Tag Archives: irritable bowel syndrome

A proven naturally way to Lowering your cholesterol and tri-glycerides

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I am so thankful that after three years I can still pass my Christmas in Italy with my family. Lots of things have changed, people do different things, some with family and others by themselves travelling a bit more. There is still a lot more fears attached to Covid than in other places, and any new news about it becomes an extra worry. In pharmacies people still wear a mask and you feel like the odd out if you don’t. There was a new strain of flu going around and young and older people felt worse than ever with it. This is due to the immune system not being challenged for 3 years. My parents, even in their old age are always worried about lack of food, so they buy more than they will ever eat in one week, and they love to plant seasonal vegetables, even in big pots. When they were given big pots as a gift, they were so happy that they can manage to plant their seasonal vegetables without much effort, as the planting them on the land would be too much for them.

Green and red salad

They try their best not to take extra medication that they can avoid, even though they might take some that are essential. Both my parents were tested high for cholesterol last year, and of course, they were given by their GP the usual medication to lower it. They both did not react well with it, and I mentioned to try to see if with Benecol, as I knew that it would work, would go down enough for the doctors to be ok with it. I also suggested to take fish oil in capsules for both of them, for two reasons, one for the brain, and the other to reduce tri-glycerides, which again they both had a bit high. They have been taking it since the summer, and I asked if their cholesterol was low. They said they were so happy with it, as the cholesterol got down so much, as well as the tri-glycerides, with the fish oil. To be fair the doctor in Italy did suggest the fish oil for that too, which is good. They have not told the doctor about the Benecol though and the reason for being lower. My mum had a heart operation 6 years ago so she had to have a lower cholesterol.

The main ingredients that is beneficial to reduce cholesterol in Benecol is plant sterol ester, and I would not agree with all the ingredients in Benecol, but for people, like my parents that would rather have a food that keep taking pills, this is the 2nd best option.

Freshly squeezed orange juice

The best one is to take plant sterol and phytosterol in capsule as well as combining the dietary changes. My parents do eat their own seasonal vegetables, and fennel, endive and salads, as well as broccoli, chicory, and broccoletti (found in Italy but not England), are part of their stable diet, as well as beans, lentils and fruits. Green leafy vegetables, sage, nuts contain plant sterols as well as the food above.

We were so fortunate to have my mum make us freshly squeezed orange juice every morning, that is because a couple of kilos of oranges would cost two Euros, compared to 2 pounds for a pack of 5 oranges here. They would also eat good nuts such as pecans and walnuts as snacks, which would help with having higher good fats as well. At their age, they eat less meat and hard cheese, due to my insistence, less frying and more oven baked food, as well as using only olive oil if any food needs to be cooked. Using their own olive oil from their own olive tree only raw with salads and food.

© Fennel

 If you do have high cholesterol and high tri-glycerides, you need to consider the entire life style change as well, to make the most of it and get things sorted out for good, and that would include walking 30 minutes, twice a day, to keep your circulation going and keep your heart pumping well.

Some of the plant sterols in supplements might cost as much as the Benecol, so maybe worth getting that instead and you get more for them, like a monthly supply. Fish oil with high EPA and DHA, again get a good brand as that would still be worth it, and even if you eat fish, you might not get enough from a couple of times that you eat it a week. At least you can get the plant sterols and fish oil till your tests come back normal and then keep going with the dietary changes and walking to keep it stable, and maybe just get the Benecol every now and then to keep it down.

© Maria Esposito BSc (Hons) R-Nutritional Therapist – NAET for allergies – R-Craniosacral Therapist – NLP – Angel Guide Certified – Mindfulness Meditation teacher- Resilient heart (heart-Math

Babies and mothers craniosacral therapy sessions

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From reflux, during pregnancy, to tiredness and relaxions for anxious mothers to babies and mothers birth trauma, Craniosacral therapy is a gentle but very powerful and magical therapy that allows the entire body system to settle and balance up. This will reduce, anxiety for the mother, and stress mode, or vagal irritation for the baby when they are born. In turn for the baby means, less colic, less irritation or fear mode, less reflux, improved breastfeeding, more peaceful sleep for baby and mother. craniosacral therapy is a gift of a lifetime for your baby, as it will improve the mother and baby connection, a HAPPY BABY, will increase the good positive neurons forming and good memory that will positively affect them for their lifetime!

