The First Year: IBS — An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed by Heather Van Vorous (Da Capo Press, $16.99, 242 pages)
“…knowledge is power over IBS… (With it) you will be managing your IBS – it will not be managing you.”
Do you regularly or periodically have disabling stomach pains, the type that hurt so much you just want to lie down, curl up and be still? If so, you may be experiencing the digestive flare-ups brought on by Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). IBS actually has less to do with your stomach – which seems to be the source of the discomfort and pain – then with the digestive tract; it was formerly known as Spastic Colon disease.
As explained in The First Year: IBS, this is a medical condition determined by exclusion rather than inclusion. If you think you may be IBS-afflicted, your doctor will want to perform a series of exams and tests to exclude other serious conditions or ailments such as colon or stomach cancer, Crohn’s Disease (which may result in cancer), colitis or a hernia. Only when all of these and other verifiable possibilities are ruled out will an M.D. decide that someone is an IBS sufferer. If you receive such a diagnosis, you will want to pick up Heather Van Vorous’ “Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed.”
I purchased this book after weeks of painful (and sometimes burning) symptoms and the subsequent medical diagnosis. I was far from optimistic that my aches would be relieved by a new diet. Van Vorous, however, makes a quite convincing case that IBS flare-ups are triggered by consuming certain foods or liquids. These triggers are different for each person but they can be things as simple as: coffee (sigh), artificial sweeteners, nuts or seeds, popcorn, fried chicken, fruits such as pineapple or fruit nectars, pastries or baked goods, chocolate, etc. It is also essential to lower the amount of fat in one’s diet since, as we all know (eaten a large hamburger or steak recently?), high fat foods are tough to digest.
“Children with IBS absolutely cannot eat at McDonald’s, Burger King, or most any other fast food restaurant, because there is literally nothing safe on their menus.”
The key to Van Vorous’ diet remedy is to begin limiting the intake of insoluble fiber foods (such as popcorn), replacing them with soluble fiber foods – “the basis of the IBS diet.” Soluble fiber foods include such pleasing and digestible items as rice, potatoes, flour tortillas, bananas, mangoes and applesauce. The First Year provides easy-to-read and copy (one per page) lists of insoluble fiber and other foods to avoid, and of the soluble fiber foods that will become the foundation of a former sufferer’s new diet.
Suffice it to say that even for this sceptical reader and IBS-diagnosed patient the new diet worked, both well and relatively quickly! An added benefit of the diet prescribed by Van Vorous is not only the absence of pain and discomfort, but an improved (“regular”) digestive tract. IBS sufferers often bounce back and forth between constipation and diarrhea, but not after adopting the soluble fiber regimen.
The First Year also addresses the importance of stress management and exercise. Tai Chi is a specific form of exercise that is recommended as “a type of moving meditation.” Van Vorous had IBS for over twenty years and learned that after she limited and controlled the condition through diet, she could then manage it even better through exercising and applying a positive mental attitude. When you consider that this trade paperback book sells for less than a $20 bill, it’s a very wise investment.
Highly recommended.
Joseph Arellano
This book was purchased by the reviewer.
Do you regularly or periodically have disabling stomach pains, the type that hurt so much you just want to lie down, curl up and be still? If so, you may be experiencing the digestive flare-ups brought on by Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). IBS actually has less to do with your stomach – which seems to be the source of discomfort and pain – than with the digestive tract; it was formerly known as Spastic Colon disease.
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