What is IBS?
IBS is Irritable bowel syndrome, which is a condition where you have irregular bowels.
You might sometimes get diarrhea or constipation and bloating would be common too. It also varies from person to person. Some of the patients often get diarrhea while others suffer from constipation. Irrespective of the characterization of the bowel, the patient will suffer from cramping and discomfort.
In addition to this, you will be under a lot of stress for needing a toilet anywhere and anytime. Although you won’t have any problem with your stomach or intestines but you will be uneasy all the time. Your bowels might look completely okay but they won’t be regular.
IBS or IBD? Is there any difference?
You should also not confuse it with inflammatory bowel disease. Because they both are different. In IBD, your immune system of the body will attack your bowel and damages it.
Thus, it results in ulcerative colitis. However, IBS is completely different from it. It’s just that you might need to use the toilet anytime. You might have diarrhea all the time or you might suffer from constipation.
In short, you will always have that uncomfortable feeling that won’t let you enjoy a lot of things. Therefore, you should be extremely careful with your diet. There are certain foods and drinks that you should not take. Such foods will only worsen your condition.
Therefore, if you are suffering from it, you should also know the elimination diet for IBS.You can learn it from nicolerobertsryder.com.
Apart from the diet factor, there will be other things that you should be careful about. For example, keep yourself in a stable emotional state and select a healthy lifestyle. So let’s discuss the things that you will need to focus on to improve your life better while having IBS.
1. Selecting the right diet
The first thing that you need to change and must adjust is your diet and eating habits.
Even a completely healthy person can get stomach problems if the diet is not proper. So imagine what would happen to someone suffering from IBS? Eating too many salts and treated products will only result in worsening the problem.
Although eating a healthy, organic and balanced diet is important but you should also notice your symptoms. A balanced diet for diarrhea and constipated patients is different.
So the first thing that you should know is whether you often get diarrhea or constipation.
Once you know it, you will be able to get a proper diet plan for yourself. If you suffer from constipation, you can avoid eating foods that will worsen the situation. The same goes for diarrhea too.
However, there is a special diet plan that can be implemented generally. This is to avoid FODMAP. So, the patients will need to avoid foods that contain fermentable oligosaccharides, di and monosaccharides and polyols. Your dietician will eliminate these foods from your plan so that you can avoid the uneasy feeling.
2. Change your eating habits
Apart from the things that you should eat and avoid, you should also take your meals at proper times. You should avoid eating late-night snacks and avoid eating junk foods.
Chips and treated foods have many components that are not good for our health.
In addition to this, you should also avoid drinking alcoholic and caffeinated drinks.
Drinking only worsens the condition of your gut and damages your organs internally.
Therefore, it will only cause harm to your body. Similarly, caffeinated products also result in upsetting the stomach. Therefore, people who have a weak stomach should definitely avoid such drinks.
3. Avoid stressful situations
Stress has a direct connection with our gut. A healthy mind provides us with a healthy body. If our mind is not healthy and we are under a lot of stress, this will result in mood swings. Even completely healthy people face the problem. They either start overeating or stop eating at all. Furthermore, stress often results in bloating, stomach cramps, and even diarrhea.
Therefore, for people suffering from IBS, stress will double the trouble for you. So if your job is too stressful and you are feeling that the position requires too much work, you can change it. Either take a break and relax. If not, you should try doing something fun that you enjoy. Try doing something you are good at.
If you cannot change your job, you should find yourself a healthy hobby. For example, meditation. It reduces stress level and also bring peace to your mind. Thus, ultimately you will feel at ease and will be able to show an efficient performance.
4. Start doing exercise
You can also join a gym. Working out is best for your stomach. Apart from this fact, exercise is found to be quite effective against IBS. A lot of patients feel better after they started the exercise in their daily life. The recommended weekly exercise time is 150 minutes. It isn’t too much to do for yourself, right?
You can try doing yoga, some running, or go to the gym to do some strength training. You will have a lot of choices there. Doing yoga will bring double benefits. You will be able to spend some quality time that will reduce your stress and you will also ease your bowel movement. There are yoga poses that are beneficial for constipation. You can also try them out.
How to cope with the pain?
It was all about improving your daily life and not worsening the situation that you are facing. However, you will often suffer from stomach cramps and pain. So how will you cope with that? You can do these things if you are in pain;
• Use a heating pad or you can use a hot water bottle. Both of them will work well in pain reduction.
• You can get soothing teas from the market. They are made especially for treating IBS.
• Try using peppermint oil, it is found to relieve muscle spasms. So it will do well for you too.