For babies with a small amount of birth trauma just few sessions is enough to settle them in a balance way. This improve the connection after a tongue tie for a good latching and hence feeding well.

For the past 30 years, I have heard of mothers saying that their baby do not poo for few days or even a week or more at the time, and they have been told that it is normal.

After just one session and suggestions of babies infants probiotics, babies poo few times a day, as they should do.

The foundation of good bacteria from the start of the baby’s life, will set them for a lifetime of good intestinal tract. There are plenty of research now connecting the gut health with the brain healthy development of the baby in their adult time.

The past 50 years with the use of too much anti-biotics, which at times, they do save lives, but others were prescribed as sweet, have seen the stripping of the good bacteria, with an increase in gut dysbiosis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and other Irritable Bowel disorders. Now that we have learned how important our friendly gut bacteria are from the start, let’s keep them in and start from the beginning!

Give yourself and your baby the gift of life, with craniosacral therapy. For the mothers and adults, the change is a bit more slow, but worth starting and carrying on!

© Maria Esposito BSc (Hons) R-Nutritional Therapist – NAET for allergies – R-Craniosacral Therapist – NLP – Angel Guide Certified – Mindfulness Meditation teacher- Heart Meditation certificated (Heart-Math)

Transformation by Maria Esposito in the Fulcrum for craniosacral therapy

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(taken from) The Fulcrum, Issue 82 January 2021 click here for original article

I find that the more I follow my intuition and connect to the heart, serving everything that makes my client whole and integrated, the faster they heal and in so doing transform their lives and mine.

Having held CST workshops on how to deepen one’s practice for the past five years, I was recently invited to write about the journey that led to teaching. Hesitant at first about how to put my thoughts and experiences in words, I was reminded that there seems to be a hunger to understand ‘grounding’ more deeply and learn to apply it to our daily lives, and a desire to develop a more intuitive, heart-centred connection with ourselves, our work and our clients. In recalling my own efforts to learn these things, and the wonderful transformation when I was finally able to apply them to myself and my practice, I’d like to share my journey.

A massage course led to further qualifications in sports massage, reflexology, nutritional therapy, muscle testing and Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET). I found that I loved helping others to resolve their problems and pain and have been a holistic therapist for more than 28 years.

Informed by anatomy, physiology, nutrition and Eastern approaches, I spent many years helping clients and yet I still felt a need to meet them more holistically. My first experience of CST was when cranial-osteopathy was recommended for my son’s recurring colds and coughs. The process that led to the release of his birth trauma made me so curious that I eventually enrolled to study CST at the College of Cranio-Sacral Therapy (CCST).

My scientific and therapeutic training was comfortable with the physical focus of cranial-osteopathy but I found myself unsure about the whole-system approach that was taught at CCST. Nevertheless, during treatments and practical sessions, I felt much-needed changes occurring within me and experienced profound results. Whatever it was, it was working. Still, it was challenging; I was very good at the physical and scientific aspects of CST but not as good at grounding and working off-body. I became increasingly conscious of being ungrounded, of not being fully present in my body, especially in the mornings and evenings, which led to exhaustion. Not able to ground well, I did not pass my practical exam. It was the first time that I had not succeeded in something that I had put effort into and it was difficult to accept. So, as a positive and stubborn person, I set out to understand everything I could about grounding.

‘Just Ground’

A healer brought a fresh perspective on grounding that helped me understand the concept of being fully present and embodied, and why I was ungrounded in the first place. At the same time, Octavia Kelly, a CST colleague, brought her experience and insight to my training. I am very thankful to both and for my failure to pass the practical part of my final training assessment, as my journey would have been completely different otherwise. I would not have understood the concept of grounding as deeply as I do now and how essential self-healing is to our work.

I realised that the more grounded I was, the more I felt calm, focused, alive and less tired throughout the day.

