Many people ask me if we can heal our gut with irritable bowel syndrome – perhaps if we are on the low Fodmap diet. That’s a great question. In this video I tell you the answer and explain why.
Transcript of "Can we heal our gut?"
Welcome to this video. Today I want to talk to you about healing your gut. You’ve probably never heard me talk about this before because with IBS there is no cure and there is no healing of the gut, but I get this question a lot. Why is it that now I can tolerate so and so, when I couldn’t tolerate it before? Perhaps my gut is healing. And of course, the answer to that is, you could always tolerate it. It was something else that you were eating it with, or something else you had eaten during the day that was causing the issue but you were blaming that particular food and it was perhaps inaccurate. I see this a lot with clients who have even been convinced for decades that they have an issue for example with lactose, and when we test it there is no problem at all. So things don’t change. Your perception of them changes and your knowledge grows, and as you do the elimination and then the reintroduction diet you find out what foods truly trigger you and also which are minor triggers, but you’re not healing your gut. And also let’s make this really clear. When you have an episode, when you’ve got issues, when you’re bloated and you’ve got diarrhea, you’re not doing any damage to your body at all. You’re not hurting yourself because nothing physiologically changes in our body with IBS and that’s why it’s so difficult to diagnose because there’s nothing they can see in a blood test or in a colonoscopy. No changes at all. This does truly seem to be a brain-to-gut connection that is a little faulty and our bodies are sensitive to all stimuli. So don’t think that you’re going to heal your gut. There is nothing to heal. With this we’re talking about IBS. If you have IBD, inflammatory bowel disease, that’s a completely different matter. If you’ve got, for example, colitis, that can heal. It certainly takes a long time and a lot of persistence and patience, but that can heal, although you can often be left with IBS afterwards or also at the same time. So you still have to do the low Fodmap diet to make sure that you’re not irritating your IBD, but you need medical help with that as well.
So, I hope that’s clarified the healing your gut issue. You don’t heal it because there’s nothing wrong with it.
Don’t many people with IBS have other issues at the same time,
like Candida and SIBO that may reinforce each other? Can’t the
constipation encourage SIBO due to the delayed emptying and
MMC action? Also, how soon after eating a food would the
intolerance show up (as in constipation)? Could it be a day or
two later or would that be from another type of intolerance?
Can one assume that if they have no constipation or diarrhea
for several consecutive days that they are able to eat those
foods?
People with IBS could simply have IBS and not anything else. Most of us don’t have SIBO or Candida. A reaction to a food can come anywhere from straight away to a couple of days later but that is usually if you have constipation. You must have no reaction at all to assume the food is okay.
Thank you for your time in giving great advice. I was diagnosed with Diverticulitis and abscess, developed chronic anxiety and panic attacks, after many stool tests, blood tests, endoscopy, and colonoscopy final diagnosis severe diverticulosis, and possible diverticulitis induced IBS, and SIBO. I have lost 40 lbs in 5 months and am on the Low Fodmap diet along with SIBO diet. I am on xanax and will ask to try the depression med tryc group. Also mind/ gut is so true and a tough one to handle.
The mind/gut influence is indeed tough, Vickie. Good luck with getting everything under control.