Learn about your condition:

The more you understand about what is wrong with you, the better prepared you will be when things go wrong. Remember to keep informed; information about conditions can change over time as more is learnt about it.

Teach your friends and family about your illness:

Not everyone is willing to learn, but the more your friends and family understand about your illness, the more supportive they will be. If you’re unsure how to teach them, show them some easy to follow websites about your condition, and leave them some light reading material (e.g. a simple pamphlet) to peruse in their own time. Be prepared to answer any questions they may have afterwards, some of the questions may make you uncomfortable, if you feel this way it is within your rights to say you don’t want to talk about that.

Develop a supportive network:

This may not be your current friends and family, getting in contact with a support group can be very beneficial. You can join an online support group or find one in your local area. If you cannot find a support group, maybe start one up yourself, remember all support groups that currently exist had to be started by someone at some point in time.

Get your Doctor on your side:

Some people feel that their GP/specialist is not supportive, or perhaps not working hard enough to help them get better or manage their condition. If you feel this way it is time to either find a new doctor, or get your current one working harder for you.

Develop a sense of control:

For many people a chronic illness can make them feel as if they have no real control over their health or their life. Getting that control back or at least the sense of it can be very challenging, but it isn’t impossible. It is important to find some way to feel in control, even if it’s controlling what and how you eat, or perhaps designing your own exercise program. Another method is to keep records of everything that happens to you, writing down what happens to you, what’s scheduled for when, what your goals are, some plans of attack, can make you feel as if you are controlling your illness and not the other way around.

Create time for you:

This seems a simple idea, but it can be very hard to do. It is especially difficult when your illness impacts on all aspects of your life. Find a hobby or a pastime that has nothing to do with your illness, and find time for it regularly. This could be something creative, like scrapbooking, playing music, writing short stories, whatever makes you feel content.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a condition which causes abdominal pain/discomfort with changes in bowel habits, i.e. constipation, diarrhoea.

Some methods to manage the symptoms include:

• Eat frequent small meals
• Avoid fatty foods
• High fibre diet

Increasing insoluble fibre through supplements or diet changes might exacerbate symptoms; soluble fibre on the other hand can improve symptoms (e.g. psyllium husks). If you are increasing fibre in your diet, increase it slowly, even in healthy individuals rapid changes in fibre intake can cause unpleasant side effects.

Possible methods of management include:

• The use of prebiotics & probiotics
• Pepperment oil (to relieve mild symptoms)
• Avoiding allergy foods/intolerances – Some patients (not all) with IBS may have food allergies or intolerances that trigger an IBS type reaction, if you suspect this is the case with you, see an allergy specialist or a dietician to undergo a supervised elimination diet.

Possible food triggers:

• Lactose malabsorption – Lactose is a sugar present in milk and other dairy products, the structure of Lactose requires the presence of an enzyme called lactase for absorption. If you do not produce enough of this the lactose will remain undigested and ferment in your bowel, causing pain and discomfort. This can be managed easily by purchasing low lactose/lactose free alternatives such as soy milk, lactose free milk, yoghurt, and avoiding products like cream.
• Fructose malabsorption – Fructose is a type of sugar present naturally in foods, it is also often added to foods such as breakfast cereals, baked goods, jam, and fruit juice. You can manage this by avoiding foods with added fructose (e.g. high fructose corn syrup), and by avoiding foods naturally high in fructose, such as:

-          Honey

-          Dates

-          Oranges

-          Cherries

-          Apples

-          Pears

Mixing this fruit with other foods will slow down the absorption of fructose. Some fruits lower in fructose include bananas and strawberries. Another added sugar is called inulin, this can be added to products such as yoghurt, and can be poorly absorbed.

• Reducing gas forming foods – some examples include:

-          Beans

-          Brussel sprouts

-          Onions

-          Celery

-          Carrots

-          Cabbage

• Wheat and gluten – Avoiding wheat and gluten can reduce symptoms if you are sensitive to the gluten protein. This could be due to a misdiagnosis, as you may not have IBS but might have celiac disease. If you suspect this, get tested before eliminating the food from your diet. Once tested if you would like to eliminate the food as a trial you will need to eliminate it for 3months to get an accurate result.
• Low fat diet – IBS patients have an increased sensitivity to fat, reducing the fat content of your diet might reduce symptoms.
• Coffee – Coffee stimulates the bowel with or without caffeine, eliminating coffee from the diet could reduce symptoms if diarrhoea is a problem.
• Caffeine – Other caffeinated products such as tea and chocolate might trigger symptoms in some individuals.
• Alcohol – Might trigger symptoms in some patients.

There will be a wide variety of differences between individuals as to what‘s a trigger food and what isn’t. Some trial and error will be necessary to determine problem foods.

Reference:

Heizer WD, Southern S, & McGovern S (2009). The Role of Diet in Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Adults: A Narrative Review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association
Volume 109, Issue 7, July 2009, Pages 1204-1214.

The truth behind the myth – food myths debunked

The following information has been taken directly from the Australian Food and Grocery Council Website; you can read the original article in full here.