Developing Intuition and Heart-Connection

My interest in intuition and heart connection first began when I started to practise CST in combination with the NAET method of treating allergies. Many clients began sharing what they saw and felt during treatments, which was often beyond my wildest expectations of what was possible or logical. My natural curiosity led me to explore this. Hence, when I tuned into and followed a client’s whole system during a treatment, I often saw images, for example, a femur or tibia or fibula in an incorrect position, and sometimes I would feel pain in my own leg, knowing that it was not mine. This would lead me to ask if there was a problem with the limb that presented to me, and I found that the answer was always ‘yes’ when I worked this way. So, I started to mention more of what I felt or saw during treatments and the answers often confirmed where a problem that affected their body and sometimes their mind had started. If my hands felt something hot or cold, or if my clients spoke of seeing images and/or colours, I would follow and see where it led.

I began to attend healing classes to become more grounded. The technique that helped me become more embodied and less stuck in my head (with my logical, scientific mind) was to visualise that my legs and feet were weighed down by anchors. Thai Chi and Qi Gong classes, where grounding and body awareness were practised in every class, and swimming and Pilates classes, also helped me to become more embodied. After a few months, I was grounding well enough to pass my practical exam, and a door opened to a new experience of life, professionally and personally.

I realised that the more grounded I was, the more I felt calm, focused, alive and less tired throughout the day. I could see clearly what I wanted to do in my life, and I experienced inner peace for the first time. Reaching a steady state of inner peace is not an easy thing to achieve; it takes time, especially when life challenges you. Still, the more whole and grounded I became, the lighter I felt, and when life ungrounded me I recovered my grounding and balance more quickly.

‘Just ground’ became my personal mantra and after a few years of experiencing the benefits of this amazing change and self-transformation, I wanted to share this simple way of being. This led to developing my CST workshop ‘Grounding and Healing Tools’ and, judging from its popularity, it seemed to fill a gap for many therapists.

This workshop is a reminder of how far I have come on my own journey in grounding and in my own life, and it is a privilege to pass on what I have learnt to others who are ready to understand the concept more fully and embrace their potential. Through teaching grounding techniques I hope to remind, reconnect and deepen practitioners’ understanding of why grounding is so powerful, transformative and important for ourselves as individuals and therapists, and for our clients.

I have also found healing tools useful in my practice. Healing, defined as ‘the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again’, resonates with me and I feel that my work is part of a healing process. The danger is that we can become vulnerable to our clients’ issues, and if not careful, can internalise them. As part of my toolkit, healing techniques help to protect me from holding on to my clients’ emotions and feelings. I find that I feel much more exhausted if I do not combine CST with these tools, and my hope in sharing them is to help others stay protected, resourced and energised in their work.

I found that the more I followed my intuitive sense without fear or judgement, the more accurate my treatments became.

Fascinated by this process, I started consciously to develop my ‘right brain’ – thought to be the most creative and intuitive part of our body. Inspired by John Upledger’s experiences in the ‘Inner Physician’ and ‘Somato-Emotional Release’, I found that the more I followed my intuitive sense without fear or judgement, the more accurate my treatments became. I then read ‘The Biology of Transcendence’ by Joseph Chilton Pearce in which he describes the heart as the fifth or highest brain. As a result of this study, I now practise CST with intuition and heart-connection.

Developing heart-connection transformed my practice. The first time I understood this profound power I was treating a client who shared something I was simply not able to understand. Beyond my comprehension, the only way I could follow and support my client was to let go of judgment, fear and worry and connect to unconditional love for them and their journey. I focused on just being there, trusting and allowing the whole system to do what it needed to do, following where it led. This, of course, is the principle of CST – observe, listen, allow whatever needs to unfold and integrate. Yet, in my experience, we all come to a profound recognition of this truth in different ways.

As I deepened my intuitive perception, following where the client’s system led, it felt natural to share with colleagues, to help them strengthen the intuition that many already experience. I felt that some just needed guidance or reassurance that whatever they were experiencing needed to be followed and taken into consideration for the benefit of their client’s whole system, health and deep healing. The workshop ‘Integration of the Self, Strengthening Your Inner Intuition,’ grew out of this desire to help therapists grow further in their knowledge and awareness to push beyond their comfort zone while remaining sensitive to their boundaries.

