April is IBS Awareness Month

April is IBS awareness month and to mark this we will be featuring some items on this common complaint over the coming weeks.

IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, affects a large percentage of people and after the common cold is one of the most frequent causes of absence from work.

Across the globe the proportion of the population suffering from the complaint is estimated at between 9% and 23%, depending on location.

If you are not among this group of sufferers then you may not appreciate just how debilitating IBS can be and what an impact it can have on quality of a person’s day to day life.

There is currently no standard way of treating IBS. Conventional medicine offers a number of different treatments, including antispasmodic drugs, fibre supplements, laxatives, tranquilisers and antidepressant drugs.

The treatment will depend on the individual patient and the form the IBS takes. All these treatments aim to alleviate the symptoms of the complaint rather than address the cause.

Hypnotherapy has been shown to be particularly beneficial in the treatment of IBS. Hypnotherapist Michael Mahoney has an international reputation for his work in this field and is based at the Guardian Medical Centre, Guardian Street, Warrington.

He receives many referrals from GPs and offers a programme of six hypnotherapy sessions for dealing with IBS. Mike’s programme is not just about attendance at the sessions themselves, however. Clients are also required to use relaxation techniques and to listen to recordings outside the sessions. A high level of commitment is demanded from clients on their pathway to resolving the problem

Mike has established the Register of IBS Therapists and we have incorporated his methods into the treatments we offer at Aspire.

For further information on IBS Awareness Month and on IBS in general go to www.aboutibs.org.