My Embarrassing Story of IBS by Christchurch Naturopath
- Jean Jordan
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 10
This story (my story actually) of irritable bowel syndrome or IBS starts with a meat pie - one of those small cocktail pies. This pie showed its true nature within a few hours after our golf game and an afternoon at the 19th hole.
Later that evening I had the worst case of food poisoning ever. Unrelenting vomiting continued for two days and nothing to eat for over a week. Interestingly, this imposed food fast left me feeling really good and energetic, strange?
The Embarrassing Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
There are many health conditions and diseases that can make life difficult however, few can be as difficult or challenging and darn right embarrassing as irritable bowel syndrome. In this article I relate one such embarrassing symptom of IBS.
Can you imagine being at the office, in a meeting on a houseboat party when you get a sense of urgency - that doesn't want to wait! Or we all have flatulence (mostly sneaky) from time to time. But what if you weren't sure if you'd pass wind, noisy or smelly but determined to come out - with the possibility of passing faeces, loose diarrhoea?
The stress,
The aloneness and
Daily fear of doing the normal human activity of eating and defecation?
As this article will only be describing one type of a myriad of IBS symptoms you can find more information about symptoms medical treatments on my online business website Natural Pain Solutions here
Aftermath of Food Poisoning could have been IBS?
Why do I think this?
Returning to a few months after the mini meat pie incident at the golf club. Imagine going on an overseas holiday, that's what I did flying from Australia to the UK, then travelling around England. I planned to show my New Zealand husband my homeland, and to introduce him to my family.
But the meat pie had left a legacy. Have you been on an overseas flight, nibbling only on cheese and crackers? If I'd eaten a meal on that plane within five minutes my abdomen would have become pregnant - I'd get strange looks, being a woman over 50 and looking six months pregnant!
Continual Abdominal Bloating After Eating Every Meal
This recurring expansion of my abdomen that happened after eating was so uncomfortable and really tiring, I just wanted to lie down. In fact, this is what I did intermittently throughout our holiday. As one does have to eat!
There was no solution except time after eating for my abdomen to decrease and return to normal it. No over the counter medications made any difference, and self-induced burps made little effect, for what I thought was a bad case of bloating. Nothing over the counter helped to any degree.
This painful distension is not unusual and has the challenging name of abdominophrenic dysynergia that can be part of the brain-gut connection involved with irritable bowel syndrome or IBS.
Bloating can be expereinced by many people with IBS.The diagrams below show the more severe abdominophrenic dysynergia where the diaphragm contracts, as you can see in the diagram on the left the diaphragm appears to move down forcing the distension of the stomach.
The ROME CRITERIA is a diagnostic definition that has a website you can visit, to watch videos that explain from a medical point of view.
Now, this above story is my own experience of food poisoning followed sometime later with a challenging extension. It does illustrate one of the possible causes of irritable bowel syndrome, a result of an infection and possible hypersensitivity of the gut lining.
Brain-Gut Connection of our Digestive System
The causes of IBS can be very difficult to identify and even the diagnosis of IBS can be difficult. As for myself I didn't go to the doctor and over time I was less reactive to food. But I was helped during this time by a particular favourite dress that I virtually wore out, both on holiday and when I returned home. It was my go-to garment for a few months until this strong reaction to eating food decreased and seemed to disappear.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article some of the symptoms of IBS can be very difficult to live a normal life. As a consequent of my extending abdomen, I certainly didn't eat out for about six months!
An Open Placebo Treatment that Helped IBS Suffers
I came across this open label placebo research on IBS treatment where patients were given a sugar pill. Despite the people taking part in the study knowing they were taking a placebo, they still showed an improvement in their symptoms, which didn't happen in the control group. As Klondike stated
"IBS is an illness that is defined by "self-observation" such as feelings of pain, nausea or fatigue”.
The symptoms one suffers from IBS are very real but not measurable such as cholesterol levels or blood pressure. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why a resolution of irritable bowel syndrome can be very difficult for people to find. Here is some research and description of the variety of treatments that are available for IBS that you might find interesting.
It’s interesting to me that IBS is a condition that symptoms can worsen with stress that links up nicely with the quote above that those who must live with IBS are living with anxiety being unsure of how your digestive system is going to react at any given time.
As a consequence of unable to find treatment that gives lasting change, it’s important that you are involved in your treatment plans.
Therefore, if you have had little success with your treatment options
choose to work with Jean.
Mind Body Treatment for IBS
It is now recognised that diet and medication may not be enough to successfully treat IBS. As I said above there are neurons in the gut, hence the phase brain-gut connection. You may have heard the somewhat complex expression functional neurology - meaning that the brain connections are affected by life events and emotions.
Chronic IBS may respond to Neural Network Therapy
There are a growing number of new ideas and treatments following the ideas of Howard Schubiner and others that once stress and stressful incidents are acknowleged and defused. in a variety of ways symptoms can clear.
Information on Natural Pain Solutions website on the range of medical treatments use for IBS
Perhaps it's time to find some answers and live without the disabling symptoms of IBS that are interferring with you life.
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