Thanks to my inner curiosity, my therapy practice has evolved far beyond my expectations. As I have sought ways to deepen my connection to clients, I have come to realise the power of working from our hearts is essential to serving them in the best way possible. Focused by grounding and guided by intuition, the unconditional love and peace that is inherently present when we are led from the heart enable us to grow both personally and professionally. It is this truth that I wish to share with others.

© Maria Esposito BSc (Hons) R-Nutritional Therapist – NAET for allergies – R-Craniosacral Therapist – NLP – Angel Guide Certified – Mindfulness Meditation teacher- Resilient heart (heart-Math)

Becoming Fearless: The Journey to Self-Healing by Maria Esposito from the Fulcrum

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The Fulcrum, Issue 84 September 2021 click here for the full link to the fulcrum

When I first started working with a heart-centred connection, my practice was transformed. I found that working from the heart enabled me to connect with my higher self and strengthen my intuition. Clients commented on the treatment experience and the more I nurtured my heart connection, the more effective my work became.

Yet, developing heart connection was not easy or straightforward. There were times when the connection was open and grounded, spacious and flowing. Other times I resonated with painful emotions and experiences. Questioning why this could be so led me to recognise my own emotional pain and unconscious fears and accept my need to heal.

The self-healing journey takes many forms and different paths. Each one of us will need to find the best way to acknowledge, recognise and heal from our emotional pain and fear. Here, I will share my own journey, experiences and observations before recommending useful tools and techniques that may support self-healing.

A Healing Dynamic

From personal experience and from talking with others, I believe that quite often therapists attract clients who have experienced similar pain. It seems a case of ‘like attracts like’ and the resulting dynamic seeks resolution for both client and therapist.

Around ten years ago, clients began coming to me with symptoms and experiences rooted in childhood pain and trauma. I found that I often resonated with their emotional pain and, as I began to explore this, I realised that I carried similar experiences. My acknowledgement and awareness of this allowed space for my own early trauma and, as the memories returned, I accepted that I too needed healing.

Acknowledgement was the beginning of my own healing journey and as it unfolded I recognised and accepted the fear that had been part of my life since early childhood.

Freedom From Fear

During the past ten years of treating clients, including babies and parents, and myself, I have become aware that fear is one of the most prevalent emotions, often hiding behind others. Fear can stem from emotional or physical pain that we have suffered in the past. It can be unconscious, buried so deeply that it influences our thoughts, feelings and actions without us really being aware of it.

The more I healed the more my true self emerged

Feelings of anger, deep anxiety, depression and overwhelm, and behaviours like lashing out, withdrawing, addiction and self-harm, can all stem from fear. They can stem from childhood experiences, our early relationships, our upbringing, our education, our society, from the way we were taught to deal or not to deal with emotions, and be triggered by the things we watch, books that we read, from family, friends, colleagues or people we admire.

Expressions of fear are seen now more than ever. For the past year and half of the Covid-19 pandemic, global fear of the unknown and the stress of uncertainty has impacted many lives, including our own. Throughout, fear and worry about the mental and physical health of loved ones and friends, about jobs and finances, have been pervasive. In some, isolation from and/or loss of loved ones have left deep emotional trauma. In others, fear and worry converted into anger and frustration with devastating impact for partners and families. These experiences may impact not just the people directly affected but also future generations

The Question is How Do We Move Forward, Individually and Collectively?

I grew up with parents who were born at the time of the second world war and fear was a constant factor in their lives; fear of not getting enough food, fear of getting hurt, fear of not having enough money to support the family.

In myself, I believe that this legacy of fear manifested primarily as self-reliance. I became a ‘doer’, generally resilient and solutions oriented when dealing with my worries, and proactive about controlling my life and pursuing my interests in health and healing without dependence on others. However, as I shared in my previous article “Transformation’ (Issue 82), it wasn’t until I started my CST training that I realised how ungrounded I was, and how easily fears and worries unbalanced me.

So, part of my healing journey has been to free myself of inherited and acquired fears, unconscious and conscious. The more I healed the more my true self emerged – a more grounded and positive individual, searching for ways to deal with life and emotions. I supported this new self-awareness with personal craniosacral sessions, energy healing, and meditation, ultimately leading to a different level of being that has enabled me to move forward with a greater sense of energy, direction and focus.

