Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or ‘IBS’, is a disorder involving a collection of symptoms that can include abdominal pain and cramping and changes in bowel movements. IBS has no known cause, though can follow infection of the intestines and periods of stress. 

In this blog post I’m going to give some generalised information and advice to make the subject easier to be understood. 

IBS is heavily linked to stress, and there is masses of research that clearly indicate the link between the two. Our cells and our brain are always communicating in order to create homeostasis where the correct environment is created for our cells to live. This is what maintains our body temperature, our blood glucose and energy levels and everything we need to sustain life. The intestine is connected to the brain in this way and the signals between them affect bowel function and symptoms. Stress results in communication causing the intestines to become more sensitive and contract more, therefore creating, sustaining or increasing the ‘flare-ups’ of IBS. 

The medical definition of ‘syndrome’ is a “set of symptoms occurring together” or “a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterise a particular abnormality”. There is often no pathology that can connect the symptoms together and sometimes no pathology at all. This means that one person’s IBS may be completely different to another person’s by way of cause and actual symptoms. As a result of this I can only give general advice as everyone with IBS has individual conditions and what approach may work for one may not work for another. This last comment is accurate to diet changes, supplements or drug approaches to dealing with IBS. For example some research will say avoid high fibre diets whilst other research states the opposite. Finding what diet changes work for you is most appropriate, and this may take careful experimentation.

Some of your friends will tell you to take certain foods or supplements to help, or avoid certain foods. Remember that it is your condition, and your life. Ask yourself how your body digests these and the resultant effects on the body. This way, should they work, you may find that you can ‘generalise’ this knowledge and find more solutions. 

There is a massive psychological effect on IBS. It is well known and researched that stress exacerbates the symptoms of IBS, and may often be the cause of some people’s symptoms. Create a calmer, more peaceful lifestyle and the symptoms can be reduced considerably. Whereas I work to control (on/off switch) and regulate (turning the dial) stress with hypnotherapy there are a host of psychological approaches that can be used in this respect.

Working with clients in hypnotherapy I often find that the development of IBS is due to associated learning (Google ‘classical conditioning’). This is where the mind and body have had a learning experience where the symptoms of IBS are associated with a period of stress. I often find that clients’ IBS starts at University, when they are eating and drinking ‘dodgy’ foods resulting in a sick stomach at the time of exam stress and pressure. The two become linked, and, each time they get stressed, the mind goes “Hey! I remember!” and creates the symptoms in the digestive system. By breaking the association I have helped many people free themselves from IBS. 

Sometimes the genesis of the IBS is not clear, or is a ‘by-product’ of another disease such as diverticulitis. This is a common digestive disease where ‘pouches’ (diverticula) are formed in the bowel wall which may become inflamed (giving the ‘itis’). Therefore diverticulitis is inflammation of the pouches. Symptoms are in common with IBS together with the associated abdominal pains.

If you are experiencing pain with IBS there are several approaches that can be utilised. It is worth remembering that ALL pain is created in the brain and is a ‘perception’. As such pain is regulated and controlled through the psych. This is how fighters and soldiers can ignore pain at times of action (through ‘descending’ regulation) and how a confused signal can reduce the experience of pain (through ‘efferent’ regulation). 

The ‘subjective experience’ of pain, or the ‘perception’ of pain, is also worst when negative emotions are present. Negative emotions cause the body to tense up and close off, including changes such as constriction within the digestive tract. This can exacerbate the symptoms of IBS. If the negative emotions are regulated or associations are removed the person can live happier, and reduce or remove the pain.

I use hypnotherapy to change peoples’ experience of pain – after all, pain IS just in the mind. I often take people’s pain away in about a minute of work at workshops and seminars, just to show I can do what I say I can. Nothing ‘woo-woo’ or magical about it, it is just the application of knowledge into the perception of pain. There are also many approaches to resolving pain – hypnosis is just one delivery method. 

So if you or someone you know has IBS what should you do?

