# Mind and body, a new hope!



## bernard (Jan 4, 2000)

Hi all.I think a made a huge discovery that may help a lot of peoples here. This is my story.Phase1: This morning i was thinking: "i should stop smoking by any means, it may impact on my IBS"Then suddenly I WAS FEELING BETTER!So, what's happening? This is crazy!Then comes to my mind "I should have made an ASSOCIATION between the fact of smoking and IBS in my mind" so smoking is bad for IBS AND i have IBS, so IBS IS WORST! This has not been proven and is re-enforcing the spasms i'm feeling.Phase2:Then came to me the fact that i have been poisoned last Wednesday when i had my breakfast to the restaurant. I get back to the SAME place on Monday, then i was feeling very sick in a few hours! An OTHER ASSOCIATION. In my mind "be careful not to be sick in THAT restaurant because i have IBS" Then bang, it hit me again. Last Saturday, there was the anniversary of my mother in law. In my mind: "i will be sick if i'm not too conscious about what i eat", and think about, bang an other time the next day.This is like a phobia!!So i'm thinking of this:Something (i don't recall) should have happened in 1980 (in my case) that should have lasted for LONG. This is unusual. It took millions of years to develop such a system (the gut). Mother nature should not have made something wrong. This behavior of having pain in the gut should have been developed to learn about good and bad things you can (or cannot) eat. When it was a bad food, then after recovery (or even death) then it is ANCHORED in the brain somewhere that this type of food is bad and this thing pass to the next generation. Nowadays, we are use to have only good food, and when something happens, then the reaction is " something is wrong with my gut". So, we go to the doctor, have test, and what ... nothing is found. If something is found, then it is THIS things that is ANCHORED in the brain that create the trouble. When the things is healed, then no more trouble. So, in our case, we start to be careful about what we eat. Then an ASSOCIATION is made between food and pain in the tummy. The food is seen as something that works AGAINST us. Many other things may be ASSOCIATED to the trouble without reason (smoking for example) and they are working against us. Then the brain gut axis is becoming very sensitive to external stresses. Since legumes for example are more difficult usually to digest then some messages are sent to the brain, and in return, AND because of the ANCHORING of " food is bad" then the feedback path (from brain to gut) is saying "get rib of this".Then because we have a spastic colon, then bacteria are developing quite a bit adding to the trouble, giving D most of the time (this last things is from myself since i have no more D since i used Garlic pills and i had been found to have a lot of E.Coli colonies in my colon. I already explained that in some other mail, and reflect only my point of view).Normal peoples don't react like this. They eat, they enjoy having a meal and they don't think food is bad. They even DON'T THINK about the food is made of or how the gut is working. They don't know! For example, since i have no trouble breathing (even if i smoke, i'm sorry), I DON'T THINK about how are made my lungs, how the oxygen gets into the blood, etc... i just BREATH!The problem now is that if this type of ASSOCIATION is known quite fast (in the early stage of the illness) then i think it should be possible to COMPLETELY recover before things get worst. I don't want to say that EVERYBODY that as been typed as having IBS is sick in that way, but in my point of view, a lot of us are like this. I don't think anxiety is the major culprit. It's more a phobia about "something is wrong in my gut and they don't find", "food is a poison", "This food made me sick so i will sick the next time i'm eating the same thing". "i'v been sick in that restaurant, so i will be sick if i go back in the same restaurant" ...etcI have a friend that was feeling bad when it was passing with his car a bridge, then now every time he is sick and he never pass over a bridge for the rest of his life.The problem is that you can avoid passing over a bridge, but no one can avoid eating! So we are fighting, and fighting, and fighting ....The worst for me is that i'm an ing, and i have a tendency to fight against trouble in my job. Find the cause then the solution. So i did the same thing about my gut.Now my goal is to WORK on that mental ANCHORING, and ANCHORS a new way as "food are good", "nothing is wrong"...etcMantra may help (mantra are something that is repeated again and again without thinking about it). Mike CD also, but we have to understand that we have to change that ANCHORING.I don't know if i will recover at sometime, but now i'm REALLY thinking i'm on the GOOD tracks.---- bye


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## cookies4marilyn (Jun 30, 2000)

Hi Bernard! You Got it, buddy! Listen to Mike's first introduction session, and he describes this very thing about the IBS reinforcments getting deeper and deeper grooves in the brain. All of what you have pointed out is addressed in Mike's sessions... to break that mind-gut connection.Replacing new positive thoughts to take away the negative anchors that have developed as IBS thoughts and responses. Bernard, you totally have it! Keep going and get better soon!


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## eric (Jul 8, 1999)

I have to agree with a lot, (not all) of what you said and actually after studying it myself for so long I am surprized how you hit some of it on the head so accurately. LOLThey believe we remember also every single attack of our lives. They are anchored in the brain. We have thoughts that do this conciously but also subconciously, so its not always noticed conciously.Bernard you are on the right track with a lot of this. The hypno is geared to break the anchors among other things, but the realisation of it and working on it that way is very positive.CBT also works to break the anchors in a different way conciously.The bateria aren't whats causing d though in IBS, although there maybe a problem with it in some people. This may be also be because of a stress reason, but of course other factors are at play here like sugars that produce gas. Some foods may also bother IBS purely for chemical make ups. Things that stimulate the colon for example, fat for one.anxieties and phobias are also somewhat hand in hand.I am impressed for sure with your deductions on some major points.







