Help For IBS
Conquer IBS – Changing Your Mind Will Change What You Eat
By Annetta Holmes
You all have all been at the receiving end of advertising that tells you how easy it is to lose weight. Glowing women with tight waists and slender legs beam at us from the TV screen while enthusiastically chattering about the product that so miraculously altered their body. Chunky men, their muscles gleaming in the overhead camera lights, say much the same as their lady counterparts.
Many of you have believed the words coming from those beautiful bodies that you can just take the tablet or drink the shake or stick on the patch and voilà . Fat exit stage right! If this were true then selling weight reducing products would cease to be a billion dollar global industry and we’d all be swanning around in those little black numbers the movies are so fond of portraying their sexiest stars in.
IBS is dealt with in a similar fashion. There’s a pill or powder or drink to treat and suppress almost any digestive disturbance you care to mention. The over prescription of laxatives and anti-diarrhoea medication sends the IBS suffers see-sawing between the two. Medication is a temporary solution and cannot be relied on long term. Inevitably the side effects and actions of the drugs will interfere with your body’s ability to manage its waste.
The more you find out about your condition the better for you. You must however be willing to agree that you can master the situation because with out your decision that it can happen or your full commitment, you have lost already.
One of the hardest ideas for any sufferer to get their head around is the level of commitment required. Until that is done, until the decision to change the food you eat occurs, you will continue to live a twilight existence. IBS in its early stages is mildly irritating. This progresses to embarrassing as putrefying food generates gas and eventually you become a prisoner of the condition as one day you could be in agony from constipation, the next running for the bathroom with diarrhoea.
IBS is a general term that covers a broad spectrum of symptoms. One must also remember the word “bowel” refers to the intestines below the stomach and not just the colon as many people erroneously think. As human intestines are about twelve metres long and the whole digestive system is an intricate balance of movement and digestive secretions you will begin to appreciate that when things go wrong it can be a very long road back. The easiest thing in the world is to purchase the ‘goodies’ that you have to take and eat. The hard part is deciding you can do it. Then sticking with it until it’s done.
The good news is that the body is an incredibly clever organism. Its ability to repair itself almost defies belief. The difficulty is trying to obtain the nutrients – vitamins, minerals, amino acids etc. necessary for the repair. That’s where you and your future food choices and supplements come in. That’s why the information in the next paragraph is the curtain raiser to improved health.
As there are several types of illnesses of the bowel your first step to is to have a thorough medical check up. This is to rule out other digestive system maladies like Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease or Diverticulitis. When examining people with IBS it has been found that there is no diseased tissue in the bowl so the condition is not serious from that aspect. However if you have a disease of the digestive system and it is damaging the tissue of the intestines, this will be detected by consulting with your health practitioner who will send you for whatever tests are required.
How to Get Motivated
Once you have properly confirmed that you do indeed have IBS you can immediately start helping your digestive system. In IBS something is irritating the bowel; like a label in the back of your blouse that scratches you, the same with IBS. Most people respond badly to radical change; they either recoil completely or they implement the changes strenuously for a few days and then totally relapse. To dig yourself out of IBS you have to look at what fixed ideas you have about your condition. A fixed idea is an idea that you have that you feel you cannot alter. An example of a fixed idea is, “An old dog can’t be taught new tricks.” As your whole future comfort is reliant upon you altering patterns then this fixed idea phenomenon needs scrutiny. The first thing to decide is that you can begin to eat better. Having lists and lists of foods you should be eating taped to your ‘fridge is of no use if your fixed idea tells you, “I can’t do this! It’s too difficult.” So you have to begin with that.
You will find that once you spot the fixed ideas you can now do something about it. It also tells you that this is not a five minute fix. Every day is filled with obstacles that you either succumb to or jump over. However changing your mind and deciding you can do something about IBS is the very first step.