Irritable bowel syndrome and hypnosis: treatment and behavioral support

Irritable bowel syndrome (PDS) is an annoying chronic condition. The bowel movements are not normal making living a normal life difficult. If you suffer from PDS, you often have to do all sorts of things to keep your bowels under control, such as eating extra healthy and exercising. There is also research on how hypnotherapy can help people with PDS.

Therefore, in this article, I will discuss what PDS is and how hypnosis can support treatment and reduce symptoms.

Irritable bowel syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome is a chronic intestinal condition. About 5 to 20 percent of men suffer from it, and in women it is as high as 15 to 20 percent. So that's at worst 1 in 5 people who suffer from his/her bowels. Half of the people are diagnosed before the age of ³⁵ and the other half are usually diagnosed with PDS before the age of ⁵⁰.

PDS means that your gut is not functioning optimally. You may suffer from diarrhea or constipation. Sometimes you may also just have an appalling urge and the symptoms may also alternate.

Because everything goes differently, you may also suffer from gas retention that causes you to burp or fart a lot.

In addition to these signs, abdominal pain is also a symptom of IBS. The abdominal pain can be so severe that it makes it impossible to carry out your daily activities. The abdominal pain can occur anywhere in your abdomen. In people with irritable bowel syndrome, it usually occurs on the left side of the abdomen.

Irritable bowel syndrome causes

It is not always clear to doctors what causes IBS. It is clear that there is a disruption in bowel motility, but why this happens is not always clear. In some cases, this may be due to the gut flora, for example, if you have parasites, inflammatory cells in the intestines themselves, or bacteria such as salmonella.

The cause may be found in an allergic reaction to certain foods, such as gluten or lactose.

However, sometimes the factors are all not found by doctors, which is why psychological complaints and psychosocial factors are included in the causes.

For example, if you work night shifts and therefore have to ignore your biological clock, you are also more likely to have PDS.

In addition, it appears that people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome are more likely than average to experience anxiety and depression. The neurotransmitter serotonin plays a role in this, and that same neurotransmitter is important for transmitting signals to the intestines that regulate bowel movements. A serotonin deficiency could therefore also be the cause of the problem.

Irritable bowel syndrome treatment

Because the compound serotonin seems to affect PDS, it makes sense that people think of antidepressants as the solution to PDS. A meta-research comparing the results of previous studies shows that antidepressants reduce the risks of symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.

In addition to antidepressants, they also look at other medications such as soluble fiber, antacids, etc.

But not everyone wants medication because that often also causes side effects and by itself does not solve the problem.

Therefore, lifestyle modifications are also often suggested to patients with PDS. For example, some foods should be avoided, such as:

• Onion
• Carbonic
• Kool
• Legumes
• Fat
• Milk Products
• Coffee
• Sugar

On the other hand, people with IBS are encouraged to eat a high-fiber diet, as fiber supports bowel function. This typically involves eating vegetables, fruits, and whole-grain products.

For example, because not every person with PDS is the same, it is recommended to keep a food diary and the reactions your body has to food. This will help you figure out which foods are better to avoid and which foods will make you feel better.

In addition, regular exercise is also recommended for irritable bowel syndrome. We’ve all experienced that sudden urge to use the restroom right after going for a run or even just a walk. Exercise can be especially helpful for constipation.

Because stress also seems to have an impact, ways for people who have PDS to better manage stress are also being explored. Who doesn't know the feeling of literally getting a stomach ache from tension during a test or presentation?

Stress management is something healthy people already struggle with, let alone when you have gut problems, but it's still very important. That's why people with PDS also get psychological help.

Prickly gut syndrome hypnosis

Psychological help includes cognitive behavioral therapy and hypnotherapy. Hypnosis supports a variety of other therapies, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP).

Research shows that hypnotherapy that targets the feelings in the gut works better to reduce symptoms of PDS and improve quality of life than "standard" solutions for irritable bowel syndrome. The effects were also measured three months and one year later, and even then there was still an improvement over the control group that had only received the standard treatment.

In addition to all the practical problems caused by IBS, patients often suffer from a lower quality of life, as well as stress and unhelpful thoughts. Hypnotherapy can help people with IBS regain their quality of life and develop thoughts and beliefs that enable them to adopt a more positive outlook on life. Research into the impact of hypnotherapy on thought patterns and beliefs showed that not only did quality of life improve, but so did feelings of anxiety and depression.

In this study, the subjects received twelve hypnotherapy sessions over a three-month period—one per week. The procedure the therapists followed for this study was to first help the patient relax. The therapist then provided the patient with ego-enhancing suggestions that, according to the therapist, were applicable to the patient. Since everyone has their own thoughts and their own perception of their ego, this approach is bound to vary from person to person.

Starting with the third session, patients were given tools to provide feelings of control over the abdominal region and feelings of what is normal in the abdomen. This was done, for example, by radiating heat from the hands to the abdomen when placing the hands on the abdomen.

Visualizations were also encouraged, for example, if the patient was suffering from diarrhea he could imagine his bowels as a rapidly steaming river flowing slower and slower until he was calm.

In addition, patients were given exercises to repeat daily at home using an audiotape (or mp3). Self-hypnosis was thus applied to reinforce hypnotherapy.

The hypnotherapist can also help you address thoughts and beliefs that are not helping you move forward in everyday life and in finding your own happiness and then purposefully transform them into something that does allow you to enjoy your life and not suddenly get cranky from a thought that suddenly comes to mind.

Hypnotherapy for children with PDS

Because PDS sometimes begins in childhood, research is also being conducted on the effects of hypnotherapy. This study was conducted on children between the ages of 8 and 18. The hypnotherapy was completely focused on the gut, so not ego strengthening hypnotherapy and the thoughts that can affect the quality of your life. In this study, the adolescents received a hypnosis session focused on abdominal pain and movements every two weeks. This treatment worked significantly better than standard medical treatment without hypnosis on the pain experience. One year later, 85% (more than 8 out of 10 people) were still successful through the standard treatment with hypnosis and only 25% (slightly more than 2 out of 10 people) were still successful after the standard treatment without hypnosis.

Hypnosis to support healthy behaviors

In addition to hypnosis against pain and to regain a sense of control over PDS. Hypnosis is also used to reduce stress because it can worsen the symptoms of PDS. In this case, it finds out what your triggers are for stress. Do you get stressed when speaking in front of a group? Do you get stressed because you can't say no?

You will then receive suggestions and tools from the hypnotherapist to help you cope better with stress.

In addition, you may find it difficult to eat healthy and exercise enough. Hypnosis can help you get the right mindset that makes it easier to eat vegetables and exercise daily.

In short

The causes of irritable bowel syndrome are still not always clear to doctors. Therefore, the main focus is on nutrition that affects PDS symptoms and a healthy lifestyle.

Hypnotherapy is also often recommended to support treatment. This is to influence the pain that PDS can cause and to get rid of negative thoughts caused by PDS. This improves quality of life and reduces pain.

In addition, hypnosis can also provide lifestyle change support if this is difficult to do on your own.

Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and how you can use it to help others? Then check out the events and training programs offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

Sources:

http://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/v109/n9/abs/ajg2014148a.html

http://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/v107/n2/abs/ajg2011340a.html

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002239990300076X

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016508507016290