I do hope this helps others.The communication between the brain and gut and back being out of whack do to chemical dysregulation makes the colon sensitive to stimuli and food and stress are both stimuli. However other things are to, like the weather, heat can stress the gut and high pressure centers.Part of the condition is paying way more attension to our guts then normal people because of the actual IBS chemicals themselves and the parts of the brain they effect. Good to hear from you Bernard.


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## Popeye (Oct 26, 2001)

Very nicely put, Bernard.I also noticed that very often when I ate pizza with my ex-girlfriend, I would have a bad reaction, because I would always worry about having a bad attack before I even started eating. In addition, once I had a really bad reaction, the same kind of the bad reaction to the pizza kept happening every time we were in that restaurant.On the other hand, when I ate the same pizza, this time delivered to me, with my brother I didn't have any reaction AT ALL.Also, my biggest IBS attack so far happened in an aeroplane, when I went from Canada to Denmark. HORRIBLE!!!







This May I am going to travel to Bosnia, to see my homeland after so many years. But, only the thought of flying gives my stomach cramps and even bloating and gas. I keep picturing myself having the same horrible attack. I am sure that if I don't change anything in terms of my thinking, I'll have an attack in the plane.In addition to all this, I do have an enormous fear of flying. I am so AFRAID of planes that the very thought of flying itself, ruins my vacation. If there were a road to Europe, I would take it, even with my IBS.Anybody has any suggestions for this?By the way, I am on day 99 with the tapes.


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## bernard (Jan 4, 2000)

I don't want to say that every IBS sufferers are according to the schema i wrote.IBS IS a general condition that involve lot of possibilities not known until now. It is a group where some have IBS because of condition A, other because of B and so on. Some are like this because of A+B or B+D for example. That is why there is variations among IBS symptoms.The only thing i want to point out is that i see now the bowel (or gut) as working following two types of program and those programs are implanted directly in the gut (some experiment showed that the bowel can work alone without connection to the brain).- One program is the usual one where everything are working in a gentle manner as in normal persons.- The second one is the "chaotic" program with spasms, pain, ..etc. This program is written to learn what food is good and wrong and to get rib off the bad thing as fast of possible.In the past i was thinking there was only one program and that the brain was regulating the way it works.But now i think that the brain choose the right program depending on the input it get from the gut and other external events.The problem is that IBS peoples are very sensitive to the inputs from the gut because they have been sick for too long. We are not "robots", just human, and when you are sick for long this trigger emotional distress. So the "gut box" in our brain should be very big and also the connections to that box. The consequence is that events like weather, drinking a very cold beer, driving may impact on the way the gut is working.This doesn't means that there is no "food intolerance" for example in IBS peoples or other "somatics" problems.Last night i was so relax that i had almost no pain at all in the belly. I was eating thinking "this is giving me energy" and "it's a very healthy food".---------- bye


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## cloverleaf (Dec 18, 2001)

Popeye~I DO have some suggestions to prepare yourself to go overseas again. I, like you, had my worst attack on a small 10 seater airplane that had no bathroom! It was more of an anxiety attack, caused by an IBS attack.Anyway, of course the first step is to eat food that is simple and easy to digest. No fatty or new meals the days before the flight.Second, start practicing NOW some visualizations to give you confidence to manage the flight home. My psychologist is treating my IBS like a phobia, and so he made me come up with 10 situations, ranked according to anxiety level, that I worry about. I pick a few that are moderately low and start thinking about the situation, by vividly imagining the details of my surroundings, my thought process, and even trying to make my gut react physically like I'm in the situation. I also have to think about what's going on in my subconsious. I say things like, " I am different than everyone else, no one else has the gut problems I do, I can't keep this under control..." Repeat the scenario as many times as needed before you feel comfortable and not anxious. It may take only one time or several times. Then, relax, and start to think of the situation again. Only this time, when your gut twitches (in your imagination), or rumbles, or your start to get panicky: stay in the present. Say reassuring things to yourself, say the opposite things that your subconsious is saying, like, "I am okay the way I am, my gut is more sensitive than other people's and that's okay, I can go to the bathroom whenever I want, I don't care what people think of me." In your new scenario, see yourself smiling, and only briefly dealing with any physical symptoms you may encounter. When you are imagining the situation this time, you want to see yourself exactly how you truly want to deal with the situation.In a month or so, you should have imagined all of your 10 scenarios many times, unless you have a major phobia. Create new scenarios. Also, the details of the scenarios can change each time you do them, so that the plane looks different, for example, or that the people you are with change. You must start to retrain your brain to understand yourself as "normal" and react to gut problems more like other people. You want to get rid of negative self-talk and spiraling anxiety. It REALLY works. For more info, look for a book titled: "The Phobia and Anxiety Workbook."Good luck.


