Are Irritable Bowel Symptoms All in Your Mind?
A study of 75 women recently found that mindfulness meditation along with yoga made the discomfort caused by irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) less noticeable, or more tolerable.
While certainly supporting the effectiveness of the mind-body effect, if you are of the opinion that your IBS is NOT all in your head, then you might want to try a more direct approach. There are a number of studies that have linked IBS to excess bacteria in your intestines.
I am of the opinion, that John Harvey Kellogg was treating patients at the Sans who mostly suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. While he NEVER called it IBS, his theory of what was causing the problem corresponded roughly to excess bacteria. In his day, eating spoiled meat was the primary source for all this excess bacteria, of the wrong kind.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
IBS - Bacterial Overgrowth
The Secret of Vitamin A
Thus, to effectively treat IBS I would recommend taking a nonabsorbent antibiotic, like rifaximin, that is designed to work only in your small intestine. If you prefer a more natural approach, then try taking very large amounts of vitamin A over a short period of time. I would recommend 50,000 IU of Vitamin A, three times a day, for two or three days. You don't ever want to over do it with vitamin A, because excess amounts are toxic. The idea is to quickly overwhelm the bacteria in your colon with very large amounts of vitamin A. The reason that people suffer from IBS in the first place is probably because they were deficient in vitamin A to begin with.
Participating in the vitamin D revolution would, also, be a good idea. I would follow up this antibiotic / vitamin A treatment plan by supplementing with probiotics for a few weeks, or by eating a lot of authentic yogurt from a health food store that has NOT been pasteurized. In other words, you want a yogurt that contains a live culture.
Probiotics provide the good kind of live microorganisms to repopulate your intestines with a beneficial variety of bacteria.
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References:
- Mindfulness training reduces the severity of irritable bowel syndrome in women: results of a randomized controlled trial.
Gaylord SA, Palsson OS, Garland EL, Faurot KR,...
Am J Gastroenterol.
2011 Sep;106(9):1678-88. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2011.184. Epub 2011 Jun 21.
PMID: 21691341
