Category Archives: Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Bad triggers and good habits: dietary tips for living with IBS

Do you find you get constipation, bloating, diarrhoea or abdominal pain – or even all four – more often than you assume is normal? If so, there’s a chance you may have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In fact, given it’s something of an umbrella-like gastrointestinal complaint, the likelihood is a good number of people suffer from it without even realising.

Indeed, statistics suggest IBS occurs more often in women than men and, as far as we know, it affects 10-15% of the population of the United States alone1. However, sufferers shouldn’t despair because in an effort to control – or even to try and prevent – flare-ups of symptoms (or ‘triggers’) there are things they can do to help ensure the condition doesn’t dominate their lives. Many of these take the form of lifestyle adjustments and a good number of them concern what we put in our bodies; in other words, diet.

In practice, as you might expect, no single experience of IBS is the same for every sufferer, but a number of the dietary triggers can be, so it’s important to be aware of them.

Dietary triggers

Two of the most painful – and common – IBS symptoms are constipation and diarrhoea. Specifically to prevent constipation, be mindful to limit or avoid eating/ drinking trigger-foods such as:

  • processed foods – including snacks like crisps and pastries like cookies
  • breads and cereals derived from refined (non-whole) grains
  • dairy foods – especially cheeses
  • alcohol, carbonated drinks and coffee

Meanwhile, to prevent IBS-related diarrhoea specifically, be mindful not to overdo how much you eat each meal and try to limit or avoid consuming trigger-foods such as:

  • gassy foods like beans, Brussels sprouts, celery, raisins and wheat germ
  • food rich in insoluble fibre, for instance fruit and vegetable skin
  • alcohol, caffeinated drinks, chocolate and foods containing fructose or sorbitol
  • fried and fatty food
  • dairy products – especially if you’re lactose intolerant
  • wheat (if you don’t react well to gluten)

Good dietary habits

Conversely, there are several things you can try and make part of your regular diet that can prevent flare-ups and even soothe an IBS-afflicted gut and intestinal system:

  • probiotic-rich fermented foods – one of the ways you might find relief from IBS is to create strong probiotic colonies in your gut, especially if you’re having to cut dairy out of your diet; turning to fermented food with high levels of probiotics is one way, while another is to seek out probiotic supplements
  • organic green beans – a good source of soluble fibre
  • organic raw honey – a fine natural sweetener to replace refined sugar in your diet
  • coconut milk – for those with lactose intolerance especially, replacing cow’s milk with coconut milk can yield significantly positive results; other organic alternatives you might look to could be hemp milk, rice milk or sunflower milk
  • egg whites – unlike yolks, whites are relatively easy to digest and not high in fat
  • green tea – why not give it a go in place of heavily caffeinated and carbonated drinks?
  • lemon juice – offers great nutritional value to the liver and has digestive cleansing properties, plus offers a nice flavour when added to water
  • organic brown rice – far more nutritious and thus better for the gut than white rice; it also contains soluble fibre thus it works to encourage normal bowel function

IBS supplements

As mentioned above, to get your necessary fill of good bacteria toting-probiotics, an excellent source is via supplementation. The following – and more – are all available through The Finchley Clinic and are highly recommended by our customers:

bio-kult-120-capsules

Bio-Kult (120, 60 and 30 capsules) – helps to balance the gastrointestinal system against pathogenic, harmful organisms by introducing 14 beneficial probiotic bacteria into the gut; may aid sufferers of candida, gut dysbiosis and post-antibiotic diarrhoea as well as IBS

latero-flora-60-capsules

Latero-Flora (60 capsules) – contains a unique strain of Bacillus laterosporus, a naturally occurring bacteria whose introduction to the gut may maintain a healthy colon, especially in the face of IBS

optibac-probiotics-for-bowel-calm

Saccharomyces boulardii (formerly OptiBac Probiotics For bowel calm) (80, 16 and 8 capusles) – an acclaimed probiotic that naturally helps support bowel health, control and function during diarrhoea episodes; we advise IBS sufferers to take 1 capsule daily

Reference

1. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. ‘Definition and Facts for Irritable Bowel Syndrome’. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/digestive-diseases.

IBS and muscle-strengthening: what Vitamin D supplements can do for you

Now that we’re in the summer months, it seems fitting to take this opportunity to talk about Vitamin D. Perennially associated with sunshine, Vitamin D’s an umbrella term for a group of fat-soluble secosteroids, two notable examples of which are vitamins D3 (cholecalciferol) and D2 (ergocalciferol), whose most common consumption method is through the skin via the UVB radiation of the Sun’s rays. Also relatively well known is that if young children are deficient in Vitamin D it can lead to rickets, a form of the bone-softening condition osteomalacia.

