How Does Stress Affect IBS?

Stress is one of the factors which affect the bowel and can cause quite some damage in many areas. If you are wondering how can stress affect the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), we have some answers!

Stress (feeling mentally or emotionally tense, troubled, angry, or overwhelmed) can stimulate colon spasms in people with IBS. The colon has many nerves that connect it to the brain. Like the heart and the lungs, the colon is partly controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which responds to stress. These nerves control the normal contractions of the colon and cause abdominal discomfort at stressful times. People often experience cramps or “butterflies” when they are nervous or upset. In people with IBS, the colon can be overly responsive to even slight conflict or stress. Stress makes the mind more aware of the sensations that arise in the colon, making the person perceive these sensations as unpleasant.

Some evidence suggests that IBS is affected by the immune system, which fights infection in the body. The immune system is affected by stress. For all these reasons, stress management is an important part of treatment for IBS. Stress management options include:

* stress reduction (relaxation) training and relaxation therapies such as meditation
* counseling and support
* regular exercise such as walking or yoga
* changes to the stressful situations in your life
* adequate sleep

You Love to Eat, Don’t You?

If you’re starting to read this, one thing is clear: you just LOVE to eat, just like I do and just like at least half of the population of the globe does. Unfortunately, our love for food means we are prone to getting overweight, eating all sorts of unhealthy foods and eventually bombarding our body with toxins and all sorts of nasty stuff which, in the end, can have some really bad effects like gastritis, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive system related diseases. So… what can we do, if we still love to eat?

Well, the first thing to do would be to “grow up” and stop eating all those tasty but unhealthy stuff – you know, the fast food type of stuff, the oily stuff and so on. But this is totally out of question (presuming that you’re not like me, already suffering from IBS which takes each and every tasty food from you). So… what to do?

One of the safest ways to keep your body and digestive system ready to battle the caloric bombs and the toxins of everyday’s food is a 5 day diet with fresh fruits and vegetables – apparently, this “living food”, often mistaken with “green food” means that you eat healthy for five days per week in order to keep your body up and running, help it detox and win a few more years for you to continue eating like hell. No, really!

So this diet I’m talking about consists of eating only fruits for short periods of time, along with vegetables – none of these being cooked. You’ll love them raw and your body will love them, too! Also, instead of water or the nasty sodas, you should drink tea, digestive tea, diuretic tea and avoid coffee at all costs. You can do that!

Following these short periods of time of eating living food (vegetables and fruits) it will be easier for your body to detoxify itself. But please, have in mind that, even though this kind of diets is better than nothing, it does not stand for a healthy living style that will be a pure heaven for your digestive system. So please have in mind to keep fats and unhealthy foods as low as possible, otherwise you might get to a point when you will regret. And that’s not nice at all! So stay healthy and IBS-free!

Water for Detox and Better Digestion

I am almost sure most of you know already that doctors and dietitians recommend 8-10 glasses of water to be consumed daily for a “healthier body”. Again, I am almost sure that they don’t take the needed time to tell their patients WHY they should drink that much water. And that is a really important thing to know, because, for one, I would never do something “just because”.

So let’s see what benefic effects water has on our digestive system and why we should drink about 10 glasses per day (of course, it is good for other things, but since this blog is about IBS and digestive system-related problems, that’s our topic!)

On average, in the human body, water makes up around 60% of body weight – this argument only is enough for you to understand that water is pretty important! The more water we lose via dehydratation, the weaker our body (thus digestive system) will be. However, you should know that our body gets water from all the aliments that have water, so not all the water in our body is made up by that we drink.

Also, water is very, very important in digestion of the food, and that is another big factor when it comes to problems like irritable bowel syndrome or constipation (chronic or not). It could also be very helpful in high acidity gastritis problems, as well as general diets:

1. It is said that drinking water before meals helps us feel full. This is not 100% true, since water is the only thing we can consume which has exactly 0 calories! Also, it has no nutrients so it is passed on immediately. However, drinking a glass of water before eating will help us identify if we are hungry or thirsty, therefore helps us to avoid overeating.

