Hypnotherapy for IBS over Christmas?
Could hypnotherapy for IBS help as well as your diet over the festive period?
When people eat the wrong foods, or get stressed it can affect their stomach.
We can help by hypnotherapy for IBS.
Call Chris on 01803 500300 for a free consultation.
What are the most common symptoms of IBS?
- You may feel that you have pains or cramps in your abdomen and the only way to relieve it is to empty your bowels.
- You may suffer from Diarrhoea or constipation or sometimes both alternatively.
- Your stomach (abdomen) can swell and bloat.
- You may find that you suffer with wind (flatulence).
- There may be a sudden and overwhelming urge to empty your bowels.
- Sometimes you may feel that you need to empty your bowels even if you have just been.
- It may feel as though you have just been to the toilet you haven’t emptied everything out.
- When you go to the toilet you may pass mucus out from your bottom .
Because IBS is embarrassing and painful people often don’t talk about it. Sufferers may then get depression or anxiety.
Bowel symptoms
There are usually three ways to spot if you have IBS
- You get IBS with diarrhoea
- You get constipated
- You get a mixture of both of the above
Sometimes you can go from one type of IBS to the other repeatedly or you can go for weeks or months with no symptoms at all.
Hypnotherapy for IBS
Dr Whorwell is a hypnotherapist and Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology in the School of Medicine. He is also Director of the South Manchester Functional Bowel Service. He pioneered a way to help sufferers by using hypnotherapy for IBS.
Dr Whorwell gave 250 patients 12 one hour sessions.
Not all of them involved hypnotherapy for IBS as he also gave an explanation of how the gut worked and what caused the symptoms of IBS.
Dr Whorwell quotes that “During the hypnotherapy for IBS, sufferers learn how to influence and gain control of their gut function, and then seem to be able to change the way the brain modulates their gut activity.”
Although hypnotherapy for IBS is labour intensive it could prove very cost effective in relation to long term drug care which may reduce only a few of the symptoms.
As with all hypnotherapy some people respond better than others and in general women tend to respond better in my experience but this sin’t always the case.
Nice guidelines now recommend hypnotherapy for IBS and asking your GP for a referral will help. Some GP’s aren’t aware of the above facts or even that NICE guidelines recommend hypnotherapy for IBS.
Diet and IBS
Check your diet. Below are three foods that are well known to help alongside hypnotherapy for IBS
Rice
Rice is often seen as a ‘bland’ food however it can be made a bit more appealing. If it’s mixed with turmeric, which is a well-known anti-inflammatory it can add extra flavour. If you like try some rice cakes and/or rice cereals. There are many foods that are made with rice flour, even breads or pastas!
Salmon
Similar to turmeric Salmon is well recognised for its anti-inflammatory qualities. Not only that but it contains many good healthy oils which calm the digestive system.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes may not be overly popular in the UK but do provide many ingredients to help with gut sensitivity
Naturally there are other foods which can help although a lot will depend on your particular type of IBS as to whether you would need soluble or insoluble fibre in your diet. Soluble fibre is just that it will ‘melt’ down to a gooey consistency – great for constipation but no good if you get ‘the runs’.
IBS and Stress
There is growing evidence pointing to the psychological factors involved with IBS.
We know that the symptoms of IBS are very real and measurable however when we become very tense, anxious or stressed we can trigger chemical changes that interfere with the normal workings of the digestive system.
We’ve all heard about a nervous tummy prior to an interview or exam, imagine if this just carried on………
There is growing evidence to suggest that IBS sufferers may have experienced trauma in their early lives such as illness, neglect or abuse, thus making them more sensitive to stress.
Take a look at the BBC article on hypnotherapy for IBS here