Welcome to episode 48 of the Inside Knowledge podcast for people with IBS, I’m Anna Mapson. This episode is all about some breathing techniques and things that you can put into practice to improve your levels or your experience of stress.
Stress and IBS
IBS is not necessarily related to stress. Although in many people, the psychological stress of having IBS can also then contribute to worsening of symptoms.
So it’s almost like it exacerbates the symptoms that you would’ve had from another reason.
But sometimes people’s IBS is purely down to stress and how they are rushing around in life, not really stopping eating on the go, feeling very anxious repeatedly again and again day after day.
Stress can affect your digestion
This can lead to changes in our gut microbiome. It can lead to changes in how we’re digesting our food. So I’m going to just run through some different breathing techniques that you might be able to put into practice. Now what I’m not saying in this episode is just do these and your stress will melt away. Because although that would be lovely, it’s It’s probably not realistic. But what you might be able to do is help manage your experience of the stress.
So it won’t necessarily make your stress go away. It won’t necessarily change your relationship with your anxiety. But if you’ve got a few techniques, and just to feel more confident, like to feel that you’ve got some tools in your toolbox that can help you manage your stress.
Digestion sensitivity increases due to stress
When we are feeling very stressed it can have a big impact on how sensitive our digestive system is so you might find you feel more pain. You notice more sensations in your digestive system when you are feeling more stressed. Stress can also affect our gut motility. So it can speed it up or slow it down.
Digestive juices slow down in chronic stress
It can affect the secretion of digestive enzymes and stomach acid. It can also affect the permeability of the lining of your gut. Whether things can escape through into the tissues around the gut. And there’s a strong correlation with our immune function that lives in the mucosa. That’s like the mucous lining of the gut.
When you’re stressed your immune system is impacted
And there’s a, correlation between this immune system activation and stress. So there’s lots of reasons for improving your stress levels if you feel like that might have a connection to your symptoms. This might not be the cause of your IBS, however it can be a cause of a flare up or a cause of a worsening of your symptoms in that moment.
How can breathing affect digestion?
And the way breathing interacts with this is that sometimes when we are feeling stressed, we can be holding our breath. Really just not breathing out. A lot of people do this when they’re working. Like really concentrating, and it can become a habit. It tells the body that there is some sort of problem, and without you realizing it.
You could be in pain making your body feel more stress by this shallow breathing that comes more frequently when we are in a state of anxiety or worry.
Parasympathetic nervous system – your calm mode
We’re breathing just in the top half of our chest and this can then stop the activation of the Parasympathetic Nervous System. That is our relaxing nervous system that helps us feel safe and calm. When that is activated, then we feel better and our digestive system relaxes. That is moving us into a rest and digest state and away from that fight, flight or freeze state.
And we have evidence to back this up as well. It’s been studied.
Breathing has been shown to reduce IBS symptoms
People with IBS who were constipation predominant, so IBSC patients, around 80, or I think 85 of them, were split into two groups randomly. They were measured on how their IBS was affecting their life.
There’s, there’s something called an IBS symptom severity score, and they were measured at the baseline at the beginning.
And then they went through this breathing intervention where one group had a breathing routine for six weeks. And at the end of that, they measured how they were feeling. The group who followed the breathing routine, instructions for over the six weeks had improvements in their stool consistency.
They had more spontaneous bowel movements and this was the only thing that had changed. The control group and the group who had the breathing were exactly the same at the start. There was no difference really in their type of symptoms. And remember, these are people who had constipation predominance, so they want more bowel movements.
Breathing can regulate your digestion
But it was basically regulating their digestive system. And I just think this is really interesting that nothing else was changing for these people. Except that they were practicing this breathing. What’s interesting is that they didn’t only improve the actual symptoms of how often they were going to the toilet. But they also reduced the feelings of sensitivity and how much they could tolerate.
We know that breathing, deep breathing, has used a lot in pain management. And so the really uncomfortable feelings of being so full and needing to go to the toilet and not being able to pass that stool can be really, really painful. Awful for a lot of people with constipation predominant symptoms. So, if there’s a way that you can tolerate those symptoms and even get some significant improvements in the actual way that you’re going to the toilet, this is definitely worth looking into, I think.
Breathing techniques for people with IBS
So, I’m going to go through five different breathing techniques. And then a little bit of an exploration over tapping as well. Which is sometimes called emotional freedom technique, and just run through a little bit about what that is and how it might be able to help you.
1. Diaphragmatic breathing for IBS
So firstly, the basic deep breathing is just it’s called diaphragmatic breathing.
It’s using this wall of muscle that runs across our torso underneath the lungs and it helps to expand your lungs. A good way to measure whether you are doing diaphragmatic breathing is to sit up straight. Or you can lie down on the floor which is the best way to do it really because then it’s sort of more relaxing.