2. Generally, drinking water during meals is very bad for our digestive system (especially for those with IBS) since it slows down digestion and thus it facilitates deposits of waste in the colon’s walls – and they keep adding up, becoming more and more dangerous.

3. You can also combine water and eating in a more pleasant way – soups and teas also help up with the hydratation of the body and they speed up the digestive process (water is a very important factor when it comes to waste movement in our intestines and the lack of it lacks to constipation).

So, all in all, if used correctly and in a big enough quantity, water will help our digestive system and aid in our battle for a happy, healthy abdomen. There are many people who say something like: “if your body needs water to be cleaned on the outside, it needs water to be clean on the inside, too”. And that is correct – there are some alternative medicine concepts that go as far as suggesting a one day diet per week, meaning that on any given day (Friday, usually, for the best results) one should only drink water for the entire day, to clean his or her body. However, radical stuff like that should usually be avoided since they could do much harm to an already sick body. But one thing is clear: drinking enough water will help you fight against toxic waste in your body and help improve your overall digestive properties.

Colon Cleansing Tea for a Cleaner Colon

There are all sorts of means for people to try and clean their colon, but sometimes a herbal colon cleansing could prove to be better than any other diet or medicine. A colon cleansing tea, for example, has a few main advantages other types of so-called colon cleanser don’t: the most important of them all is that it is natural and it rarely has side effects (if any) for patients with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).

So… why is colon cleansing tea better than other products, you might ask? Well, the colon cleansing tea primarily fights back the issues of body – irritable bowel syndrome, in our case - since it washes out the nasty stuff from our intestines. Cleaning your colon is the initial and crucial step before its curing and further more, maintenance. However, in order to make sure that the colon cleaning tea makes a good impact, it is always a good idea to maintain a vigorous and well-maintained diet chart, which includes protein rich vegetables, fruits, and intake of ample amount of water (I will talk a bit later about the importance of water in body detoxification).

The colon cleansing tea or herbal colon cleansing method as it is otherwise called, helps you clean your intestines with a mixture of select herbs and plants with properties that facilitate the elimination, removal of toxins and waste from the intestinal tract, and enhance the absorption of nutrients for the body. Which further means that it acts like a diuretic (eliminating constipation) and as a detox method, too. Colon cleansing tea should always be tried out before going to some more powerful cleansing methods such as medical colon cleansers, hydrotherapy and so on.

However, one should never consider a colon cleansing tea product something which should be taken lightly. Actually, this tea usually has a powerful effect on human body, and that is the biggest reason why a colon cleaning tea diet should not last over two weeks. Also, there is no “correct” number of cups one should drink per day for a fully optimized colon cleansing – it all depends on your own body, the state of your colon and the amount of waste it deposits (usually, as scary as it might sound, a typical male holds no less than 8 (EIGHT!) undigested meals in his colon!). However, it is better suited for any body to start out low and increase the colon cleansing tea dosage if effects fail to appear.

If you are interested in a full detox using herbal colon cleaning via a colon cleansing tea, you should look for products which have only natural ingredients like Stevia rebaudiana, Rubus idaeus leaf, Lobelia inflate and most important Psyllium. I know these things have no sense for you, but it is said that these, especially the latter plant, are the best. For example, this psyllium is said to be an essential part of a good detoxification program! So always be careful what you buy and stay as far as possible from scam, because you’re your health you’re playing with!

So, as a conclusion, I could say that even though the colon cleansing tea is considered as a trouble free and a natural product to clean the colon, you should always seek medical advice before buying the medicinal tea, which is readily available from herbalists and health food retailers, since you must stay away from scam and bad products, in order to have the best effect on your irritable bowel syndrome or general colon health.

