Control

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

One day I’d be better and the next day worse still. It is so embarrassing to have accidents when you are a grown woman.

No one knew what was wrong. My doctor said that there were no specific tests for it but that I seemed to have the “classic” symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (or IBS).

He gave me different drugs and none of them seemed to make any difference. For almost a year I worried and hurt so much I could scarcely got out of bed…let alone go to work. The doctor even tried giving me drugs for anxiety and depression. They just made me feel worse and my bowels more upset. I wondered if I would feel like a social outcast forever.

I went to the medical library. In the British Medical Journal ‘Lancet’ Gastroenterologist, Dr Peter Whorwell said, “hypnosis helped 1/2 of my patients get better.”

I was desperate and 50% seemed like good odds to me. Dr. Whorwell used “gut specific hypnosis.”

I had no idea what that meant so I took more hypnosis training and learned that there were a lot of helpful things I could do to manage my gut problem for myself. I used what I learned to help myself. It took me 15 months and from that time forward I have remained symptom free. I was returned to the land of the living. I feel good. I’m so thrilled with my hypnosis results.”

In 1995 I started my own 2-year research study with 36 IBS sufferers who had hypnosis every two weeks for six visits.

84% were symptom free and remain so to this day. Everyone claimed at least a 50% reduction of symptoms.

Hypnosis uses the unconscious mind to retrain the muscles nerves and biochemistry of the gut to function normally again. The symptoms go away with no flare-ups like, stress, bloating, spasms, pain and muscle tension.

My theory is that hitting a mental, physical, spirit or emotional pothole throws your autonomic system out of whack. Hypnosis renews the natural ability you came with to retrain the body to work better and really put IBS all behind you.

An estimated 67% of IBS sufferers are women. Cultural taboos make many reticent to talk about elimination and many may not know that normal bowel movement are 1-3 times a day and at least three-times-a-week.

IBS Signs

Intermittent or continuous diarrhea, constipation or alternating between the two, are the tell tale signs of IBS. If these symptoms span 12 weeks within a year, with no other obvious cause, doctors generally diagnose it as IBS.

Other signs of ongoing IBS, maldigestion and malabsorption are arthritis-like symptoms, gastric ulcers, leaky gut, colitis, sinus problems, headaches, difficult breathing (upper respiratory infections asthma), heart palpitations, dizziness, arthritis, fibromyalgia, shingles and chronic fatigue.

Everyone is different so no one knows exactly how long it takes each person to turn off IBS symptoms. Some say that longer IBS symptoms progress, the worse they become, until menopause when many symptoms stay hopelessly stuck unless the person does hypnosis. We know hypnosis helps with no negative side effects other than easing or solving the problem.

What Causes IBS? The cause of IBS is unknown. Some studies show a possible genetic predisposition to it and one research project noted an association between gastrointestinal infections and IBS.

A diet laden with sugar, trans fats, alcohol or caffeine can cause or aggravate digestive tract imbalances. So can radiation and many drugs especially antibiotics, steroids, chemotherapy and anti-inflammatories like aspirin and Tylenol.

Physical indigestion and upset can cause mental gloominess and upset. Such melancholy can cause illness and illness can cause depressing changes in brain chemistry that then results from, contributes to and activate symptoms.

The gut and intestines have a strong connection with your brain. That’s why emotion and stress often evoke a flare up.

IBS may be an imbalance of the central nervous system and the gut that results in hypersensitivity of the whole body (central sensitization). Several autopsy studies reveal IBS sufferers actually have 1/3 more nerve endings in their gut than other people!

Hypnosis Relieves Indigestion and IBS

The relaxation of hypnosis reduces stress which soothes the gut and research is backing this up.

Indigestion is present in 50% of those with IBS. A clinical study of 126 gastrointestinal patients reported that those who used hypnosis required less medication, had fewer doctors' visits and did better overall than patients on medication or a placebo.

Hypnosis may help chronic dyspepsia, or indigestion, more than heartburn medicine. A recently completed 2-year UCLA controlled study, by Jean Axelrod, showed that eighty-six percent of those who attended six hypnosis sessions became “symptom free.”

