# On the way to get cured?



## 16156 (Apr 1, 2005)

I'm writing this and keeping it up-to-date mostly for my own sake. It is to keep track of my efforts and what they have done to me. My mother tongue is not english, so the language is maybe not the best.*Status*A macrobiotic diet with limited intake of insoluble fibres has changed my life and made me function almost normal. However, I have to bring my own food everywhere and I'm still very sensitive to many types of food. The diet is supposed to cure the IBS, but it seems to take several years. Therefore I'm simultaneousely trying other cures.My wife thinks homeopatics could cure me, so I had a consultation and have tried a couple of remedies. It did affect, but has not helped yet. I'll continoue to try and see what happens.Soon I'll try hypnotherapy, which seems promising.After reading other stories on this site, I think Aloe Vera juice and oxygen supplements sounds interesting. Signature "Redfern's" story "Unexpected cure" with Levoquin antibiotic seems marvellous. I wonder if that would work for me.Read my full story below, and get more detailed information about everything I've tried.*About me*I'm a skinny male who was born 1970 and had IBS/stomach problems as long as I can remember. However, I wasn't diagnosed until mid 2003 after seeing a number of haughty and/or ignorant doctors.*Probable reasons for my IBS*Here I present my thoughts about the reasons to my IBS. You can read more about the background under "My efforts" below._Psychological stress_As a child, I was constantly afraid. Afraid I had done something wrong, or not good enough.My mom has always had a bad self confidence and a hard time taking criticism, yet she was very demanding. For different reasons she had a specially tough time before and after my birth. My dad had never learnt about feelings, and had a strong fear of conflicts. He was compliant with mom and very strict to us kids.For my part, I adapted myself to the them, repressing my own feelings and needs. I believed that if I was good enough, I would merit love. But I never reached that goal. Maybe because I wasn't able to believe in love._Unbalanced food_According to traditional Asian medicine, IBS is due to excess yin in the stomach. A reason for this is too much yin food, like sugar, fat and dairy products.*Former symptomes*I had continuous problems with bloating/bad smelling gas and irregular stools. I hardly ever felt done in the bathroom. This caused hemorrhoids already in early years. Sometimes I got totally constipated and after some days all would come out as diarrhea.Many times I didn't fall asleep until many hours after I went to bed. I was always tired and many times depressed and apathetic.To protect the sick stomach, the rest of the body tends to bend foreward to form a shield. Hence, the left leg bended forward/up towards the bad part of the belly and the head/shoulders bended forward. The muscles in these areas therefore got tight. This caused problems with a stiff back (between the shoulder blades), cold hands and feet.The hair on the back top of my head was falling off.Although the pysical problems were hard, I think the psychological problems were (and are) the worst.*My efforts*_Western medicine_Since early in the 90:s I have visited about seven western medicine doctors. Most of them were ignorant and/or haughty (I have never been as humiliated as with one of them).Finally, 2002-2003, I got thouroughly examined and got the diagnosis "probably IBS". The doctor offered some laxative and some pill with the opposite effect, but since I have the C/D type, such medicines would be hard to use.After reading a summary of the latest research in the topic, "IBS - irritating for the patient and the doctor" (written in my native toung), I knew beyond doubt I had IBS._Psychological focus_First I thought my problems were solely psychological. Since I moved from home in 1990 I worked for many years to improve my relationships, especially to my parents, which wasn't the best. Although that was very good to do, it didn't help my IBS.After having tried a physical focus for many years (see below), I tried "family constellation" in January 2005 (Learn more at  hellinger's homepage). That was a marvellous experence and revealed (and somewhat healed the cause for) a bad relationship to my mom, which is supposed to be a common reason for stomach problems. The effect of the constellation is said to develop for a while._Physical focus_After my psychological focus for some years, I thought the problem could come from my poor physical condition. This was confirmed by a week in London 1994, when I didn't care to use the public transportation means, and instead walked miles and miles. During that week I was in great shape, and didn't have any IBS symptomes although I