Your Diet and IBS
Find out how you can adapt your diet to avoid foods that trigger discomfort.
How to Treat IBS at Home
Topics
Living with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can be challenging. It affects approximately 10% - 20% of the UK population although the true prevalence may be higher as it is thought that many people with IBS symptoms do not seek medical advice, and frustratingly, it can greatly impact on your general wellbeing and health.
Thankfully, there are several lifestyle changes and natural, home remedies that can help to control, alleviate, and manage symptoms. Starting with simple lifestyle tweaks, like partaking in regular exercise, and some dietary alterations, you can work to limit your symptoms without prescription medication.
Read on to learn more.
Lifestyle Changes and self-stress management to Combat IBS symptoms
If you have IBS, you will probably know that symptoms can worsen due to factors such as stress, anxiety, and diet. Current guidelines recommend a multi-faceted approach to self-care.2
Find time for relaxation and leisure
Medical experts recognise the link between stress and anxiety and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. They advise and encourage both relaxation and leisure, as ways of diminishing the harmful effects of anxiety and psychological stress. Several medical organisations recommend stress-relieving techniques, including the use of abdominal breathing, yoga, meditation, and hypnotherapy.3
Exercise
Low to moderate intensity exercise can be beneficial for symptoms of IBS too.
Don’t like exercise? Don’t worry, exercise doesn’t have to be boring, or particularly intense. Ball games like basketball or volleyball, or racket sports like tennis, are always a fun alternative to the usual gym routine. Or try an exercise class. Exercise can become a fun social activity rather than something you dread.
If you prefer gentler exercise, or don’t like getting too sweaty out there, just walking can be a great alternative as well. The important thing is to move.
Sleep
Studies have found links between poor quality sleep and IBS-related abdominal pain.5 If you are experiencing ongoing sleep problems, you should talk to your doctor. That said, simple advice about improving sleep quality, and sleep hygiene, can be found from reputable online sources as well.
Hydration
If you are experiencing IBS, it is important to remain hydrated. It is well known that adequate fluid intake could help relieve symptoms of constipation and replenish fluid lost with diarrhoea. You should drink at least eight glasses of fluid per day, preferably water or other non-caffeinated beverages.
Quitting Smoking
Smoking has been shown to adversely affect symptoms of indigestion (i.e. feeling of fullness after a meal) and IBS-associated diarrhoea.6
Diet
Many people with IBS say that their symptoms improve with dietary modification7 it isn’t possible to provide dietary advice that will suit everyone. That said, there are some foods which are likely to trigger IBS symptoms, such as fatty, spicy or processed foods and foods that are hard to digest (like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, beans, onions and dried fruit)
Natural Remedies for IBS
Peppermint oil
Peppermint oil is extracted from peppermint leaves, and has a soothing effect, providing relief from abdominal pain.
Buscomint® peppermint oil comes in soft, gastro-resistant gel capsules (0.2ml). Gel capsules ensure that peppermint oil isn’t released until it reaches the small bowel. The capsules go straight to the source of the discomfort, relieving bloating, abdominal pain and spasm. Buscomint® capsules are also lactose, sugar and gluten free.
Medicine to help Irritable Bowel symptoms
Antispasmodics are also effective in the treatment of IBS-related pain.
Over the Counter IBS Relief Medicines
Buscopan® IBS Relief (Hyoscine Butylbromide10mg) relaxes the muscles in the gut wall, to provide rapid relief from pain. These gluten-free tablets are small for ease of swallowing.
What Helps IBS Symptoms?
Medications
Antispasmodics such as Buscopan© IBS Relief can provide rapid symptom relief for IBS-linked abdominal pain, if you have medically confirmed IBS. Similarly, 100% natural peppermint oil (e.g., Buscomint©) also provides, soothing relief from abdominal cramping and flatulence.
Self-help technique
Abdominal breathing, or belly breathing, as it is also known, is a technique that involves breathing using the diaphragm. It allows you to use up to100% of your lung capacity by focusing on your diaphragm as you breath in and out.
Try taking in a sharp 4 second breath and exhaling for 6 seconds. Among its many potential benefits, it can help to slow down gut motility. This can in turn aid in the control of feelings of urgency.
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- Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Adults Briefing Paper, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2015) https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs114/documents/irritable-bowel-syndrome-in-adults-qs-briefing-paper2#:~:text=Each%20year%2C%20typically%20approximately%2010,between%201.6%20and%203.9%20million. Last accessed February 2024
- NICE Clinical Guideline. Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Adults: Diagnosis and Management 2008 (updated 4 April 2022) Accessed at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg61 Last accessed February 2024
- International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders. Relaxation to Treat Digestive Disorders (In Manage Your Health, accessed 21.10.22)
- World Gastroenterology Organisation Global Guidelines. Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Global Perspective 2015.
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Paine P. Review article: current and future treatment approaches for pain in IBS. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2021 Dec;54 Suppl 1:S75-S88. doi: 10.1111/apt.16550.
Sleep
- Talley NJ, Powell N, Walker MM, et al. Role of smoking in functional dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome: three random population-based studies. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2021 Jul;54(1):32-42. doi: 10.1111/apt.16372.
- Chey WD, Kurlander J, Eswaran S. Irritable bowel syndrome: a clinical review. JAMA. 2015 Mar 3;313(9):949-58. doi: 10.1001/jama.2015.0954.
- Fifi AC, Axelrod CH, Chakraborty P, et al. Herbs and Spices in the Treatment of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: A Review of Clinical Trials. Nutrients. 2018 Nov 9;10(11):1715. doi: 10.3390/nu10111715.
- Billings W, Mathur K, Craven HJ, et al. Potential Benefit With Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021 Aug;19(8):1538-1553.e14. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2020.09.035.
- Monash University. Treating IBS with a 3-step FODMAP diet.
