IBS Chat is a new book which has been written entirely by IBS sufferers - and without them really knowing it! No, they haven't been hypnotised by an evil megalomaniac cyber-sheep and forced to talk about their bowels - stop being silly. They've just contributed to the rather wonderful IBS Self-help Group bulletin board, and now the best, most supportive and most knowledgable posts from that board have been collected into a book.
Now, perhaps the first question you might ask is why you would bother to buy a book version of a website, when the website already exists. The answer is, of course, editing. The IBS Self-help Group now contains thousands upon thousands of posts, if not millions, and while that fact makes it a great resource in its own right, it does mean that sometimes it can be hard to find what you're looking for. But no longer!
The book has been collated by Jeff Roberts, the founder of the IBS Self-help Group, and Barbara Bradley Bolen, a clinical psychologist and author of Breaking the Bonds of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The idea behind it is very simple - chapters are dedicated to various different aspects of IBS, such as diarrhea, constipation, diagnostic tests, medication, hypnotherapy etc etc, and then the best posts and threads from the bulletin board are arranged neatly within.
Personally I'm a big fan of things written by IBS sufferers for other IBS sufferers, and the whole reason I started IBS Tales was because I didn't want to read any more books by doctors who were well-meaning but remote, I wanted to read stuff by the people who were actually living it.
There's a real power in reading page after page after page (after page - you get your money with IBS Chat, it's over 500 pages long) written by people who are Just Like You. You begin to realise that most IBS sufferers have the same challenges and problems and bizarre things said to them by well-wishers, and that far from being abnormal we're part of a pretty huge club.
Not only that, you can pick up some great ideas for treatments - there's good coverage for example of the calcium and magnesium supplements that have proved so useful for so many people, despite rarely being mentioned by our doctors.
So, IBS Chat is definitely a book to add to your IBS reading list. My only gripe really would be that there's no index, but the chapters are so well-organised that this isn't much of a problem, and of course you can always look the subject up online.
Thanks for the tip, Sophie. (And happy new year!) It sounds like a great book.
sophie, maybe you shouldn't knock what you havent tried digesterol is a very good product and you maybe keeping someone from trying somthing that could very well bring them relief. Also on the subject of surgery, they do recommend removal of parts of the intestines for ibs.
Steven, I've given my arguments on the Digestrol front, and you are of course welcome to take or leave them, along with anyone else.
Doctors do not perform surgery for IBS.
HI ALL. I JUST WANTED TO ASK IF ANY1 KNOWS ANY GOOD LIVE IBS CHAT ROOMS SO I CAN TALK TO SUM1 ABOUT IBS AS I THINK I HAVE IT. THNK U
Hi Everyone,
I've had stomach problems for about 20 years-have gone trough all the testing etc and have tried several alternative treatments. Colonoscopy was ok except slight diverticulosis.
I reasearched for hours on this!
This is what worked best for me-actually knock on wood I haven't had any symptomes in 2 weeks since I started on all 3..
3 products:
1. Serovera AMP (most expensive but well worth it)
2. Primal Defense (ultra)
3. Traditional Tibetian Healing pills (gross tasting) but I just have a glass of water handy
Make sure they have ruled out everything with a colonoscopy test.
It's amazing-no more gas, pain etc.
I don't sell any of this but I should!
Good luck
BT
im 26 i hate living with ibs and i hate the fack that no one wants to even try to undertand i would like to meet a women who nos what its like het me up un myspace tysonbk@yahoo.com or medinaangel@yahoo.com
How do I kwon if I have IBS for sure? Im 41 and the doctor says "I have it."I had every test done to man,and all come back NEG.But I still have abdominal pain{that moves from time to time} and diarrhea.He's telling to take imodium a-d once a day.Is that good? He has me on Dicyclomine and it does seem to help.If I have it can I get help here?
Hi Rob - unfortunately there's no set test for IBS, it does depend on a diagnosis from your doc based on your symptoms.
Imodium does help a lot of people - I'd follow your doc's instructions and see what happens. And we'll try to help if we can!
hi sopie. i can say in the morning when i wake up dreadfull pain in tummy it was so bad had to sit down take my meds felt better half a hour later.good news then bad news the bad news is i have a recurrent hernia again waiting for op could be called in any time up till the 18 of dec. good news is i was 10 stone now i am 13 stone. i think it was i was ill stop eating and my gp at the time who i loved thank god i got rid of him out of my life.i now get dla imcome supout and ibc as well the gp i loved never help me get any money my new gp is a great help. i have treid telling men and woman about ibs its a wasted of time they just do know how ill will feel this s a great site all the best to all those who suffer ibs to martin harrison.