The Sensitive Gut

Understanding IBS

Does you doctor always know best or can you sort something out between you?

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines, of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing. Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) … Continue reading

September 11, 2016 · Leave a comment

No, it’s not all in your head, but at least you can do something about that.

If IBS is all is your head, can somebody tell me how dietary fibre cures depression?                              … Continue reading

August 30, 2016 · Leave a comment

The things that happen: childhood trauma and IBS later in life.

Two weeks ago I received a letter from Judith.  This led to the following correspondence, which, with her permission, I have reproduced here with just a few minor edits.  Over … Continue reading

August 24, 2016 · 8 Comments

So why do we feel ill?

The post I wrote last week, ‘Stuck, when your bowels rule your life’, raised a bit of a storm.  Several people wrote into Facebook to assert how much worse Crohn’s … Continue reading

August 20, 2016 · 2 Comments

When you and your doctor should be concerned.

  A woman came up to me at The Allergy and Free-from Show recently.  She looked embarrassed and deeply unhappy.  ‘Sometimes when I get an urge to go to the … Continue reading

August 9, 2016 · 7 Comments

IBS: post modern medical nemesis.

The history of medicine over the last 100 years has been nothing short of miraculous.  The diseases that used to kill millions: smallpox, tuberculosis, typhoid, typhus, cholera, pneumonia have all … Continue reading

July 27, 2016 · 1 Comment

When it all becomes too much.

Jenny was waiting outside in the street when I arrived, enjoying one last cigarette.  Even though we had only communicated by email, I recognised the tragedy etched on her face.  … Continue reading

July 20, 2016 · 3 Comments

Suicide caused by IBS, but did the system let her down?

  On the 5th March, 2013, The Southern Daily Echo, based in Southampton reported the inquest on a 25-year-old Hampshire woman, who committed suicide after struggling to overcome irritable bowel … Continue reading

May 7, 2016 · 18 Comments

It may be shocking, but does your doctor understand your IBS?

Sam Bearfoot, who blogs and broadcasts on UK Health Radio as The Digestion Detective, wrote last week to say how much she enjoyed The IBS Network’s 25th Anniversary Event, ‘IBS, … Continue reading

May 1, 2016 · 1 Comment

IBS: let’s change the model.

The practice of medicine still operates on a model that was developed early in the last century.  First establish the diagnosis, then identify the cause and finally apply the treatment.  … Continue reading

December 5, 2015 · Leave a comment

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