ate deep-fried bread, sausage and scrambled eggs... (I'm still puzzled about my good shape that week.)In early 1999 I consequently started running every second day. At the end of the first six months I ran six miles without resting. What happened was that I felt in good shape everywhere else but in the lower left side of my stomach, where my IBS seems to be situated. The disheartening result made me quit running after a year. _Food focus_While still running regularly, I more or less subconciousely quit using milk. Then my weight increased 15-20 punds in half a year, without having changed much for years! This made me pay attention to what I ate. I ended up excluding milk, eggs, E250, tomatoes, fibres and meat from my food. However, my diet became terribly biased, and still I didn't feel well. (I noticed that in many cases, about 7-9 and/or 24 hours after eating something bad, I got the worst symptomes, if my stomach wasn't constipated, of course.)At the end of 2003, a friend of mine tipped me about a diet which excluded the same food as I did, except the fibres. This, and the yin & yang-rubbish in it made me skeptical, but I decided to try because I was so desperate. The diet was called "macrobiotic" (for more information, see PCC's information about the diet)Since I started this diet a little over year ago I've got a life! I learnt that it's not only what I eat, but also how it is prepared that matters.So now I eat much more varied and although I'm still very sensitive to sweet stuff and a few other parts of the diet (e.g. casha and insoluble fibres), it has actually changed my life. I have also got some good help from Heathers "Help For IBS-site".Some improvements I have experienced due to the macrobiotic diet:- >95% of the days I have a bowel movement in the morning and it looks and smells pretty normal!!!- I fall asleep when I put away the book at night!!!- I save 1.5 hours daily on decreased need for sleep and less time needed in the bathroom. However the food preparation eats some of that time.- I'm almost fine in my back (it gets immediately worse when I'm eating something bad).- I don't need to pee all the time.- I've hardly ever hemorrhoids- I'm very seldom bloated and if I happen to eat something bad, an "umeboshi plum" may help- My self estimation has increased a lot.- I've found a woman and got married_Kampo_In early 2005 a colleague of mine that's married to a japanese, tipped mo about the traditional japanese medicine "Kampo". I read a book about it, and it seemed pretty serious. Due to my diet, I had already somewhat started believing in the traditional Asian wisdom. (After all they have thousands of years of research, while the western medicine only has a fraction of that.) Kampo is a very weak herbal drug. The effect of it comes after a time in relation to how long one has suffered from the disease. In my case that might mean several years.In the end of January 2005 i got my first Kampo, specially suited for me. It costed about $100 per month. I ate it for half a year, but I didn't have the patience to continuoue when I didn't experience the slightest effect._Homeopathy_My wife has persuaded me to try homeopatics. I'm cousulting a doctor and have tried it three times. We'll see what happens. It may take some months to give the full effect.*Future*My goal is to get rid of my IBS and I'm trying to keep a broad approach - both physically and phsychologically._Physical_My diet makes my life worth living and is supposed to gradually make my body more balanced and finally cure my IBS. However that may take a long time, probably many years. Meanwhile we'll see what the homeopathic treatment does. I also know I should really try to increase the amount of physical excercise also._Phsychological_In the psychological area, my goal is to become more myself. On a deep level I think this means beeing able to believe in love. I continuously try to get to know myself - what I like and don't, and if not beeing proud of everything I get to know, at least accepting it.I also continuously endeavour to improve my skills in interacting with other people, not the least with my parents. One big challenge is to be able to express anger e.g. in the form of saying "no" in a nice way. It's very satisfactory to notice even small improvements. Now, as married, I have the great advantage to excercise with and learn from my wife._Western medicine_Soon I'll try hypnotherapy, which seems pretty promising.AstraZeneca - a big manufacturer of medicine have a candidate drug for IBS. When it is ready, I might try that, although I think it's the type that cures the symptomes and not the reason.Signature "Redfern" said he/she got unexpectedly cured by Levoquin antibiotic. That would be interesting to try.


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