But what else? What else do we know about Vitamin D? Well, for a lot of people, that’s probably about it, even though, predictably enough, that’s really only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, recent research has linked deficiency of this particular vitamin to two – intriguingly – very different but widespread ailments: irregular bowel syndrome (IBS) and loss of muscle strength in post-menopausal women.

That ‘leaky gut’ feeling

Our intestines are home to a whole host of Vitamin D receptors, which enable the nutrient’s presence there to protect the intestines’ lining, thereby preventing inflammation and so-called ‘leaky gut’ and, thus, the development of IBS. The condition doesn’t just result in discomfort, diarrhoea, pain and embarrassment, but is often linked to stress, anxiety and depression – research results have shown that its sufferers can often demonstrate undeniably higher levels of anxiety and depression than non-suffers1. Potentially affecting people’s quality of life then, IBS is a big deal – not least because at least one in five people (20%) suffer from the syndrome.

And IBS’s link to Vitamin D deficiency shouldn’t be understated – a recent study for the British Medical Journal discovered that more than four in five (82%) of IBS patients were deficient in it. Unsurprisingly then, supplemented Vitamin D was proved to do them a great deal of good. According to the conclusion of the three-month study, those who’d taken Vitamin D supplements not only saw increased levels of it in their bloodstream, but their final results also suggested a big correlation between their Vitamin D status and improved ‘quality of life’2.

Build up your muscle strength

Only a fool would suggest that the menopause isn’t a complicated and often difficult time in a woman’s life. And, with all the hormonal changes going on in the female body at this point, bone health can become an issue. Many may not be aware, though, that muscle strength – or lack of it – can also be a concern thanks to ‘the change’. Both during and after menopause, oestrogen levels decrease and this can result in sarcopenia – a gradual, ongoing drop in muscle mass.

Is this enormously serious? Well, inside muscles, Vitamin D acts on special receptors, helping to drive up the mass and strength of the muscle as well as becoming involved in protein synthesis, which enables muscle contractions; thus, it plays a critical role in healthy muscle function. All this means that, due to Vitamin D deficiency, post-menopausal women can be at risk of potential frailty (and so reduced mobility) as well as frequent falls. And it can also help drive that particularly unpopular side-effect of menopause, weight gain – because it leads to a lower metabolism.

Inevitably then, help can come from boosting Vitamin D. A recent nine-month study, conducted at Sao Paulo State University in Brazil, found that post-menopausal women who had received Vitamin D3 supplementation enjoyed a 25% increase in muscle strength, while conversely, a similar group of volunteers receiving a placebo instead actually lost muscle mass – and experienced twice as many falls as those taking Vitamin D3.

Optimisation through supplementation

The results of these studies, as well as the fact IBS and muscle softness among post-menopausal women is common, is sadly not surprising (at least in this country) when one considers that four in every 10 (39%) of UK adults experience low vitamin D levels when the sun’s at its weakest in the winter. Indeed, ageing adults (the most likely to spend a good deal of time indoors) are most vulnerable to this nutrient deficiency4.

It’s pretty clear then that most people could probably do with optimising their Vitamin D levels. The trouble is, of course, this is easier said than done, as for half the year in many parts of the world (and, again, certainly in the UK), there isn’t much in the way of sunlight from which to gain it. So the answer? Supplementation. Happily, there are many supplements that contain Vitamin D on the market and, through The Finchley Clinic, you can get hold of the following examples, all of which we obviously recommend:

Vitamin-D3

 

  • Bio-D – liquid-based; 100 ius of Vitamin D per drop
  • Bio-Mulsion – also liquid-based; 1,000 ius of Vitamin D per drop
  • Vitasorb D – 12.5 ius of Vitamin D per drop (low dosage for children and sensitive individuals)
  • Suntrex D3 – vegan-friendly, lichen-derived form of Vitamin D

 

References:

11 Hyun Sun Cho et al (2011) “Anxiety, Depression and Quality of Life in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome”. Gut Liver. 5 (1): 29–36

12 Tazzyman S. et al (2015) “Vitamin D associates with improved quality of life in participants with irritable bowel syndrome: outcomes from a pilot trial”. BMJ Open Gastro 2: e000052.

13 The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). “Vitamin D3 supplementation helps women build muscle even after menopause: new study demonstrates vitamin effectiveness in reducing degeneration and risk of falls.” September 2015.

14 NICE. “Vitamin D: increasing supplement use in at-risk groups”. November 2014. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ph56 Accessed 30/10/2015