Monday, December 24, 2012

Molehills and Mountains

If you suffer from IBS, chances are you're very considerate of others and even possibly an anxious ''catastrophizer.'' It was repeatedly concluded based on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and psychological questionnaires -  for students and non-students, Easterners and Westerners, right-handed and left-handed individuals. In fact, IBS sufferers' anxieties are somewhere in between those of people with Crohn's disease (similar to healthy persons) and panic patients. And many IBS sufferers are convinced that social and occupational implications of their gastrointestinal symptoms are a catastrophe.

As someone once said, catastrophizing is not just about watching slow German films or reading Russian literature and feeling as though life is an intolerable and senseless joke. If practiced properly, catastrophizing could make many things go wrong and create a reality around our worries and fears. Including fears focused on the gut. Because if you believe something will go wrong, you make it go wrong.

But is it the personality that makes us susceptible to IBS or is it IBS that changes our personality? The connection between the brain and the gut is definitely bidirectional. So this question might be a chicken-and-egg problem.

Animal studies suggest that perturbations of behavior, such as stress, can alter microbial communities in the gut. Experimental perturbation of the microbial communities, in its turn, can alter behavior. Getting rid of some microbes helped mice to reduce anxiety or even become bold and adventurous (after neomycin, bacitracin, and pimaricin antibiotics were administered to timid and shy BALB/c mice), while adding new species of bacteria such as Campylobacter jejuni  made mice more cautious.

Many recent studies indicate the possibility of discovering bacteria specific for different types of IBS. But you can make your own discoveries before science does. Such as the best diet, exercise and emotional attitude to cultivate the bacteria of success.


Your result will be the last one in the table below. It might take up to 24 hrs for it to appear so please come back to see it.
Your score is represented in three dimensions:
rumination (repetitiveness of focusing on the symptoms of distress), magnification (the degree to which you tend to magnify your symptoms) and hopelessness (the despair you feel when you have abandoned hope of comfort or success).




REFERENCES


Hazlett-Stevens H, Craske MG, Mayer EA, et al. Prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome among university students: the roles of worry, neuroticism, anxiety sensitivity and visceral anxiety. J Psychosom Res 2003;55:501–505.

Ng SM, Chow KW. Symptoms catastrophizing versus social hypervigilance in irritable bowel syndrome patients. Soc Work Health Care. 2012;51(8):743-56. doi: 10.1080/00981389.2012.701001.

Hunt MG, Moshier S, Milonova M. Brief cognitive-behavioral internet therapy for irritable bowel syndrome. Behav Res Ther. 2009 Sep;47(9):797-802. Epub 2009 May 20.

Eric L. Garland, Susan A. Gaylord, Olafur Palsson, Keturah Faurot, J. Douglas Mann and William E. Whitehead Therapeutic mechanisms of a mindfulness-based treatment for IBS: effects on visceral sensitivity, catastrophizing, and affective processing of pain sensations. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2011, Dec. 8

Blankstein U, Chen J, Diamant NE, Davis KD. Altered brain structure in irritable bowel syndrome: potential contributions of pre-existing and disease-driven factors.
Gastroenterology. 2010 May;138(5):1783-9. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2009.12.043. Epub 2010 Jan 4.

Collins SM, Surette M, & Bercik P (2012). The interplay between the intestinal microbiota and the brain. Nature reviews. Microbiology, 10 (11), 735-42 PMID: 23000955

Neufeld KM, Kang N, Bienenstock J, Foster JA. Reduced anxiety-like behavior and central neurochemical change in germ-free mice. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2011 Mar;23(3):255-64, e119. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2982.2010.01620.x. Epub 2010 Nov 5.

Collins SM, Bercik P. The relationship between intestinal microbiota and the central nervous system in normal gastrointestinal function and disease. Gastroenterology. 2009 May;136(6):2003-14. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2009.01.075. Epub 2009 May 7.


Goehler LE, Park SM, Opitz N, Lyte M, Gaykema RP. Campylobacter jejuni infection increases anxiety-like behavior in the holeboard: possible anatomical substrates for viscerosensory modulation of exploratory behavior. Brain Behav Immun. 2008 Mar;22(3):354-66. Epub 2007 Oct 24.

Sullivan MJL, Bishop S, Pivik J. The Pain Catastrophizing scale: development and validation. Psychol Assess 1995;7:524–32. (the manual)


6 comments:

Megan Lee said...

I totally believe catastrophizing is a serious medical "quirk" to consider, especially in the matters of occupational health. If people suffering from IBS tend to be catstrophizers too, it will cause a serious dent on their working capacity.

Unknown said...

Nice sharing.... i like Catastrophizer calculator easy to calculate..descriptive information.

IBS Curing

Phoebe McKenzie said...

One simple way to eliminate those bacteria is to have a healthy diet and exercise. Studies show that by eating the right kinds of foods, it will definitely eradicate those bacteria.

Unknown said...

Thank, Kathy. Hope you and your family are having a fun weekend
bulldogpupp

Fungus said...

As per the cosmetic industry which will rise to a worth of £5 billion by the end of 2020, it seems there will be something. click here

Umair Ali said...

Big mountains have been instilled to the earth for the erection. All the activities of the nature have been looked after and is aussieessaywriter.com.au good is enough for the production of the material for the humans. The safety of the man has been upheld and intervened for the success of the people.