Chew Your Way to a Healthier Life

Keeping your digestive system healthy is much easier than you think it is, as long as you follow a few simple rules and always care about your health. There are indeed more steps to follow to defeat nasty things like the irritable bowel syndrome or some gastritis, but this one I’m going to talk about today is the easiest of them all, is costless and, the most important: you have absolutely nothing to lose by trying it!

I am talking about chewing your food. Yes, that’s right! Experts say that, in order to maintain a healthy digestive system, a mouthful should be chewed 50 times – this way, saliva will mix with the perfectly chewed food and allow for both a better digestion and nutrient absorption.

This is not only good for living a healthy life, but also for helping treatment of gastritis, ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome. And, as I said, it costs you nothing to try it: just chew your food 50 times before swallowing and soon, your digestive system will be very happy. Stay healthy!

Bioresonance, Best Thing Ever or Biggest Scam?

You have probably heard about the latest miracle of modern and alternative medicine: Bioresonance Therapy. Also, if you're suffering from a strange condition like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (just like I do), you probably start to wonder if other things could cure you or not. Let's see if Bioresonance Therapy can help your IBS or not.

What is Bioresonance? According to Wikipedia, descriptions are pretty obscure and there is no real definition about this Bioresonance: Usually electrodes, linked to a box, are applied to the patient's skin. According to the manufacturer of these devices, they emit alternating currents which are claimed to be healing. They describe cells as resonating objects (with unknown frequency and energy however) having a natural resonance (ie bio-resonance). Generally using PC-based technology, these machines are said to be "repairing" the natural resonance withing the cells and therefore cure the diseases. Without medicine, without pain – without feeling anything, actually. Which sounds really great!

I must admit that I went to such a clinic and I was pretty excited about the prospect of curing my Irritable Bowel Syndrome and live a healthy life, after all. The medic told me that for IBS, I need to go four times to the Bioresonance machine and I'll be cured. Also, the doctor told me she will give me a bunch of naturist medicine to help speed up the process. Everything seemed to be trustworthy and apparently there was nothing for me to lose.

Since my condition was pretty bad (just a couple of bowel movements per week and big pain in the abdominal area), I hoped for the best. Actually, after the first visit to the Bioresonance Machine (called BICOM 2000 if I remember well), I felt better: the pain was of a lower intensity and I felt the need to go and defecate! So I thought it was
working! But I was wrong, unfortunately.

My situation didn't go any better in the future, even though I kept taking the naturist plants for my colon and doing everything the doctor told me. When I went to my third visit, I had a conversation with the doctor. She said "So... any improvements?" I said:
"Absolutely nothing, I have the same problems, it's not better". And she said: "No, you are felling better. At least a little better. Just think about it: you are feeling a little, little bit better, right?" And I said yes – it could've been a tiny little bit better...

When I was ready to leave, the doctor did the ultimate mistake and fully convinced me that Bioresonace Therapy is nothing but a scam: she told me that, in order to solve my problems, I have to visit her at least one more time (but she'd suggest two more visits, just to be sure) and then at least one visit per month. Well... you know what? She only wanted my money and had nothing to do with my Irritable Bowel Syndrome! So I never got back!

The thing is that it might be all placebo and I doubted the whole thing from the start. Or maybe Bioresonance Therapy is not good for colon related problems, but it helps with others. Or maybe I just was unlucky and got a crook of a medic. I don't know, I'm not the one to say that Bioresonance Therapy is a scam, but I do know it did not help me, not even a little. On the other side, it cost me a lot of money and that really makes me wonder: how can some people play with somebody's life, if they know that they can't help? Some people have no heart, I tell you! So, if you want my honest opinion: stay away from Bioresonance Therapy if you have IBS or other colon problems!

