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For me, one of the most debilitating aspects of my IBS was the severe cramping I experienced. I had occasions when the pain was so strong that I was doubled over and could not stand. I remember several extreme cases when I woke in the night and was crippled with discomfort. I have not had children but I certainly imagine that the pain I was having was some where near what women must feel when in labour.

I did find that taking mebeverine softened the feeling at those acute times. It takes some minutes to kick in and certainly does not take it away completely, but does take the edge off for me. Trying to think about other things and not focus on the pain also helped. I assume that this is one of the techniques used in pain management therapy.

I thought of this today as I watched my husband go through another period of his cramping experience this weekend. Men don't like to take pills, but I really did notice that the mebeverine seemed to work for him too. 

Relieving the cramping this way certainly does NOT stop it happening again but in the throws of pain it is clear that products to relieve cramping containing drugs like meberverine (Buscopan, Colofac etc) are worth considering if you suffer with your irritable  bowel syndrome in the way we do.

We noticed the following article "Probiotics, Not so friendly after all?" in the The Times this week. The factual content of the article is excellent and we support it's comments, namely:

1. Not all probiotics work. This is true...if you don't want to waste money then make sure you take a product that protects the bacteria or has more than enough live bacteria to increase the chances of getting to the bowel where you want it. Our range or probiotics have been carefully selected to be the "good" probitics to which Professor Gibson refers.

2. Prebiotics are good too and work well together. This is why we stock Bio2muno and are on the look out for other good prebiotic products

3. If you are severely immune surpressed or suffering from particular illnesses you need to be careful what you take. If you are otherwise healthy (and we know that if you sufferer from irritable bowel syndrome, you may not consider yourself healthy, but in respect of taking probiotics you are OK) there is loads of evidence that probiotics will support your digestive processes.

This is an good informative article, if you read past the implications of the headline.         

Do you really have IBS? Some of the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome can be the same as those for coeliac disease, but this is often hard to establish other than through your Doctor.

It seems a reliable home test kit for celiac disease may be available (Biocard^TM):   

"Around 1 in 10 people with IBS could benefit from a gluten free diet. Now, a simple and reliable home test kit can tell you whether you should be gluten free in just 5 minutes.

The importance of an early diagnosis of gluten intolerance (coeliac disease) cannot be over stressed.  Left undiagnosed and untreated, coeliac disease carries a higher risk of developing osteoporosis, infertility and bowel cancer later on in life.

If you do have coeliac disease, a gluten free diet could change your life within weeks... but first, get a diagnosis."

Seems worth trying if you have noticed that your irritable bowel syndrome appears to be triggered by certain foods that you eat.  To find out more about coeliac disease we suggest you read the BBC health page article, as this is a user friendly description of the condition.

Beware however in assuming that you have a food allergy, "I'm x,y,z intolerant" seems to be fashionable. Read the comment on the truth about allergies from Nigel Denby, one of our supporters, through his website grub4life      

We have added some recipes that include foods that are known to support the digestive system, as we recognise how hard it is to maintain a healthy balanced diet which is an essential apsect of controlling IBS.   

We would love to hear from anyone that has particular recipes they have found to help or they like, so that we can build up our resources in this area. Please send to info@ibshealthcare.co.uk or submit a comment on this blog. Thanks

Given the stresses of the current economic crisis we wonder how many more people will end up suffering from irritable bowel syndrome as a consquence. All those bankers and financial types in the City worried about their jobs, and future bonuses! We did some research in the early days of www.ibshealthcare.co.uk that from memory came out of one of the Scottish Universities, that seemed to suggest that some sufferers of IBS had damaged nerve endings in the stomach, having reacted badly to the effects of adrenaline in the system. As we know adrenaline is the hormone that we all produce when we are stressed, so with the worry of the credit crunch, it seems entirely possible that an increae in episodes will occur. Let's watch this space, but we would love to hear from others abot this......