Showing posts with label irritable bowel syndrome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label irritable bowel syndrome. Show all posts

Sunday, February 20, 2011

IBS Treatments: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) To Cure IBS

Well, probably you have been told many times that there isn't any cure to IBS. It is correct to say there isn't any specific drug to address the IBS problems completely.



An estimated 75% of IBS patients are women
 

The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine: Chronic Gastritis & Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Being a patients myself before and until the stage of being awakened in the middle of the night due to severe abdominal pain as a result of IBS wasn't nice. The thought of it being something real wrong and dreadful inside the body is depressing. The daily work activities were disrupted tremendously. The medicines given by the multiple visits to different doctors didn't work at all! 

Further stool analysis and endoscopy test were done. No problem was found and in fact everything was normal. This is the initial sign that IBS was the culprit. It brought great relief but that didn't help in getting life back to normal. There is still no known cure to IBS, there is still no known treatment that can address the problems experienced by all IBS suffers today.

The whole IBS symptoms episode lasted about 4 months until the endoscopy was performed, with no improvement! That was devastating. Until a coincidental opportunity that Traditional Chinese Treatment was introduced by a previous patient, who had recovered and get rid of IBS completely. This was the first introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM).

Being skeptical initially coupled with no other alternative, the feeling was one in despair given no other choice. The result of the TCM treatment was remarkable. As soon as the first course of medication completed, the improvement was felt! This brought much delights.

The TCM sees IBS as a persistent "upsets" done to the gastrointestinal system. These prolonged imbalances had resulted in the dysfunction of the gastrointestinal system. The whole digestive system just don't know how to keep to it's normal functional routines. TCM takes a holistic approach towards addressing IBS. It didn't just suppress the IBS symptoms, but it takes time to deal with it patiently with an ultimate aim to totally correct this imbalance and eradicate Irritable Bowel Syndrome!

A total of 3 continuous months with 6 courses of TCM treatments were the answer to address this IBS symptoms. However it didn't just the medications that were making it works; one to get rid of the "stomach wind" thus reducing the bloated stomach, the second drug to deal with diarrhea if necessary and the vital one that goes to "condition" the gastric prior to every meal. It was also accompanied with full dietary control in avoiding oily, fatty, fried and spicy foods. Also caffeinated, dairy, cold and hot drinks intake were reduced.

Normal dietary course resumed after the 3 continuous months of TCM treatments. With great gladness, I have totally recovered!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Children

The functional gastrointestinal disorder affects children too with common symptoms of abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, indigestion and constipation. While the cause of IBS is not easily identifiable, foods, stress and anxiety contribute a great deal to these symptoms of IBS. Parents should watch out for these IBS symptoms of their children if complaints related to these problems persisted and may increase in intensity. Medication should address the children’s IBS problem, but a greater effort has to come to controlling of the children’s diet. Dairy products should be avoided if they develop sensitivity to lactose.

Recurrent abdominal pain in children: forerunner to adult irritable bowel syndrome?: An article from: Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing

The remedy is similar to any adult patient. Stress management and dietary control is key to keep IBS at bay. While recurrence of IBS is not uncommon and there is no complete sure cure to IBS, it is not a life threatening disease though and will not develop into dreadful disease such as cancer.

What causes irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)?

Irritable Bowel Syndrome refers to a health issue linked to the dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in poor digestion and/ or absorption of dietary element that affects the gastrointestinal function. The poor digestion of foods cause stomach wind and coupled with this functional intestinal disorder or the poor intestinal movement thus making it painful as commonly huge amount of gases are formed and retained in the stomach and intestinal areas.



High fatty and oily dietary food intake creates more pressure on the gastrointestinal tract as movement of foods and gases tend to slow, moving from small intestine to big intestine/ colon.

Most researchers have attributed IBS to stress, anxiety and depression, much of this can be deduced to personal stress level and the bodily stimulation as a result of it. Most patients will experience a heightened metabolism rate, an imbalanced health state due to stress and unhealthy life style.

Certain food intakes make IBS worse such as caffeinated drinks; coffee and tea. Dairy products, chocolate and alcohol. Beans, nuts and some fruits such as oranges may also contribute to IBS.

