Peter Whorwell, Professor of medicine and gastroenterology at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hospital, and author of “Take Control of Your IBS” (£14.25, Amazon) shares what women with irritable bowel syndrome need to know to stay active.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) affects up to 20% of the population (around 13 million people) in the UK, causing symptoms such as diarrhoea, abdominal pain, bloating and fatigue, often accompanied by anxiety.
These symptoms can make everyday activities such as exercise, feel difficult or out of reach for many sufferers, particularly people with IBS-D where diarrhoea is the predominant symptom. These people often feel anxious that sudden bowel urges or an episode of diarrhoea may strike whilst exercising. The anxiety can potentially worsen symptoms, and some may experience faecal incontinence causing them to withdraw from exercising at all.
For people where IBS constipation is the main symptom (Type IBS-C), exercise is important to help stimulate movement of the bowel, but exercising itself can feel uncomfortable due to abdominal pain or bloating.
A flare up of IBS symptoms can make exercising a challenge but exercise is important for overall health and mental wellbeing, and so it’s important to learn coping strategies that will help enable you to undertake mild to moderate exercise to stay fit and well to reap the benefits that exercise can bring.
Read on for my tips on how to stay active with IBS, I hope they will be helpful.
Rethink your exercise if IBS flare-ups are frequent
Excessive exercise can worsen IBS symptoms in some people. It is usually the bowel habit that is affected and the more vigorous the exercise, the worse the problem.
Exercise doesn’t have to be high intensity to reap health benefits. Moderate exercise such as brisk walking, cycling or swimming have been shown to improve irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. A brisk daily walk helps build stamina, burn excess calories, makes your heart healthier and counts towards the NHS recommended guideline of 150 minutes of weekly exercise for adults age 19 to 64.
If you feel anxious about exercising in public, try an online exercise class from the comfort of your home whilst you learn which coping strategies work for you. Once you feel in more control of your symptoms, introduce outdoor exercise for short periods of time, increasing these as your confidence grows.
Try a 25 to 30-minute brisk daily walk or two to three shorter 10-minute walks across the day whilst you build confidence exercising outdoors. A brisk walk is faster than a stroll. You should be able to talk but not sing the words to a song.
Keep hydrated and when exercising outside, choose routes where you can access toilet facilities along the route if you need them, which will help reduce anxiety.
Avoid trigger foods
To increase your chances of exercising in comfort, avoid caffeine and fatty foods before exercising as both are known to trigger IBS.
Consider a rest day
For severe diarrhoea, it is probably worth having a rest day to reset and rethink your strategy. If you have been training for an event and you are struck down with diarrhoea on the day but you don’t want to fail to compete, you could consider taking an anti-diarrhoeal like loperamide.
Gentle support for IBS-D and IBS-M
Some people find taking an enterosorbent silicic acid gel like silicol®gel not only reduces loose stools but also relieves abdominal pain and bloating associated with IBS. These gels can be found in sachets and can be taken before exercising or zipped into a pocket should symptoms strike whilst you are out exercising.
Hydrate well for IBS-C
If constipation is your main symptom, it is important to drink plenty of water and other fluids daily, but you will need to drink even more fluids on exercise days to replenish those lost during exercise and help keep your bowel moving naturally.
Living with IBS doesn’t mean giving up on your aspirations to keep fit and feel strong but you will need to learn how to work with your body to support it at times when IBS is challenging you.
Don’t let an IBS flare up set you back
When things don’t go to plan and exercise feels impossible due to an IBS flare up, don’t be disheartened, a rest day is not the end of the world. It will give you the chance to reset and get back to a frame of mind and physical state where you can pick up your exercise routine another day.
For inspiration on coping with IBS while exercising, follow this link to read how IBS sufferer, Anne Muir learned to cope with her symptoms using silicol®gel.
About silicol®gel
silicol®gel is an enterosorbent, liquid gel specially formulated for the treatment of the IBS symptoms diarrhoea, abdominal pain, bloating and flatulence. Taken up to 3 times a day it treats IBS symptoms and provides relief. To buy silicol®gel, click here.