Firstly I would suggest you educate yourself and gain learning around the entire subject. Become an expert in it. As everyone’s IBS is individual, you need to take the right advice and the right steps for YOU. Knowledge is most definitely power in this respect. Everyone will give you an opinion – you need to identify what is right for you. Look to the medical research as to the efficacy of approaches – Google Scholar and Pubmed will be your friends here. Question everything especially from doctors. Even question the advice I am giving you now. 

Secondly I would suggest that you get some psychological help with the condition. I of course use hypnosis as my intervention delivery method – yet there are many psychological approaches that can help. The right approach will help you remove and reduce stress, lessen negative emotions, manage any pain, and may just find a psychological origin to free you up from IBS completely. 

Thirdly don’t let it form your ‘identity’. Let yourself run your life, not your IBS. You are still the same person. Remain that person. 

I really do hope this blog post has helped you - IBS affects too many people. If you know someone who suffers from IBS please feel free to share to them. 

What does practice make?

What does practice make?

If you said perfect, shoot yourself now. Practice makes permanent.

Technically, practice makes myelin. It speeds communication between neurons – it makes you act and react more quickly, and more efficiently.

Here comes the geeky bit.

So what is myelin? Myelin is a plasma membrane made up of 40% water, with the rest being mostly fat and some protein. Myelin comes from glial cells which provide structural and metabolic support for neurons. In particular on the peripheral nervous system these are called Schwann Cells, and in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) they are called oligodenrocytes.

Myelin acts on axons. These can be thought of as ‘wires’ that travel between neurons. They allow one neuron to ‘talk’ to another by means of ion conduction, or ‘electrical current’ if you will. When the neurons talk to each other on the same axon the glial cells recognise this and start adding myelin to make the communication more efficient.

The myelin wraps itself around the axons in little stretches with small gaps called ‘nodes of ranvier’ in between each section of myelin. The myelin can be thought of as insulation around the axon allowing faster electrical movement within, and with less dissipation. The nodes of ranvier allow for something called satatory conduction to take place, where sodium (Na+) allows the electrical charge to speed along between the myelinated parts.  

Myelin allows there to be faster electrical movement along the axons with less dissipation allowing the neurons to talk to each other more quickly. If neurons can communicate with more speed and efficiency then you can react and act more quickly.

The more times you repeat a movement the more myelin gets laid down. It is permanent, unless affected by old age or disease, yet can (generalisation) always be laid down.

So practice doesn’t make things perfect – it makes things permanent. So the only thing that counts is getting your training right – particularly all technical elements.

So when someone tells you that “practice makes perfect”, you now have all the information you need to point them in the right direction.

This is me in training, carrying out deliberate practice to get it right.
Kickboxing training at Kops Gym, Amsterdam

Presentation – Performance through Psychology - Sappers Judo Team

I completely love working with the British Army. They are inspiration for me and have given me so much, despite being a civilian, including access to some of their psychology courses. So when I’m asked to help out, I’m there straight away – it is my pleasure to help out!

I delivered a presentation yesterday (6^th August 2013) to the Sappers Judo Team, over at the home of the Royal Engineers in Minley. They are there on a ‘Judo week’, training intensely. It was great fun working with them!

I’ve just received some amazing feedback. Remember, I’m a hypnotist, so it could be I just hypnotised them to give these great responses. Or, they really enjoyed the presentation and found it of benefit. Have a read; let me know what you think!

If you, your sports team, group, association or business think that you could benefit from such input, please get in touch!

Here’s the feedback, copied and pasted direct from the email. I have ‘starred out’ the final two words of the very last comment, and I’ll leave you to guess what the words are. I’m still laughing about it as I type this. It does show the military humour and the fact that this is a genuine email!

Here’s the feedback:

“Very helpful and made me think about my performance

Looking forward to trying some of the techniques to help my confidence and belief

Some great tactics in improving my positive mind set

Answered a lot of doubts about how to deal with nerves, as well how to encourage others.

Helped me clear a few voices in my head that have given me lots of grief over the last 2 years. Allowed me to put a very positive spin back in my life. Thank you for helping me move on......

Very helpful and gave me a few things to think about and try on the run up to comp days.

Gave me a lot of things to think about, not just on the judo performance side of things but in general life as well.

