Anyone who suffers with IBS and the associated symptoms of bloating, pain and diarrhoea is often also suffering with high stress levels.
The symptoms often seem to worsen during excessively stressful times, so it always helps to engage in some calming relaxation techniques. There are no hard and fast rules for relaxing, you should choose the thing that works best for you.
Relaxing pastimes such as swimming, walking your dogs, light exercise or sport, yoga, meditation or any alternative methods of balancing and harmonising yourself, you should incorporate some of these things into your life.
It may come as no surprise then that a recent study at the University of British Columbia, Canada found that stress management techniques greatly improved the overall health of IBS sufferers and reduced their symptoms.
Yoga in particular has been found to have great benefits in boosting the health of your gut. Results of a study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences showed that doing one form or another of yoga twice a day can dramatically reduce IBS symptoms along with any feelings of anxiety and stress.
All the more reason to get in tune with yourself at all levels.
Terry Didcott
Alternative Cures
Continuing on with this mini series on keeping your gut healthy, we carry on looking at diet and some of the good foods you should eat to keep everything balanced and, well, healthy!
This instalment in Alternative Cures looks at yoghurt, or more specifically “live” yoghurt.
Nutritionist Nigel Denby tells us, “The foundation for a healthy gut is a healthy diet and lifestyle, both of which help maintain your gut flora. However when you take antibiotics this upsets the balance, so having a probiotic drink or live yoghurt after illness is a great way to replenish your body’s store of good bacteria.”
What are probiotics?
Probiotics are healthy, naturally occurring bacteria found in live foods such as yoghurt. When this is ingested, it helps to fight infection as well as aid digestion and maintain that healthy balance in your gut. To obtain the full benefits of probitics, you should take them daily. This can be done with live or “bio” yoghurt, a bio drink or even a probiotic multivitamin that can be obtained through health stores and pharmacists.
On their own, probiotics only do half the job. To do a complete job of balancing your gut to regain its full healthy state, you also need “prebiotics”.
Prebiotics encourage the growth of the good bacteria because they act as a fuel for the probiotics.
Clinical research fellow in clinical bowel diseases at King’s College in London Dr Charlotte Hedin says, “Prebiotics enhance growth of the good bacteria in your body rather than than importing foreign good bacteria.”
Prebiotics are found to occur naturally in fresh fruit and vegetables, in particular the tubular shaped varieties. Better stock up on bananas and leeks, then!
Terry Didcott
Alternative Cures