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## bernard (Jan 4, 2000)

PopeyeI have a good suggestion i think.Try to imagine the worst situation possible until it's so stupid that it's not possible and laugh.For example you can imagine an attack in the airplane so that the bowl will be filled so that the s**t (sorry i have no other name ..) will spill over the bowl and invade the whole plane, flowing outside through the exploded windows and down to earth during the time everybody is supposed to take a meal and .... (you can imagine)....--I hope it help


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## eric (Jul 8, 1999)

Two things bernard.Revisiting IBS: Perspectives for the New Millennium"Both serial and parallel pathways are involved in the processing of visceral sensory information and the control of descending modulatory systems. Input from the gut is derived from multiple channels, such as spinothalamic, vagal, and dorsal column pathways; different regions of the brain then code for intensity, appraise the threat of the stimulus, and determine the level of attention the brain attributes to the stimulus and the unpleasantness the patient experiences. These processes are modulated both by the stress- or arousal- activated system and by recollection of past experiences.""Modulatory factors. Finally, the CNS processing of sensory experience may be simultaneously modulated by two parallel pathways: memory-based modulation and stress- or arousal-induced modulation. The posterior parietal cortex, or sensory association cortex, forms a network with the hippocampus and the amygdala (the brain's memory centers) as well as with the lateral prefrontal cortex. Somatic pain studies have shown that, in response to a stimulus, the recall of a similar past event, along with subsequent interpretation of this memory in the lateral prefrontal cortex, plays a major role in the threat appraisal of a sensory experience. The second modulatory effect is the stress- or arousal-induced response. The pontine locus ceruleus is activated in response to potentially threatening experiences. This region then projects to nearly all other regions of the brain that receive visceral input, causing secretions of norepinephrine and arousal of these sections of the brain. When the secretion of norepinephrine is excessive, these target regions are inhibited. It is of interest that descending projections from the locus coeruleus complex to the sacral spinal cord appear to play a major role in the modulation of distal colonic motor and secretory function." http://www.macmcm.com/pcp/pcp2000_01.htm Popeye, this is in part the altered stress responce triggerinng the HPA axis I talk about sometimes."I would always worry about having a bad attack before I even started eating."How are the tapes going for you. I for the most part know you have IBS from your posts and frrom the reaction you first had when listening.It maybe worth your wild really to give yourself some time when your done and do them again or parts of them again.Congradulations on completing them though. It will keep having and effect for you.The idea of everything is to calm the brain gut axis down and that is by eating foods that are easier on digestion and doing things that relax you ect.. The Hypno is doing more then relaxing you though, thats important.Also practice is a very good thing and it all becomes easier the more you do it.


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## Popeye (Oct 26, 2001)

Cloverleaf, Bernard, Eric,thanks a lot for you suggestions. Bernard, I actually sometimes do what you suggested - I imagine the worst case scenario and, then, whatever happens is much better that what I have feared. I am sorry that I "stole" this great thread with my question, however. Hope you don't mind, Bernard. Furthermore, I really like your visual depiction of what you said. Very funny.














To just go back to my fear of flying, again. I think that the problem is much more complex there. My primary fear is not my IBS, although it is an important part. The very first attack in the plane was caused, in a great part, BY MY FEAR OF FLYING. So, there are, basically, two separate things going on here, which reinforce each other:1) I am extremely afraid of flying, which causes my IBS to act2) My worst IBS attack was in the plane, thus my fear of my IBS acting up again, causes me to be even more afraid of flying.Eric,last night I finished the program. YESS!!







My stomach feels rather good these days. It's far from "perfect", but, it seems to be relatively calm. What I have noticed is that when I wake up, my first thought is NOT my IBS. I am positive that I might continue to improve if I don't get discouraged. I am not going to start the program again until I return from Bosnia. In Bosnia I am going to listen to my favourite sides (which are 3 and 4), but I'll not start the program all over again until I am back "home" (Canada).Thanks a million for everything, Eric. Even though I do not believe in god (at least not in the Christian/Muslim version of god), I do think you are some sort of an angel. If only 20% of people on this planet were like you, the world would be a different place. You helped me a lot, and I will always appreciate that.  (this heart is sincere; hope that it does not offend you - there is no homosexual subtext here







).


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## Popeye (Oct 26, 2001)

Of course, a HUGE THANKS to Dr. Michael Mahoney.An interesting thing:When my father was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer two years ago, we were desperate. He was only 55, and we decided he should give a shot to surgery. After a long and painful choosing, we decided that he be operated by Dr. John Mahoney in Ottawa. His post-op pathology showed a very big/aggressive cancer. Nonetheless, now 2 years after the surgery, my father is "officially cancer-free" thanks to dr. John Mahoney.Incidentally, my IBS seems to be getting better thanks to another - Mahoney. Thank you a lot, dr. Michael Mahoney.I LOVE MAHONEYS.


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