Growth Through Healing

The experience of recognising and accepting my need of healing taught me that as therapists we are still vulnerable and need to deal with all that we carry and hold; without doing that, there is no growth or expansion as a person or as a therapist. When we think that others are in more need of healing than ourselves, and shut our hearts to our own pain, we deny our own healing.

This is not to say that we can’t help others until we have healed ourselves. Yet, with self-healing, I believe we become more effective therapists.

It is my belief that the very act of opening our hearts to serve and help another person creates a healing dynamic. When the therapist connects to their heart first, acknowledging their emotional pain and fear, self-doubt and insecurities, the treatment becomes a powerful healing tool for both them and their client.

HEALING STRATEGIES AND THERAPEUTIC SELF-HEALING TOOLS

The self-healing journey is different for everyone, but it shares the same starting point – an intention to heal yourself of conscious and unconscious emotional pain and fear, and then finding the best support for that process.

My own journey to self-healing taught me that a mix of therapeutic and practical tools are useful. Some of the techniques that have helped me include:

Treat yourself: I found craniosacral sessions and energy healing helped me connect with the resources I needed to heal. And, I found that even during the worst times of the pandemic, when I myself had Covid-19, CST and meditation were the best tools that I had to resource myself and let go of personal fears and worries. My suggestion for therapists is to have regular CST treatments. And, if you become aware of or triggered by a reflected pain and/or fear during a treatment, it is worth exploring that in supervision or with another therapy.

Meditation: Learning to meditate is almost an essential part of a therapist’s growth and development, helping to ground, be centred and present. Through meditation, I learned to connect to my true heart; by breathing into it with intention, I can access and feel the infinite love and peace that is there for us all at any time. In this space, the solution for resolving your fear might come up easily. Also, meditative breathing techniques down regulate the nervous system, calming the mind from worries and fears. If you find it difficult to meditate at stressful times, there are many apps that provide guided meditations and breathing techniques.

Cultivate self-awareness: A type of self-healing is to recognise your own emotions and thought patterns and how they shape the way you think and behave towards yourself and others. A talking therapy can help you understand yourself and equip you to deal with any painful or traumatic emotions and memories that may come up.

Feel the fear: About 20 years ago, I read a book by author Susan Jeffers called “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. While I no longer remember the specifics, the title has stuck with me, reminding me about the importance of intention and readiness in letting go of fear; about how empowering it is to acknowledge fear and choose to overcome it.

This is relevant in our present situation where many feel strong anxiety about returning to work or social environments, and a question that you could ask yourself is, ‘what would I rather do, live my life with a job that I love, or freeze and stop living for the next few years?’.

It might sound obvious but just asking it of ourselves – of our system – can help us see, understand and choose to overcome what is blocking us. Once we can see, feel and name our fears, we can apply our therapeutic tools to let go of them, freeing us to move forward.

NLP: As a neuro-linguistic practitioner, I offer some NLP techniques for certain CST clients who I feel may benefit from it. I often use a technique called “time-line technique”, where the client makes a guided journey to the first time they encountered a specific emotion, e.g. fear. Usually, it is a formative emotion that has been present from birth to six years old, and I ask the client to suggest different resources for dealing with the event that triggered the specific emotion. This technique can be profoundly empowering and the resources can be accessed at any time the original emotion returns. It has had a major impact on many of my clients, and can be done online or face to face when treating, or as a self-care technique once it has been learned.

© Maria Esposito BSc (Hons) R-Nutritional Therapist – NAET for allergies – R-Craniosacral Therapist – NLP – Angel Guide Certified – Mindfulness Meditation teacher- Resilient heart (heart-Math)

Where you come from might be surprising! looking at my ancestors.

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Out of curiosity I decided to do my DNA Heritage test, to see where my ancestors are and where I came from. I was expected mainly Italian, and maybe Spanish, from my surprise I half Italian/Greek, which I did not expect at all. Even though Romans did go and invaded Greece at some point, so it make sense now. I did not realize how much of Greece there was. It could be that half Naples might be partly Greek! If all did the DNA test there might be a way of knowing it. Amazing, though, then 6 per cent is related pretty much to the ancestors Jewish community, there is a percentage of West Africa, Middle East and less than 1 per cent Nigeria, and my son mentioned that many people find that they come from Nigeria, that might be the Africa that moved more thousands of years ago. So just for people to know that you might be different from what you think you are!