Place one hand on your chest and the other hand on your tummy and then you slowly inhale through your nose and try and feel your stomach. You don’t just want to inhale and feel your chest move and feel your lungs expanding. You actually want to draw down the muscle to help yourself relax.
Slowing down your breathing
Expand your lungs, but going deep into your belly. And then you’re going to slowly exhale out through your mouth. So this way you’re slowing down the breath, extending the exhalation. But also making sure that you’re just using the right muscles when you’re breathing. The other benefit to this is that actually that movement inside your body of breathing in and pushing down with that diaphragm is actually helping to give yourself a little internal massage on your insides, which can really help.
And also remember we’re activating that vagus nerve. Which is helping calm the connection between the gut and the brain. So once you’ve got that technique right. And you’re just doing that deeper breathing like really using the right parts of your body, then we can get into some specific techniques.
2. Alternate nostril breathing
One way to kind of really focus your mind and calm down is to do alternate nostril breathing.
How we do it is you sit up comfortably with your back straight. You close your right nostril with your right thumb, and inhale in up through your left nostril. Then you close your left nostril with your right ring finger, and exhale down out through your right nostril.
So you’re kind of going in on one side, out on the other side.
You put your hand in front of your face, and just use your fingers and your thumb to close and open the alternate nostrils.
Focussing on the action of breathing helps clear your mind
Part of the way this works is that you’re using your mind to just focus on something quite basic. Which can help to block your mind from thinking about a lot of stress and the stressful things.
And also studies have shown that practicing alternate nostril breathing regularly can actually help to lower your heart rate. Help with your blood pressure and also improving memory and concentration. So there is some evidence about using this type of breathing. And I think it’s good for your digestion as well.
3. Box breathing
Another variation on breathing is called box breathing. So you imagine that you’re tracing an outline in your mind, going up the side of a box, across, down, and around. And what you’re going to do is breathe in for four, hold for four, breathe out for four, Hold for four, breathe in for four. So it’s very slow but even breaths.
Now this is just one way you’re pausing at the inhalation and exhalation point before you change over and just retaining that breath. So you’re imagining in your mind tracing an outline and breathing in through your nose. Hold your breath and then breathing out through your mouth. And then hold your breath and again and just repeat.
4. Try the 4 7 8 breathing exercise for IBS
Another alternative version of this would be something called 4 7 8 breathing. So you’re breathing in through your nose for a count of 4. Holding your breath for a count of 7. Then exhaling completely for around a count of 8. So the exhalation is twice as long as the inhalation. And you’ve got that little pause in the middle.
5. Belly breathing
And then the fifth example that I wanted to share with you is back to the basic belly breathing, like that diaphragmatic breathing we talked about at the beginning, but this time you’re doing it with some visualization and actually using your mind to imagine, you know, a cool, calming colour seeping through you, or just gently as you’re exhaling, like visualizing all that tension and stress just floating away.
And when you’re breathing in, you’re breathing in like calm, healing breath. powerful breath. Those are a few breathing techniques that you can try. Just pick something that works for you. It doesn’t really matter exactly how you do it. What matters is that you are able to use it without any pain, or stressing yourself out. And that you’re finding it does bring you some level of calm.
Emotional freedom technique for IBS
Now, the other thing I mentioned in my intro is that I want to talk a little bit about this emotional freedom technique, or sometimes it’s called tapping. It’s a mind body technique that combines ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology or psychological support.
At first thought this is silly, not silly, but I at first was sceptical, shall we say, about whether this could work.
But I’ve actually found that some people get on really well with it. Basically, what it involves is you’re tapping specific points on your body to kind of release these emotional blockages and restore your balance.
So this is why, to me, it sounded a little bit, you know, woo. And not very rooted in an evidence base or, you know, any science, any evidence that it might work. But I do think there is a possibility it could be helpful for people who’ve got IBS.
Preparing to use EFT in IBS
Before you start the exercise, you create a statement that acknowledges your issue.
So, for example, you might say,
Even though I feel really anxious about my digestion, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Or you might say something like,
Even though I’m worried about going to this meal tonight, I accept myself and my body.
And so this is giving you like this sense of acceptance with yourself and just helps you to acknowledge what else might be going on for you in your body.
Whilst you’re saying that statement to yourself, something that resonates with you. That feels right for you. You don’t have to use my examples.
How to use tapping for your digestive system
Tap on the edge of your hand so from your little finger if you go down towards your hand right on the edge of your hand as if you were going to do a karate kick chop, that bit there.
With your other hand, you tap with your fingertips on that point while repeating your statement three times to yourself. You say it again and again, even though I feel anxious about going to this meal tonight, I accept myself and my body, and again, and again.
Okay, and then we’re going to go through the tapping tapping process. Tapping should be light. It should be not enough to cause redness or bruising, but just really tapping with your fingertips.
EFT tapping points
You’re going to start on the top of your head, just tapping with your fingertips at the crown of your head a couple of times, maybe five to eight times. And then you move on to the next point.
