Natural Treatments For IBS

As a former sufferer of IBS, I can tell you from personal experience that it's not fun. The alternating constipation and diarrhea made life absolutely unbearable. I couldn't go out, I couldn't do anything. I was literally a prisoner in my own home. And then something amazing happened.

I went to emergency because my colon had a blockage. Yes, it had gotten that bad. Well, they cleaned me out, and got me back on my feet and then before they sent me home, my doctor asked me a strange question that I never expected to come out of his mouth.

"What do you eat?"

Well, I told him my diet and he then said to me that my problem was all diet. Imagine that, a doctor not trying to fill me full of drugs.

Anyway, I took his suggestions, which was the length of a short report, and went home to try out my new diet.

To make a long story short, that was the last time in my life that I suffered from IBS.

Modern medicine will claim that there is no cure for IBS. Worse than that, they say they don't even know what causes it. Well, this doctor must have gone to a university on another planet because he certainly knew how to cure my IBS, even if he didn't know what caused it.

The first thing you have to do is identify if indeed you do have IBS or what is technically called Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

There are basically three patterns of IBS. The first one is when you have constipation and pain. The second is when you have alternating constipation and diarrhea, which is what I suffered from. And the third is when you have diarrhea and mucous. The most common pattern is to have diarrhea either right after waking up in the morning or after breakfast. The constipation usually occurs at night when the stool has had a chance to harden.

In addition to these symptoms you may also experience gas, bloating, bad breath, headaches, loss of appetite, backache, weakness and a host of other symptoms. In general, you just plain feel lousy. In extreme cases of IBS you may even have heart palpitations.

IBS symptoms are caused by the muscles of the intestine contracting in what would be considered an unnatural manner, or in spasms. This is usually caused by food that irritates the intestine. That's why it is so hard to diagnose. However, it should be noted that in countries where people eat natural foods, and not the greasy, fried and fatty foods that are eaten in the United States, IBS is almost unheard of.

Well, nutritionists have discovered that in most cases, IBS can be eliminated, as it was in mine, by simply changing your diet.

Simple suggestions involve the following:

Eat more bran. A high fiber diet alone will greatly reduce IBS symptoms.

Drink plenty of water. This is a must when going on a high fiber diet. It makes the stools bulkier and easier to pass because they don't get hard as quickly.

Avoid stress, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, soft drinks and drugs.

Avoid foods that are fatty, greasy, salty, and basically anything that isn't natural. Eat chicken, turkey and fish instead of beef, which is a major enemy of IBS.

There's more, but this should get you started. Most of all, avoid taking antacids and laxatives. You don't need them. By simply making radical changes in your diet you will see a drastic change in your IBS symptoms.

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