This can affect also the way you eat and what you eat, if you are stuck with your health in understanding what you care allergic to or even what you can eat more, it is worth to do the ancestors test to see what you can eat that is good from where you are from!

© Maria Esposito BSc (Hons) R-Nutritional Therapist – NAET for allergies – R-Craniosacral Therapist – NLP – Angel Guide Certified – Mindfulness Meditation teacher-

Clinical experience of irritable bowel syndrome – Combination treatments to integrate body mind and soul wellness

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The intestinal tract has got a barrier from the outside world to the inside of the body. Whatever you eat is considered to be outside your body. It becomes part of your body only when the nutrients that the body needs are absorbed through the gut barrier. There are some nutrients that go through the gut barrier easily, such as glucose and other simple form of sugars. Others needs to be taken into the blood stream through receptors. Everything more or less needs to go through the liver to be dealt with. From the liver, which is the centre in command for given instructions to where everything goes, and what needs to be made and then dispatched into the body for their use. Any excess is stored for future need, such as sugar excess or fat, proteins and some fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, k and water soluble B12. Any other water-soluble vitamin such as B vitamins and vitamin C will be used and/or eliminated through the body elimination system every day. Hence the nutritional value food and the extra vitamin C that you need each day is essential in your diet. If you diet is full of sugar, fat and fast food, then you will eventually be undernourished and hence diseases happen including low immune system.

If you have allergies or intolerances and you keep having them, then the low-grade inflammation in the intestinal tract or in the body, will cause low nutrients status and triggers the new modern age of disease.

So, my training 20 years ago at the University of Westminster, was that the first thing that you need to pay attention to is the gut barrier. There are test for leaky gut, and as I work with over-reaction of foods and allergies through NAET method testing and treating, I assume that if the person has got a lot of reaction to normal foods as well as the environment and other nutrients, that the intestinal tract barrier is leaky or has been affected by it.

What causes irritable bowel syndrome. Well I wrote a very short booklet about my own clinical experience with IBS. It is on amazon and you can easily get it to know what it is and what simple measure you can do to address the changes. Some changes need to be long term, and some might be short with lasting effect. It depends on the trigger of your IBS symptoms.

What are the main causes of IBS and possible colic for babies who intestinal barrier might be leaky due to just being born.

Babies are affected more when one parent or both parents have any type of allergies. If the mother who is breastfeeding is highly intolerant or reacting to dairy, eggs and gluten/wheat, or another food that might trigger a non-mast cell histamine release in the milk.  Only animal studies have been done on this, which connected histamine released from the intestinal tract where increasing the release of histamine in the mammary gland, which is then passed on to the baby or reduced the synthesis of casein, which means less milk protein in the milk. In simple words, if the mother is allergic to some food and keep eating it, there is a chance that the baby will eventually react to that particular food due to high histamine release, this is my theory and as I mentioned no studies have been done on this yet.

Babies intestinal tract also needs to be filled with good bacteria and this ground base of bacteria depends on the type of birth they had. Vaginal birth will give the baby the start of the bacteria that the mother has. If that is a full of friendly bacteria, then this is a good start. If the mother has got more yeast and has not taken any food supply of friendly bacteria, than it is probable that the bacteria that colonize the baby intestine is more of the yeast type.

With C-section and possible water birth then the bacteria will be of a different type.

If the baby is breastfed than usually the colostrum, which comes before the milk, will pave the way for the intestinal tract to colonize more of the friendly bacteria.

If the baby is bottle fed for any reason, then the bacteria that grows is different from the breastfed. The baby that is born with C-section, antibiotics through the mother or given for any reason necessary at birth than will have less chance of the commensal and friendly bacteria to colonize and form the cement of good health.

The good news is that in the modern life, you can give the baby the friendly bacteria from the start. Such as bifidus infantis or any infantis probiotics. I would suggest biocare range, bio-kult and optibac. Optibac has got less lactose if any of the babies are reacting to the dairy lactose.

