Can Hypnosis Help Your Gut Issues? – Episode 501
Approximately 61% to 66% of American adults experience recurring gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms like bloating, abdominal pain, and reflux, according to studies from the National Institutes of Health.
What many people don’t realize is that negative emotions such as anxiety, worry, anger and stress can aggravate symptoms of gut issues.
This is due to what is called the gut-brain axis. This is the human body’s two-way communication network between the gut and the brain.
Can hypnosis help your gut issues? Yes!
In this episode of the Ted in Your Head podcast, Ted discusses the use of hypnotherapy for easing symptoms of gut issues such as IBS, SIBO, GERD and Crohn’s Disease.
If you are struggling with gut issues, you owe it to yourself to check out this episode.
Listen to this podcast episode now:
Very early in my career as a hypnotherapist, I received an email from a woman who was wondering if hypnosis could help her IBS.
I didn’t know what IBS was, so I looked it up.
IBS is Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which is a chronic functional disorder of the large intestine, characterized by abdominal pain, bloating, and altered bowel habits (diarrhea, constipation, or both).
About 10% to 15% of the US population is affected by IBS, according to the American College of Gastroenterology. (2024)
Anyway, at that point in my career, I wasn’t sure of how effective hypnotherapy could be for this condition, but with the naïve belief of a beginner, I told this woman that I would try to help her.
She described to me how she had great anxiety about urgently and unpredictably having to use the restroom and how important it was to get to one quickly.
One of the characteristics of people with IBS is “safety planning”. They develop a mental map of public restroom locations such as restaurants and gas stations. The potential for embarrassment is always on their minds, creating a high level of anxiety.
For this client, the fear was very real and quite limiting. She described it as a “dark cloud”.
I worked with this client for four sessions, suggesting that she had control over her body and helping her to bring down her anxiety.
She responded very well and shortly after our sessions, I received the first card in the mail from a client. She thanked me for “lifting the cloud of IBS from her life”.
I relate this story to you not to toot my own horn, but to demonstrate that even as a novice hypnotherapist, I was able to help this woman using the relaxed state of hypnosis.
Eventually, I learned about the gut-brain axis. This is the human body’s two way communication network between the gut and the brain.
You may have heard that the gut is often referred to as the “Second Brain” or the enteric nervous system, ENS.
The gut contains over 500 million neurons and is highly sensitive to stress, anxiety, and anger.
This is how anxiety and digestion are connected. For example, when you are in a high state of anxiety, worry or fear, your body is experiencing the fight flight response.
This negatively impacts your digestion because resources, such as blood, are diverted away from digestion.
See, in fight flight, your body is preparing to fight or run away. Now, you may not consciously be preparing to fight or run away if something is making you anxious, but your body is.
So, what happens is that digestion slows down, the ability of your stomach to empty itself becomes compromised, and food just sits there, not only allowing bad bacteria to thrive, but causing constipation and or diarrhea.
That’s when you have the symptoms of a gut that is out of balance. These symptoms include nausea, heartburn, stomach aches, cramps and bloating.
Chronic anxiety can also aggravate:
- SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth)
- GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease)
- Crohn’s Disease which is a chronic, autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease.
This is why these types of conditions respond very well to hypnotherapy.
While you are in a relaxing state of hypnosis, your body gets a chance to let go of stress, anxiety, pressure, and tension. The idea is to get your body into rest and digest, where your nervous system is calm and your body is relaxed. This calms the nerves in the GI tract and increases the motility, or cleaning movement, or your gut.
It’s very common, when I’m working with a client in hypnosis, to hear their stomach start making gurgling noises which is usually a sign of digestion starting to move again.
This work with digestive issues using hypnosis is now called Gut Directed Hypnotherapy.
There are multiple well-controlled studies, such as those conducted by Monash University in Australia, that show that gut directed hypnotherapy can improve symptoms in people with IBS by 70 to 80 percent.
There are many other approaches to managing these types of gut issues.
Medication is often prescribed as well as dietary recommendations such as a low FODMAP diet which is a diet that eliminates foods that cause bloating such as dairy, wheat products and garlic and onions.
Avoiding stomach irritants such as caffeine and alcohol is also recommended.
Other approaches include relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation. And of course, regular exercise is a must to help lower stress.
So in closing, hypnotherapy can be a highly effective tool for managing gut issues such as IBS. However, if you are experiencing these types of digestive issues, it is important to consult with your doctor to rule out any issues that might require medication or medical attention.
A great resource are the folks at Modrn Med. Check it out.
When I worked with that first IBS client many years ago, I was surprised at the positive results we got. But now that I understand how anxiety impacts the gut, I know that just helping her relax and be less anxious made a huge difference for her.
Here is a quote for you by Friedrich Nietzsche:
“Life is a well of joy; but for those out of whom an upset stomach speaks, which is the father of melancholy, all wells are poisoned.”
Remember that you can watch this podcast on YouTube
If you are struggling with stomach issues and you want to talk and see if we can work together, go to TedMoreno.com/contact to request a complimentary half hour consultation to see if hypnotherapy is right for you. If it is, we’ll make it happen.
So take good care of your gut, and thanks for listening or watching.