In summary, IBS is commonly a cause associated to unhealthy life style. Lack of exercise, high level of stress or the inability to handle stress and pressure, high intake of oily and fatty foods, alcohol consumption and late sleeper are factors contributing to IBS.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treatments



IBS Treatments -
Cramping and bowel changes have you running too frequently to the toilet? Here are ten tips that can help ease IBS.

IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome: How To Overcome It With Success

Having shared the problems of gastric pain and how the experiences of Irritable Bowel syndrome came about, I am hopeful that with sheer determination and efforts this irritable and stomach pain problem can be eradicated totally.

There are 5 things that we can look out for.

Firstly, we need to control the meal intake as in the portion or amount. This total meal intake control has to be strictly adhere to in order to overcome this gastric pain and stomach ache. The important change would be to consume lesser amount of foods at each meal times but at an increased number of meals. With this stomach problem one can't afford to take massive amount of foods as wished. Most people will feel hungry very fast especially drawing near to meal times. The gastric will churn quicker than normal. It is also recommended that more meals are taken over the day. So now for example, instead of 3 meals a day, the person will be required to take 5 meals to compensate for the lesser amount of food intake in a day.

This is to prevent overloading the stomach while not succumbing to another gastric attack.

Secondly, the choices of foods have to be specially drain down to non-oily, non-spicy, non fried stuffs with high fibre content meals most preferred. Coffee, tea, cold drinks or any acidic drink should be skipped at all cost. This requires a disciplined mind and determination. From experience, it took me 3 months of simple intake of porridges and noodles with soup on the 3 main meals in overcoming this gastric problem. Biscuits and bread in between meals is fine to go with. As soon as the stomach starts to churn and you have the hungry feeling, feed it with bread or bits of biscuit prior to any proper meal times.

Thirdly, learn to relax. This may not be easy depending on the workload and responsibility one carries, BUT it is important to understand that stress contributes a great deal to this gastric problem. There are many ways that one can learn to relax and during office hours, and it is good to have a walk reguarly or try stretching oneself at intervals.

Fourth, exercise. Exercise is an important factor in the whole formula of overcoming this gastric problem. Not only it helps to de-stress after a hard day's work, but exercising help the physical body to achieve a stage of relaxation and also a direct approach of exerting energy to get rid of the unwanted wind in the digestive system caused by extreme acidity. Taking a walk or stroll after dinner is as helpful as any form of exercise. For some people, Qigong helps.

Lastly, if the condition is more severe, medication should be prescribed. There is no need to suffer in silence and medication should be taken to alleviate the gastric pain, which can be killing. Some alternative meidcation is the Traditional Chinese Medicine or commonly known as TCM. TCM takes a holistic approach to eradicate any illness from an individual's condition in which medication is then prescribed to get rid of the root problem.

The right medication should help in speeding up the recovery with meal intake control, choices of food, relaxation and regular exercising.

While irritable bowel syndrome is nothing that of a life threatening disease, a pro-longed condition is detrimental to one's physical and psychological well being.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Irritable Bowel Syndrome Diet: The Diet To Guarantee Full Recovery

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a gastrointestinal functional disorder which relates on one hand to stresses and another major factor is the diet. Poor eating habits such as skipping meals, low intake of fibre and fluid, excessive oily and fatty food and excessive caffeinated drinks make IBS worse.

The most common dietary treatment for IBS is a high fibre diet. Caffeinated drinks such as coffee and tea should be reduced or skipped. At all possible cold or any drinks from the fridge should be avoided at all cost. Luke warm water is recommended as this soothes the stomach.

Large portion of meals should be reduced and spread to smaller meals of 3 with little snacks in between. Always bring a small slice of bread to feed the stomach whenever one has the urging feeling.

All oily fried and high fatty food content should also be avoided. Especially people who like their foods to be served with hot spicy chillies, give this a miss until full recovery. If the condition improves, one may consume small intake of these oily, fatty and spicy foods to build up the stomach and gastrointestinal tract function.

To reduce the excessive stomach wind the intake of beans, nuts and vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage can be reduced greatly to help soothe IBS condition. Likewise, all cold carbonated soft drinks should be avoided.