In addition, you may want to record each day the foods you eat that exacerbate the pain and
discomfort you experience from IBS. Discuss these with your physician during your next visit.
Follow these simple rules that have been established by healthcare professionals knowledgeable
in the management of IBS:
Guidelines For Managing Your IBS Symptoms:
- If your physician has made a definite diagnosis, stop worrying about whether it is
"something else" (like early cancer): it isn't.
- Avoid things that you know make you worse, such as particular foods that can trigger IBS.
- Use medication to avoid crises. There are also effective medications that relieve the pain
and improve the changes in bowel habit. Talk to your physician to discuss which medication may
be appropriate for your symptoms.
- Look for the sources of stress in your life, and see if you can do something about them.
- With professional help, try and sort out the problems in your life that you are
probably trying not to face, and do something about them.
- Learn to relax. Various strategies from exercise to yoga, through acupuncture to meditation
may be useful, but nothing is as useful as a better understanding of you.
- Above all, make up your mind who is running your life-you or your bowels. Life is much
easier once you make up your mind that you are in charge.
(From the publication Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), 1998 International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders.) |
