All in the mind/all in the gut: it’s a false dichotomy.
Many of the posts in this blog tend to focus on trauma, stress and how what happens to us affects how the gut feels and misbehaves, but please don’t conclude … Continue reading
IBS: fact or fiction?
By the nineteen nineties, I had been conducting clinical research for 20 years. I knew my trade, had published several hundred papers in academic journals and was in demand on … Continue reading
And after the affair
The books and magazine articles are clear. Let it go, move on and start again. Erase his number from your phone, don’t read any letters, throw away all those poems … Continue reading
Love-sick
Sigmund Freud has been criticised for implying that most mental illness and much physical illness is due to sex. He might have said love or attachment, but nevertheless, he was … Continue reading
True Love: the myth and the misery.
Falling in love can be such a wonderful, transformative experience. The discovery of that special person, with whom we seem to connect so easily, can make everything seem so much … Continue reading
Trust, illness and the impossibility of sex.
One sunny afternoon in early autumn, while I was busy dissecting the reproductive organs of the Arctic Skate (Amblyraja hyperborea) for my Zoology practical when my biology teacher, Mr Ernest … Continue reading
Delusion: a necessary refuge from life and illness.
It is Wednesday and I am writing from my cottage in Derbyshire. All seems safe outside, a soft rain is falling and a thrush is singing from the gable end, … Continue reading
Health, Happiness and Personal Freedom.
Many years ago, so the story goes, the then British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, was hosting a dinner in Downing Street for the French head of state, General de Gaulle … Continue reading
So hypnotherapy is as effective as a low FODMAP diet for IBS. What does that mean?
I was interested to read this post from Dr Simone Peters from Monash University, which confirmed that gut-directed hypnotherapy is effective in 70 to 80% of people with IBS. Dr … Continue reading
Diarrhoea and constipation: chaos, control and a possible explanation.
One of the most intriguing questions about IBS is why some people have diarrhoea most of the time, others have constipation and others seem to alternate between those two opposing … Continue reading
The Sensitive Gut 