The baby microbiome in the intestinal tract will have a massive impact on the health of the baby later on, including mental health. The first two years of the baby intestinal tract colonization with the friendly bacteria are essential and vital for that well-being. You can colonize the intestinal tract at any time, if you are having a baby and you are reading this, I would suggest to support that colonization as soon as possible.

A healthy intestinal tract paves the way to a healthy digestion, less allergies or over reaction to food, as the friendly bacteria make products to support the repair and support of the mucosal intestinal barrier.

Many studies recently have connected the health of the mucosal intestinal barrier with the mental health and with the maintenance of healthy neurotransmitters such as serotonin, which has many receptors in the intestinal tract. Dopamine and acetylcholine, are all essential for the happy mood and reduction of anxiety, short term memory and movements.

Hence intake, even as an adult of friendly probiotics are essential for our mental and physical health. Of course, in an ideal world, you would get all these friendly bacteria by being in the wild and nature. You would get more various strains of bacteria that we have lost in the modern life, and might loose even more now with all the extra cleaning. In some studies, the variety of the friendly bacteria in people in the wild where about 40 to 60 times more than someone who lives in the city.

As we cannot all live in nature for now, we need to be happy with what we have, which is a combination with acidophilus and bifidus bacteria. I would suggest Solgar Advanced multibillion dophilus, BioCare probiotics, G&G bifidus and any other high bifidus variety. There are some studies that have shown that bifidus longum is essential for the reduction from an early age of gluten allergies or prevents the trigger of the genetic make up of a baby/adult of the reaction to gluten in the intestinal tract.

What are the main causes of IBS:

  • Allergies, intolerances due to the class of antibodies over reaction, with the worse being IgE, IgG, IgM, IgA (the latter being specific for the intestinal tract and all the mucosal barrier in the body, including the lungs).
  • Stress – the stress mode, which it is called the sympathetic response, will shut down the parasympathetic neurological pathway, which is the one that opens the valves of the digestive system. You cannot run and eat at the same time without the consequence of having diarrhoea or constipation and pain later on!
  • Constipation due to dietary choices or physical problems
  • Parasites/ gastroenteritis. Past and present.
  • Traumatic events, which leads to constant stress mode, even when the person does not feel stressed.
  • Emotions and feelings that are not dealt with.
  • Foods and drinks that supports stress and the growth of unfriendly bacteria in the intestinal tract.
  • SIBO (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth). This is due to constipation, the valve between the small intestine and the large intestine being open when it should be shut. This might be due to long term constipation, and stress.
  • Many more reasons, and I would recommend people who have IBS to read my booklet the “clinical experience of irritable bowel syndrome” and/or book an appointment with myself to be guided and supported in dealing with the resolution of the IBS symptoms. Click here to buy the book on amazon

I would add to the probiotics the importance of the liver function as it is the centre of dispatches, similar to amazon really!

Natural food to support the liver are bitter foods, such as artichokes leaves, rockets, radicchio, chicory. Beetroot is also quite good for the liver detox.

Supplements in case of drinking or genetic low function of the liver detox, are milk thistle, artichokes, glutamine, l-cysteine, SAMe, and many more.

Milk thistle supports the liver as well as the mucosal intestinal barrier. Pomegranate juice and seeds also supports the bifidobacterial and hence the intestinal tract barrier, as well as being high in anti-oxidants such as lutein and lycopene.

© Maria Esposito BSc (Hons) R-Nutritional Therapist – NAET – R-craniosacral therapist – NLP practitioner – Certified Angel Guide

Brain and gut axis and connection with IBS symptoms

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One more study on the health of the intestinal tract was done on the connection between the brain/stress and intestinal tract. The study showed that one part of the brain is very much connected with the neurons that lead to the intestinal tract and an emotional upset or shock triggers the over stimulation or under stimulation of the gastric nervous system, therefore causing the irritable bowel symptoms. On another follow up study people who had diagnosed IBS did much better with the combination of anxiolytic medication and reflux medication as well as probiotics than the ones that were used separately. In my clinic I have seen Continue reading →