April is IBS Awareness Month
…… and The IBS Network are marking it with their 2nd National Conference on IBS. Since I retired from my role as Chair of the charity in December, 2015, I … Continue reading
Constipation: a consequence of embarrassment, suspicion, intrusion and bad habits.
Human beings are social animals. We talk, eat, work, relax and sleep in public. The only things we tend to do in private is defaecate and have sex. We are … Continue reading
Auto-intoxication revisited: could our diet be promoting the bacteria that slow down the colon?
Constipation isn’t just about the difficulty in passing faeces; it can also make you feel unwell. People with constipation often complain of headache, bad breath, furred tongue, anorexia, flatulence, irritability … Continue reading
Candidiasis: is it now time to reappraise the yeast connection?
Someyears ago, before the microbiome revolution, I wrote an article on Candidiasis and IBS for The IBS Network. It described the current state of the art and concluded that ‘there … Continue reading
Safety, transformation and holistic therapies
In my last post, I presented the case for perceiving IBS, not as a syndrome comprising a collection of as yet undiscovered diseases, but more the visceral expression of a … Continue reading
The unproven case for probiotics in IBS; so could you do it yourself?
Probiotics and IBS: it just seems to make so much sense. There are reputedly about 12 trillion bugs in the gut. They are not just there to break down dietary … Continue reading
Psychotherapy for the troubled and irritable bowel.
The Nature and the Meaning of Gut Symptoms If we have an injury or infection, nerve impulses from the affected part alert the brain to the damage and instigate appropriate … Continue reading
Low FODMAP diet; symptom relief at the expense of the microbiome?
While scanning the journals recently, I came across a review by Peter Gibson making the case for the low FODMAP diet as a first line treatment for IBS. He … Continue reading
The Nature and Meaning of Pain
A long time ago, when I was more adventurous, I joined a medical expedition to Ethiopia. One evening, I was taken to a cemetery on a hill in Addis Ababa. … Continue reading
Down on the Farm: A metaphor for the gut.
The classic BBC radio comedy series “Beyond Our Ken” used to feature a gardener called Arthur Fallowfield, played by Kenneth Williams. His response to anyone who asked him anything was, … Continue reading
The Sensitive Gut 