Did you know 1 in 5 Australians will experience Irritable Bowel Syndrome at some stage in their life. More women than men are affected and most go undiagnosed often due to embarrassment.
IBS can at times feel like it’s taken over your life with sufferers avoiding social events, having days off work and missing out on everyday activities like shopping just in case they can’t get to the bathroom. This causes extreme anxiety and the more anxious they feel the worse the symptoms become and therefore become trapped in a vicious cycle.
Those affected with IBS can experience abdominal pain, gas, bloating, nausea, unpredictable bathroom visits, anxiety and depression. It is not known exactly what causes IBS and there is no known cure for it however there are many different strategies recommended to manage symptoms such as diet change, medications and even hypnotherapy.
Gut directed hypnotherapy is nothing new, it’s been around since the 1980’s and has been clinically proven to reduce IBS symptoms by up to 85%.
Why is hypnotherapy so successful you may ask? We’ve all used terms without really thinking about them such as “Trust your gut feeling” or “I have butterflies in my tummy”. This is what we refer to as the Brain- Gut Axis and the gut being referred to as the second brain. This is because the gut can work with or independently from the brain and has as many neurons as the spinal cord. The gut and brain communicate via the Vagus nerve. The brain is able to send messages to control the activity in the gut and in response the gut is able to send back messages of fullness, hunger and pain.
Gut Directed Hypnotherapy was pioneered in the 1980’s by Dr Peter Whorwell, a Professor of gastroenterology based in the UK. He found that Hypnotherapy made IBS sufferers less anxious which made their bowel less sensitive therefore reducing overall symptoms by 70%. It also suggests that hypnotherapy reduced the amount of activity on a part of the brain which processes pain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Follow up studies showed the results were long lasting as participants were still feeling the benefits of hypnotherapy 5 years after the initial trials.
Similar findings were found at the university of Gothenburg in Sweden by Dr Magnus Simren. 208 patients learned to control their symptoms through deep relaxation and hypnotic suggestions. 85% of those helped by hypnosis still felt the positive benefits 7 years later.
Research to come out of Monash University in Melbourne lead by Dr Simone Peters showed that hypnotherapy was just as effective as the Low FODMAP diet (a diet developed at Monash university in Melbourne for IBS sufferers) However hypnotherapy had a greater impact on psychological aspects such as anxiety and depression when compared to the diet control group.
The research shows that overall hypnotherapy can reduce the cost of consumption of healthcare and cost to society while improving the overall quality of life for those patients with IBS. We can only hope in the future our health care system starts to acknowledge and offer natural lasting alternatives to those who have diagnosed IBS. For those seeking freedom today, do your research. Choose a hypnotherapist who specializes in Gut directed hypnotherapy and has membership to a reputable association.