I have worked with many forms of IBS over the years and it’s interesting how many people are given that diagnosis by GP’s. It does seem that more and more of us get that bloated feeling,fluctuate between constipation and loose bowels, get cramp after eating, feel nausea, and generally feel unwell when it comes to the stomach area.
When I have clients come to see me for IBS, I look at a number of factors. Firstly their stress, because if you think about it, the solar plexus chakra area is ones power-point, think of when you last got excited or really anxious about something, you feel a sensation in that area, the pelvis relates to sexual/emotional chakra and between those are stomach, intestines so yes stress has a huge impact.
The other factor I look at is bowel flora, we all have it but sometimes we have an overload of bad flora and besides recommending diet changes, I would sometimes suggest that pro-biotics would help to balance the bowel flora.
There are many forms of pro-biotics out there, from a natural live bio-yogurts, drinks or getting it in supplement form. I find though that it is worth paying the money to get good supplements. Kefir, which I use is free, well kind of, all it costs me is the price of feeding the live bacteria which I cultivate and decant the juice every 4 days. the juice is full of good bacteria and it grows by feeding it unrefined sugar, fresh lemon(un-waxed|) and un-sulphured dried fruit and sometimes I use lime, ginger, raisins, fresh fruit especially when strawberries are in season.
It takes a bit of getting used to as it tastes somewhere between sharpness, sweetness and definately fermented! Also it is a bit like having a pet as it needs regular feeding every 4 days and washed! My daughter of 8 years thinks I am quite barmy for drinking it as she tried it once and the face wqas a classic!
The benefits I have felt are I don’t get as bloated, I don’t have IBS generally but know if I combine a heavy meal with a pudding my stomach tends to swell and I feel uncomfortable but drinking this helps that not to happen.
If anyone is interested in doing this for themselves, please contact me as it does grow and I would rather someone take it than throw it away and like I said, its a lot cheaper than buying pro-biotics which if there is a problem with bowel flora then one needs to be on them for at least 3-6 months.