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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Some studies have shown that in the United States, about 12% of people suffer from IBS.
IBS can be an incredibly difficult disease to treat, especially because most people may not know much about it.
IBS pain and effects can range in severity from mildly unpleasant to incredibly disruptive. Learn the best methods for IBS relief in this handy guide.
Change Your Diet
Believe it or not, just changing your diet may be enough to help alleviate your IBS symptoms.
Depending on how bad your IBS is, you may not have to change your entire diet. There isn’t a set diet for IBS, so you may need to do some trial and error before you find one that works for you.
To help you figure out your ideal diet, you should keep a food diary. Along with keeping track of what you eat, you should also keep track of how you feel afterward. Sometimes something you eat won’t affect how you feel until a few hours or even days later, so this can be a great way to help you make connections.
To start, you could try eliminating these foods. The National Institue of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease recommends avoiding:
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Some dairy products
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Caffeine
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Alcohol
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Foods high in fat
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Drinks with artificial sweeteners
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Cabbage
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Beans
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Chocolate
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Nuts
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Any foods that cause gas
Avoiding these foods may help your gut feel better.
Get Some Exercise
In addition to fixing your diet, you should also try and get some exercise to relieve your IBS.
Exercise helps to create normal contractions in your intestines. It also helps relieve stress; both of these things can be great for relieving your symptoms.
Most organizations recommend getting 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a day. Even though you may not feel like working out from being in so much pain, but it can actually help relieve your symptoms.
It may be difficult to get into a good workout routine if you’re not used to working out. However, don’t give up and just take it slow. It will pay off in the end.
Talk to Your Doctor About Medication
If you don’t feel like trying any of the other options on the list, you could always talk to your doctor about getting medication to treat your IBS.
There are a few common prescriptions that your doctor may prescribe.
Rifaximin
This is an antibiotic that can help stop any bad bacteria from growing. It can also help decrease diarrhea if you are experiencing that as well.
Eluxadoline
This medicine can also help get rid of diarrhea. This medicine will help stop the muscle contractions in your intestine and also strengthen your rectum muscles.
However, some side effects of this could be nausea and mild constipation. Some people have also reported problems with pancreatitis.
Lubiprostone
This medication will help give more fluids into your small intestine to help move your stool along. This medication was approved for women who have constipation with IBS.
However, this medication is typically only prescribed if the symptoms are severe and no other treatments have worked.
CBD
Believe it or not, CBD has also been linked to being able to treat IBS symptoms.
The legality of CBD has been an issue for a while, but the laws are starting to change which means that there is more research available.
If you are interested in trying CBD for your IBS, you can always order it from Highland Pharms.
Reduce Your Stress
Stress can wreak havoc on your body, and it can affect your gut too.
Whether it be physical or mental stress, this can interrupt the interaction that happens between your brain and your digestive system. With more stress put on your already irritated digestive system, it can be a dangerous cycle.
Relaxation techniques, like meditation or guided breathing, can actually be really helpful in reducing stress and relaxing your body.
If that doesn’t work, make sure that you make time for yourself and that you be kind to your body. Make sure that you try to relax in every way possible.
Try Drinking Tea
Sometimes drinking a cup of tea can help your IBS feel better, as long as it is a tea that won’t irritate your IBS. If you find a good tea, it could help reduce the muscle spasms in your stomach and get rid of some of the cramps.
You want to find a tea that is not fermented and doesn’t have any ingredients that will trigger or irritate your intestines.
Some teas you can drink are black tea, white tea, green tea, and peppermint tea.
Some teas you should avoid include: dandelion, chamomile, chai, and some herbal teas.
Keep Track of Your Symptoms
We already said that you should keep a food diary to track your food in relation to your symptoms.
If your IBS isn’t related to what you eat, you may notice some other patterns. Maybe it gets worse when you are stressed out. Maybe it doesn’t feel as worse after you exercise.
Knowing all of this information can be helpful when you go to your doctor and talk about your treatment options.
Consider Therapy
Lastly, therapy may actually help alleviate your symptoms. You may be surprised to hear that at first, but it’s true.
There are two different kinds of therapy to consider when trying to treat your IBS.
Talking therapy
Talking therapy is therapy like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is a very popular therapy.
With CBT, your therapist will help you focus on your actions and thoughts and work on changing the negative ones and turning them into healthy ones.
Gut-related hypnotherapy
Another kind of therapy is gut-related hypnotherapy.
Some research has shown that this kind of hypnotherapy helps with anxiety related to IBS, depression, digestive symptoms, and improving your quality of life.
A therapist will help you learn to relax the muscles in your stomach and help you learn how to control them.
Get IBS Relief Today
Finding IBS relief can be challenging at first.
However, if none of the things above seem to work, make sure that you make an appointment with your doctor.
For more health-related tips, make sure you keep browsing our blog!