habits that can alternate between constipation and diarrhoea,
* Bloating,
* Indigestion,
* Noisy, rumbling stomach,
* Nausea,
* Passing of wind.
Imagine how it might affect those who need to get on with their daily lives such as going to work, attending meetings, or even just eating.
Causes
The exact cause of this condition isn’t known, with those in the medical and complimentary health community still learning the best way to tackle this. There are many factors that can contribute to the condition, some being:
* Irregular contractions of the walls of the bowel,
* Certain foods (like spicy or fatty foods),
* Alcohol,
* Caffeine,
* Emotional events in life (divorce, bereavement),
* Prolonged use of antibiotics or anti inflammatory drugs,
* Stress or anxiety.
Diagnosis
Often the best place to start is to get a check up with your GP, who can fully examine you and do any tests that may be necessary. Some tests can include:
* Blood tests (for anaemia, celiac disease , other infection etc),
* Stools samples (for traces of hidden blood from inflammation or bleeding, or parasitic activity),
* Lactose intolerance,
* Internal image investigation through a colonoscopy, endoscopy, barium enema, to look for inflammation, polyps etc.
Treatment
Doctors can prescribe medicines such as laxatives or anti-spasmodics, which help to varying degrees. Sufferers can also buy over the counter medicine to help too, so speak to your local pharmacist.
Self help is also a good place to start, by closely observing and adjusting your diet, it can help you to understand if certain food or drink makes things worse.
How can Hypnotherapy at The
Well to start, studies in the
Hypnotherapy is a powerful approach that combines natural relaxation, self hypnosis and stress reduction techniques to take control of this chronic condition over a short period on time. Working with Umesh, we work to identify the key influencers that could be contributing to the symptoms. When combined with a better managed diet, sufferers may find that the condition that has held them back for so long can be effectively reduced or eliminated with hypnotherapy that is combined with NLP, Time Line Therapy and IEMT, to create a powerful change process.
As with CFS, our work with the mind/body connection can significantly benefit you as a client. A by product of the collaboration between the mind and body, the physical symptoms are the ‘messages’ that the subconscious is using as a method of communicating that everything is not well in a clients life. Until the cause/s of the messages is addressed, healing cannot begin.
So the multi-disciplined approach looks at the whole of you to:
- Identify and overcome the causes of your IBS,
- Reduce stress levels,
- Increase relaxation,
- Increase your motivation and confidence to change,
- Empower you with self help techniques to maintain the generative change process.
The approach at The Woodland Practice doesn’t stop there. We take your change process further than most, so we also look at:
· Referring you onto our associate nutritionist, to ensure optimum nutritional levels are being maintain to help reduce and even eliminate many of the symptoms (if appropriate),
My personal experience of IBS
I experienced IBS in my 20’s and 30’s, so I understand the impact it can have on your life. Conventional POM and over the counter treatments had very little effect, so again, as with my CFS, I had to look elsewhere for the answers that would allow me to take control.
Through the power of positive thinking and the growing realisation of the mind/body connection, I was able to understand how our thoughts can affect our emotions and our behaviour. Over the course of many years, I’ve identified several key strategies that assist the recovery process, and what I found has been so powerful that it’s now how I how help others to regain control over their lives.
IBS is just a diagnosis, I can teach you what has helped me to live the life that once seemed beyond me. Even today, I’m more aware of the triggers that could affect my health again and I pay more attention to those ‘messages’.