Handy, helpful herbs to soothe your IBS symptoms

In IBS A Self-help guide to feeling better, Wendy Green has a chapter on helpful herbs you can find in your kitchen cupboard to soothe your IBS symptoms. Wendy lists eleven herbs and I had a look in my pantry to see of how many were sitting on my shelves. Here are the ones I found:

Apple Cider Vinegar

We keep this on the pantry shelf for use salad dressings and sauces. The vinegar has a number of other uses too. A teaspoonful in a glass of water before eating is a traditional remedy for digestive problems. The acetic acid and enzymes in the vinegar are thought to aid food digestion and the absorption of minerals such as calcium. The pectin from the apples may help constipation.

Black Pepper

I put black pepper on pretty much every meal. Until I read Wendy’s book I didn’t know that black pepper has been used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat stomach disorders as it aids digestion and reduces bloating. The active ingredient appears to be piperine.

Cardamom

I love making curries so have a container full of spices including cardamom pods. Cardamom is an anti-flatulent and aids digestion. It’s believed to relieve wind by easing intestinal spasms and promoting the digestion of fats by stimulating the production of bile. The whole pods can be chewed or added to plain rice before boiling.

Fennel

In the same container that holds our cardamom there are fennel seeds. This plant and its seeds have traditionally been used to ease stomach cramps and wind. The active ingredient is believed to be Terpenoids which have a wind relieving effect. Fennel also stimulates the production of bile and bile helps break down fats in food. The recommended dose is 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of seeds per day. You can chew the seeds or pop them in boiling water and leave them to brew for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain and drink. The plant can be eaten raw, finely sliced in salads, stir-fried and roasted.

Coriander

We like to buy bunches of fresh coriander from the local fruit and veg market. The herb has grown as a medicinal herb by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Indians and Greeks. Some nutritional therapists recommend it for the relief of wind and tummy cramps. You can use the chopped leaves in curries or other savoury dishes. You can also add the leaves to boiling water and leave to brew for five minutes before drinking.

Ginger

Another herb that has been used medicinally for thousands of years. It helps stimulate digestion and tone the muscles in the digestive tract to help food pass through the system more easily, causing less irritation to the intestinal walls. The recommended daily dose is usually 50 – 150mg. I add ginger to my morning fruit smoothie.

So before you go out and buy supplements it may be worth trying some of these herbs which may already be sitting on the shelves in your pantry.

If you want to know more about how I can help you manage your Irritable Bowel Syndrome using hypnosis and other psychological techniques, please do get in touch today!

Keeping a food intake diary

It’s important for an IBS sufferer to gain an understanding, if possible, of the nature of their unique symptom triggers. How, when and what we eat can have a huge effect on the bowel. It’s important to eat regular well balanced, moderately sized meals rather than eat at irratic meal times and portion sizes.

One way of gaining an understanding of which foods are triggering your symptoms, that is often recommended, is the food diary. By keeping a food intake diary you may be able to identify amd remove problematic foods from your diet.

A potential problem with food diaries, identified by Professor Peter Whorwell in his book ‘Take Control of Your IBS’ is when a person has an intolerance to a certain food, the effect may take a few days to come on. In addition the dose’ of that food may be important. For instance, if you eat a food, to which you have some degree of intolerance, once a week it may not affect you, but if you eat it every day it may cause problems.

Bearing this caveat in mind a food diary can help you to gain a good idea of which foods seem to cause you the most problems. It’s really useful to know your ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ foods although there may be some foods that you can’t be sure about.

A handy food diary template is provided by BUPA.