Fibers, Must Have for a Healthy Digestive System

I kept talking about the greatness of fibers and how important these are for maintaining (or curing) our intestines, but I just figured out that I barely talked about the aliments or nutriments which will offer us fiber – and that is a very interesting aspect, because just like always in the Universe, there are GOOD fibers and BAD fibers. And we wouldn’t like to bombard our intestines with bad fibers, right?

The good fibers, or soluble fibers (as opposite to bad, insoluble fibers) are also called dietary fibers and that’s a pretty self explanatory name. These are components of the vegetables/fruits we consume and they help moving food through the digestive system, easing defecation and fighting against constipation.

Although I will have to come back to this topic and discuss more about it, an irritable bowel needs fast natural products to restore its health. You can get natural fibers from legumes (such as soy – be careful not to eat genetically modified soybeans, peas and other beans). However, you should consume these with care if you have an IBS or other problems to your intestine/colon, since beans generally tend to harm an already inflamed colon (except for soybeans, which generally do no harm).

Also, grains are a natural source of dietary fibers – oat and rye especially; fruits like berries and plums and vegetables such as carrots and broccoli. Potatoes are also a source of dietary fiber which is good for your colon, but they should never be consumed as fried potatoes since sunflower oil and other oil-cooked meals do lots of harm to our intestines!

So if you need to help your colon and help cleansing it without paying for medication, trying these natural products might help you a lot. However, do not delay a visit to the medic if things don’t get better in 7-10 days, because things would be unnecessary complicated.

Medical Colon Cleansing (1)

Just like I said in the previous post, now is the time to take a look at the medical colon cleansing products and how they work. We’ll find out in this post what better alternatives there are to the medicine (I’m talking about naturist remedies which, as you will see, sometimes have much better results than the medical ones).

As I have said, Dr. Natura’s Colonix is one of the best known colon cleansing products. There are also products like OxyPowder, Almighty Cleanse, DualAction and lots (I really mean LOTS) of Chinese/Japanese products. What’s the general problem with most of them? You have no idea if they will work for you and if they are indeed able to heal (or at least help) you – some of these products could easily do MORE harm to you!

Usually, the most common judgment regarding a colon cleansing product is that it can be used by overweight people to lose fat – and actually, many obese persons use colon cleansing products just to lose weight. Which is not necessary a bad thing. But have in mind that, even though colon cleansing products might be used to lose fat, special products used to burn the fat faster are NOT a good alternative for a colon cleansing program!

Even though I have tried a few products to help me with my irritable bowel syndrome and even though these products did help me since I chose them wisely, I found the “natural” remedies even more helpful. Used in combination with medicine, a healthy diet can solve your abdominal problems forever. Scroll down to read more.

So here is what you should try to eat/consume more while on a quest to maintain a happy, healthy colon:

• Probiotics (usually found in pharmacies, these products are VITAL if you are using a colon cleansing program. These probiotics are helping the re-establishment of healthy, good bacteria on our digestive system – because, unfortunately, whenever we use colon cleansing medicine, these bacteria are eliminated. Therefore, in order to avoid the risk of getting other diseases, you should use probiotics. As I said, you can easily find them for cheap prices in pharmacies, but they can also be found in different yoghurts)

• Egg yolks and yeast flakes (these two are probably the best combination of food for both healthy and unhealthy people. They provide fibers, vitamins, proteins and all the minerals needed for a healthy life and, since these are the natural things, are much better than multi-vitamin pills. Not to mention the fact that vitamin C is very important to lessen the side effects of colon cleansing – such as tiredness, sadness and brain fog – all of these are temporary!)

• Fermented foods (with the help of probiotics mentioned earlier, you have to restore the healthy bacteria to your digestive system. One of the best ways of doing it is by eating fermented foods – Caucasian Kefir, fermented sauerkraut or any yoghurt with Bifidus ActiRegularis bacteria)

You probably had no idea about this latest part in the article – yes, colon cleansing is healthy, good and really necessary. But unless you know all the details about it, you could get other diseases and, of course, nobody wants that.