Irritable Bowel Syndrome can be a debilitating gut disorder. Living day to day with the life interrupting symptoms can be really challenging. Finding treatment that actually works for you can feel just as challenging. Working with a dietitian can be a game changer.
Watch or read below to learn more:
How A Dietitian Can Help With IBS
Let’s take a look at three of the ways having a dietitian as part of your IBS team can help.
Putting the pieces together
A dietitian can help you put the pieces of your symptoms and IBS experience together. There are a number of different symptoms that show up with IBS – diarrhea, constipation, bloating, and abdominal pain are some of the most common ones. The exact experience of these symptoms (and combination of symptoms) varies quite a bit from person to person.
Myself, and many other dietitians, begin the working relationship by doing a thorough assessment to hear your story, help you make some sense of what you are experiencing and gain insight into what actually has and hasn’t worked for you so far.
Just as an example, I have a number of patients who are on various supplements, and when I ask if they are helping, they tell me they don’t know. Those desperate moments of trying anything to get your IBS under control can take you down lots of roads, and every now and then it’s good to pause and look critically at what has and hasn’t helped.
Making a plan
A dietitian can also help you put together a solid plan for what to do about your IBS. I’ve had a number of patients who haven’t really known how to address their IBS and they just live with the symptoms for years. It doesn’t have to be that way.
There are so many options for treatments and interventions to try. A dietitian can help you look at the whole picture of your IBS, along with any other health and nutrition considerations you may have, and make a plan that fits you best. People with IBS really benefit from this kind of personalized approach, since there is no one size fits all solution for IBS.
The low FODMAP diet is one of the interventions that can be very helpful for IBS. It is also a much more nuanced approach than a one page handout of “do’s” and “don’ts” can provide. Having a dietitian who’s trained and experienced with the low FODMAP diet can help you know how to understand these nuances and apply the diet in a way that’s actually going to work for you.
Support along the way
When you develop an ongoing working relationship with a dietitian you get support along the way. Making a plan is just the first step. Knowing how to apply that plan to your schedule, lifestyle, cooking ability, and preferences is a part that isn’t often taken into consideration, but it is critical.
Also, sticking with a plan long enough to know whether or not it’s actually working for you takes commitment and it helps to have the support and the continued guidance of a professional. Part of this guidance is helping you recognize when something isn’t working, and when it’s time to let it go, move on and try the next thing.
It can be so overwhelming if you’re on your own and just layering on intervention after intervention, scared to stop anything because you don’t know what’s working or not.
IBS can be a really challenging condition to have and it can be really isolating. But you don’t have to go it alone, and building a bigger team can help get your symptoms under control and get your life back.
If you’re ready to make a dietitian part of your IBS team please reach out on my Appointments page. As a Monash low FODMAP trained dietitian who specializes in IBS I’d love to be part of your team.