The second point is tapping at the beginning of your eyebrow, right above your nose. Tapping in the middle of your eyebrows, then on the sides of your eye, just underneath your eye. On the bone, which is just coming to the outer corner of your eye, so that’s the third point.
Tapping on the bone around the corner of your eye, then tapping underneath your eye, in the middle of your eye socket underneath.
You’re going to tap underneath your nose, so just above your upper lip, right beneath your nose. Then the sixth point is tapping beneath your bottom lip, just above your chin, so kind of in the indentation between your lip and your chin. You’re going to move down and tap just below your collarbone.
And then also underneath each armpit, so alternate arms. You’re tapping on the side of your body around four inches underneath your armpit.
After the tapping process
Then you can just Check in with yourself, have a deep breath, check in how you’re feeling, and you can repeat the whole process again.
Tapping Points:
- Top of the Head: Tap gently with your fingertips on the crown of your head.
- Eyebrow: Tap at the beginning of your eyebrow, right above your nose.
- Side of the Eye: Tap on the bone bordering the outer corner of your eye.
- Under the Eye: Tap on the bone beneath your eye.
- Under the Nose: Tap above your upper lip, right beneath your nose.
- Chin: Tap beneath your bottom lip, above your chin.
- Collarbone: Tap just below your collarbone.
- Under the Arm: Tap on the side of your body, about 4 inches below your armpit.
Does tapping (EFT) work for IBS?
There have been some small scale studies looking at this emotional freedom technique and its beneficial impact on stress levels and stress markers. And they actually have shown that people can reduce signs of stress when they’ve actually measured cortisol in the saliva of people.
So before and after they measured their psychological distress. But also we’re looking at the sort of biochemical evidence of stress, which is the cortisol levels in the saliva. And the people who were doing this EFT tapping experienced a significant decrease in their cortisol levels once they’d done the tapping.
But they didn’t get a significant decrease in their psychological symptoms and this could be because it was a short term study so we don’t really know what happens if you do this over time.
Tapping may help your IBS
I think again there’s no harm in having this technique and there’s no harm in it if it helps you, if it helps you feel comforted and if it helps you take you out of that anxiety state then it is effective for you.
So whilst we don’t have a lot of large scale studies proving this is a Good technique for managing stress in IBS or any kind of anxiety. I do think it’s probably worth a try to see if it does help. And I think probably some of the mechanism by which it helps is that, like I was saying with the breathing, it’s just forcing your mind to focus on something quite mundane.
Forcing yourself to move your body a little bit, which helps you get back in touch with your body. You know, it’s just, really reconnecting with what is happening right now, rather than spinning out into what might be happening with your digestion or over catastrophizing your symptoms. Like I said, this is a little bit different for me.
I do tend to like to stick to evidence based suggestions for you. And I know a lot of my podcast listeners really appreciate that, that it’s not unfounded suggestions and things that I know don’t work. However, I do think this is a relatively safe thing to experiment with and to give it a try.
Try working with an EFT practitioner
The other thing that I wanted to mention is that obviously I’m not an EFT practitioner.
There are people out there who are trained in this who have a better understanding. You know, I’ve just researched it. I’ve read quite a lot about it, but I am not trained in it. And so my advice might not be the best on it.
In conclusion – breathing and IBS
To summarize this episode of the inside knowledge, I guess I just wanted to give you a few techniques and things to try if you are struggling with anxiety. You’re struggling with worrying about symptoms or stress at work and relationship issues. Whatever have been impacting on your digestion. Whichever way around it goes, IBS and stress and anxiety absolutely go hand in hand and we can’t get away from that.
So any tools that you’ve got that can help you calm yourself down. is going to help create that virtuous circle where you’re feeling better. Then your digestion’s better, then you’re feeling even better. And then your digestion gets even better. All right, so it’s worth investing a little bit of time into some of these things to see if it helps.
Managing your emotions
If you’re struggling with a lot of emotions, all the time it is going to impact on your digestion and you can’t really get away from that unfortunately. So it either reduces your appetite, it can leave you feeling sick if you’ve got a lot of anxiety and a lot of tension. Can then also give you physical symptoms by slowing down your motility or creating an inhospitable environment for eating.
So that you feel more bloated, you feel more pain after eating. It is worth addressing. If you want a bit more about the gut brain connection and how to improve the vagus nerve, then you might be interested in episode four, where I run through some suggestions for how to calm your IBS using your mind and some techniques for improving that vagal nerve stimulation.
So that is it for this episode. I will be back next week with another episode. Please do send me your questions. I’ve had quite a few questions over the last few weeks and I’m going to be working my way through those and creating episodes for people who have sent me in their requests.
If you’ve got a topic you’d like me to cover in the Inside Knowledge podcast, then please email me at info@goodnessme-nutrition.com. I will get back to you and let you know if I can meet your request.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Inside Knowledge. Better digestion for everyone.