Confirmed research studies, reveals that working with a well-constructed self-hypnosis and hypnosis program, along with good nutritional choices, high fiber supplements or food (except cabbage or beans), drinking more water, exercise, or short term use of laxatives can actually change brain chemistry and often gets better results than any drug therapy.

How Does Hypnosis Help?

Some say hypnosis works by the placebo effect as a mother’s kiss might make a child’s “booboo” go away.

In fact the “nocebo” effect of negative self-talk often aggravates a problem.

PET scans show that hypnosis activates parts of the brain that may in fact influence body functioning.

Positive suggestions from hypnosis tapes or soothing suggestions given by a hypnotist, “Every day in every way I am getting better and better.

I am keenly aware of my self-talk and quickly change any negatives to positive” makes a world of difference.

Some say that hypnosis offers relief because it changes one’s reaction to life.

Psychologist Bruce Naliboff, PhD, co-director of the Center for Neurovascular Sciences and Women's Health at UCLA School of Medicine says hypnosis, “works, amazingly, although it's not clear how.

There's no evidence that the intestinal tract itself has changed. Even the tract's sensitivity doesn't seem to change, but people do report that they feel better and symptoms decrease.

With hypnosis, like many medications, we don't exactly understand how and why they influence symptoms." The doctor is correct. Consider how countless studies of aspirin cannot explain how willow bark and acetylsalicylic acid have successfully relieved pain for well over 200 years.

Though the AMA has recognized hypnosis since the 1950’s, many don’t consider hypnosis right away when having physical symptoms.

Fortunately more and more medical doctors refer people to professional hypnotherapists…so do programs like Blue Cross of California who recommends professional hypnotists in their “Healthy Extensions” referral program.

What Is Hypnosis?

From the Greek word “hyp” meaning “behind” and "gnosis" meaning knowledge.. The word “hypnosis” was used by Ancient Egyptians and Greeks in their healing “sleep temples” to renew, restore and regenerate.

You experience hypnotic states every day.

Ever noticed the feeling you get before you awaken in the morning or as you drift into slumber…when you are not actually asleep or awake? That is a natural trance.

So is daydreaming, listening to relaxing music, being absorbed in art, freeway hypnosis and runner’s high!

Self-hypnosis releases stress and enables relaxation as you induce that natural state to give yourself powerful positive healing suggestions.

What To Expect From A Professional Hypnotheraphy Session

An IBS savvy hypnotist is skilled in guiding you into the altered state, as your brain waves slow to relaxing alpha/theta frequencies and you receive “gut specific” suggestions.

Your hypnosis session usually begins by letting the wisest part of your inner mind assist you in the process of deep relaxation and solving any problems. Then you address any mental “loops” that trigger IBS.

Straightforward techniques combine relaxation, breath, inner focus, imagery, visualization, and feedback. They may also include dialoguing with symptoms.

Cognitive-Hypnotherapy conditions you with post-hypnotic suggestions to instantly swap upset to a pleasant calm feeling with trigger word and post hypnotic suggestion like, “I am soothed and restored. A coolness coats the entire lining of my gut” becomes a personal automatic self-fulfilling mantra.

A mental rehearsal procedure has the hypnotized person “imagine yourself in another place in time where you felt fine and when you come back from this session you will notice how refreshed, invigorated and perfect you feel from head to toe; just as you did then.”

1920’s Harvard physiology professor, Dr. Walter Cannon, (who coined the phrase “homeostasis” from the Greek word “homoios” meaning “similar” and “stasis” meaning “position”) underscored the relationship between emotions and perceptions and the physical fight, flight, fright response.

A new paradigm emerged; the brain is hooked up to the body and the body is hooked up to the brain!

About the same time, Hans Selye noted that animals under stress had weakened immune responses.

These ideas led to the science we call psycho-neuro-immunology, which studies the inter-relationship of mind and body wellness. Today we know that IBS has a lot to do with the body-mind connection.