Treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

In 2014, the BIG Lottery offered an award for original scientific research into new treatment options. Healing has already been used successfully in the specialist bowel disease clinic at NHS Good Hope Hospital. ^[1]

This prompted the question: What can healing do for patients with irritable bowel syndrome and IBD?

What is irritable bowel syndrome?

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common ailment. It is a disturbance of the gastrointestinal tract, and produces abdominal pain combined with constipation (clogging) or diarrhea, lethargy and fatigue. This has a major impact on a person’s life, partly because it becomes difficult to undertake activities outside the home.

In addition to Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have been studied. In the latter two, in addition to pain symptoms, inflammation can be found in the intestine. They are therefore also called “inflammatory bowel disease” (IBD).

The causes of these diseases are unknown, and there is no specific treatment that works for all patients.

The Largest Research on Healing Ever!

The Universiteit van Birmingham conducted research^[2] on 200 patients. Many specialists were involved to bring this research to a high level. A senior physician, 4 experienced researchers, a statistician, 5 healers and additional peer reviewers were part of the team.

Because anyone can potentially be a healer, this study did not use a placebo group, but a waiting group. That group only received the first treatment after 6 weeks, and could therefore be compared with the progress of the first group. The results were compared after 6, 12 and 24 weeks.

Results

The results are promising. Not only did many participants enthusiastically participate until the end of the study, but their experiences were also meaningful. ^[3] For many of them, For many of them a big difference had been made. For some, it meant fewer symptoms and being able to walk outside again without worry, others were completely cured after 5-10 sessions!

The researchers cautiously spoke of a “possible clinical significance”, i.e. that it is useful to use healing for IBS. An overall recommendation can only be made when several teams can replicate these results.

The addition of healing therapy to conventional treatment was associated with improvement in symptoms and quality of life.

Moving Forwawrd

It remains a question of trying out what works, as the Dutch Maag Lever Darm Stichting (Gastrointestinal Foundation) also points out. In any case, the results from the study are promising. Healing is a possible solution, or it provides relief from the symptoms. And for diseases where no cure seems possible, that is already a big step forward.

References

1. ^ Edwards, S. (2017). Healing in a Hospital. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.nl/Spiritual-Healing-Hospitals-Clinics-Scientific-ebook/dp/B08X4XW31K
2. ^ Lee, R., Kingstone, T., Roberts, L., Edwards, S., Soundy, A., Shah, P., Haque, M., & Singh, S. (2017). A pragmatic randomised controlled trial of healing therapy in a gastroenterology outpatient setting. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 9. doi:10.1016/j.eujim.2016.11.017
3. ^ Soundy, A., Lee, R. T., Kingstone, T., Singh, S., Shah, P. R., & Roberts, L. (2015). Experiences of healing therapy in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 15(1). doi:10.1186/s12906-015-0611-x