1. It is not safe to refreeze meat after it has been thawed

Contrary to the popular myth, it is actually safe to thaw and refreeze meat. However, this only applied if the thawing process takes place in a refrigerator at 5 degrees Celsius or less. Under these conditions most bacteria responsible for food poisoning cannot grow and those that can, do so very slowly and are killed by subsequent cooking. However, if a piece of meat is repeatedly thawed on a benchtop, parts of the meat will rise above 5 degrees Celsius, allowing bacteria that causes food poisoning to grow.

It should also be noted that repeated thawing and refreezing of meat will affect meat quality, as it loses juice during each thaw cycle. This may impact on eating quality.

2. Processed foods typically contain high levels of salt

It is not true to say that processed foods typically contain high levels of salt. In fact, most foods we eat contain some naturally present salt and added salt has been used for centuries to preserve foods and prevent contamination by microbes. Salt also improves the taste of food and boosts other flavours in food. And with the availability of new methods of preservation and antimicrobial agents, salt in many processed foods has been reduced without affecting taste and flavour. While it is true that a significant proportion of our salt intake comes from processed foods, this is not because they typically contain high levels of salt. It is more to do with the fact that our dietary choices include many processed foods, many of which are counterparts of foods which, if prepared in the home, would have salt added during preparation or cooking.

3. Chickens are often given growth hormones to improve production

Unfortunately, a large number of people in Australia still believe that chickens are fed hormones. In part, this stems from a television program in July 1985 in which hormonal abnormalities in young women in the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico were linked to feeding of hormones (oestrogen) to chickens.

Without actually saying so, the story implied that the feeding of oestrogen to chickens was a common practice worldwide—and indeed a practice followed in Australia.

However, the feeding of oestrogen to chickens was banned in Australia in the early 1960s—more than four decades ago.

In order to maintain consumer confidence in poultry products, the Commonwealth Government’s National Residue Survey (NRS) regularly tests for growth hormones. No residues have ever been detected.

NRS test results can be obtained from the NRS website www.nrs.gov.au/residues/residues.html or by calling (02) 6272 3446.

4. Compared with food cooked at home, processed foods have a lot less nutrients

Many processed foods are just as nutritious or in some cases even more nutritious than fresh foods, depending on the manner in which they are processed.

Frozen vegetables are usually processed within hours of harvest. There is little nutrient loss in the freezing process so frozen vegetables retain their high vitamin and mineral content. In contrast, it can take days or even weeks before fresh vegetables reach the dinner table and some vitamins are gradually lost over time.

Some processed foods have added vitamins and minerals for extra nutrition. In fact, the growing interest in health and nutrition has spurred the production of a whole new range of foods with added health and nutritional benefits called functional foods, such as margarines with added phytosterols to lower cholesterol.

Processing can also make some nutrients more available. For example, processing tomatoes into either paste or sauce increases the concentration of lycopene—an antioxidant Harvard University researchers have found may reduce the risk of prostate cancer by up to 40 per cent.

5. Food colouring, especially red, can make children hyperactive

The myth that food colourings—also known as colour additives—cause hyperactivity was popularised in the 1970s. However, well–controlled studies conducted since then have produced no evidence that colour additives cause hyperactivity or learning disabilities in children.

A colour additive is any dye, pigment or substance that can impart colour when added or applied to a food. Colour additives are used in foods for many reasons, including off–setting colour loss due to storage or processing of foods and to accommodate variations in natural food colour. Australia’sFood Standards Code requires that any colour added to food is identified in the ingredient statement by name or by its international code number. The Food Standards Code controlling foods, food additives and food labelling is developed nationally by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and adopted by all States and Territories, and New Zealand.

• Be creative – Spend some time on a creative endeavour; music, art, scrapbooking, something that makes you feel happy.
• Get outside – It can be hard to get outdoors when you feel sick, so take the chance while you feel well to get outdoors, even if it’s sitting with a book in the sun. Don’t forget to use sun protection if you are going to be outside for a while.
• Catch up on housework – Ok, not a fun activity, but it can feel good to do when you have been unable to for a while. Just remember to take it easy and not overdo it.
• Visit a friend – A good day can be an opportunity to return some visits from friends and family, while this is an activity that may be challenging on a bad day, it can be very enjoyable on a good one.
• Begin a new project – If there has been a project you have been meaning to get started on for a while, take the opportunity of a good day and get a start on it. Just remember not to start projects you can’t complete, it will feel depressing later to have a number of unfinished projects waiting to be completed on a good day and never getting to them.
• Be active – This is not possible for everyone, it will depend on your level of disability from your illness. However, even someone who is bedbound may be able to achieve some level of activity on a good day, this doesn’t mean run a marathon, it could mean doing some upper body stretches, or whatever you can comfortably achieve without wearing yourself out.
• Go shopping – Not everyone is a shopping lover, but having nice new things can make you feel special and rewarded on a good day. Shopping can be very difficult on a bad day, but it can also be fun on a good one. It doesn’t have to be clothes shopping, that isn’t for everyone, it might be visiting a second hand bookshop, or fresh produce markets.
• Completely abandon your normal daily activity – Where possible, it can be good to not participate in activities you normally do on a regular basis. For people with severe chronic illness, the computer can be a lifeline, and while this may take you away from visiting The Recovery Room some days, it can be great to do the opposite of what you normally do. So if you spend all day on the computer, get off it, and do something else while you’re feeling good. Treat the good day like a mini holiday, and do something different.

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