Nice to get an understanding of how to encourage yourself and break through the wall of pain. For example the smiling and motivational mindset needed whilst running etc.

Proved by example how pain as well as performance is a mind set and how we are able to understand and even suppress the feelings.

The guy's a genius!

Initially sceptical about hypnosis, Gary proved in front of everyone how his techniques can help you retrain the mind for positive effect.

The techniques we were taught on 'mental rehearsal' were really good, and will be of great assistance with future tournaments and fights in the future to run through fights prior to us competing and give us confidence when we think about ourselves doing perfect techniques.

From the moment Gary entered the room he had our complete attention which due to his enthusiasm and passion for the subject was held for 90 minutes.  He encouraged and coached the team to use their own imaginations to create self belief and positive mental attitudes.

A refreshingly positive outlook on life 'Smiler' remained positive throughout the session, even when approaching the topics of a lion and monster spider entering the room.

Gary was truly inspirational, members of the Sapper judo team team were still 'buzzing' after hours after his short session on sports performance and the power of the mind.  We took this on to the judo mat that evening in Enfield where everyone felt they performed better than earlier in the day.

And finally, one you won't want to post on your website  or share with the missus, but sums up squaddie humour to a tee...

With his positive mindset and imagination he must have a brilliant “****  ****”



As an amendment, I have received some text feedback too! Here's what the texts say:

"Response for Gary was thought that the session was very engaging and what he said made sense and would definitely think that would benefit from his sessions and have to say was a bit skeptic about the hypnosis but was proved wrong!"

"Gary did a great job of getting across to us the variety of skills he has and how he uses them to help people. His practical demo's were spot on and reinforced what he said he could do. I particularly liked the pain control and explanations of it. The mental practice rehearsals were definitely really useful and I'm definitely going to be using this technique."

"Very good, interesting how the attitude of the mind can result in a negative performance and the techniques to combat this were very good."

"Clear and understandable, I definitely can see how performance can be improved through mental practice, although didn't quite agree with the no free will theoy...a choice is still a choice no matter how predictable or the life experience involved in taking it, but otherwise very good and enjoyable!"

I actually love this last one as it is the only feedback that questioned an element of what I was presenting. I like being questioned. It tells me people are thinking, and that is a great thing. I referred this person to Sam Harris' book 'Free Will', which breaks down nicely the science of free will, so this person can gain further understanding - and of course make their own mind up!

Needless to say, I'm really pleased with all this great feedback! So if you want me to come and talk for you, please get in touch!

Wrapping hands for punching – is it necessary?

This is a topic that comes up regularly, and warrants a bit more investigation. Boxers will always tell you that you must wrap your hands – some boxing coaches going as far as saying that their boxers are not allowed to train unless they wrap. On the other hand, many Mixed Martial Artists and Kickboxers don’t wrap their hands at all unless the competition rules dictate at that time. 

Some people think that you should wrap your hands to protect the knuckles, the structure of the hand, or the wrists – or indeed a combination of the three. Some will say that everyone’s hands should be wrapped the same, others say that everyone’s hands should be wrapped as an individual. Mostly, opinions are based on what these people have been told, or that their trainer’s trainer did this, and so on. It’s hard to decide as to what may be a perpetuated myth.

This is a problem perpetuated by personal trainers and boot camps doing striking. They wrap their clients’ hands, the gloves are put on, and the hitting starts. To be honest I find this a very dangerous practise. Unless you know exactly what you are doing with pads, the way your client strikes, and have the correct knowledge of how to form a punching fist and its application there is a severe danger of injury for both the client and the trainer. 

As always, I looked to break down the topic to fine detail, so you can make your own informed decision. I couldn’t find any research papers to support my little exploration, so by breaking it down to base components we are better placed to decide why, when and how to wrap our hands – if at all. 

If you punch with the correct physiology you will not hurt yourself. Firstly, the knuckles of the hand are supported by the bones behind them, aligning as a rod with the forearm bones, upper arm, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles and feet all acting as a rod off the fixator of the ground. The 'cores' around each joint are supported and strengthened by the tendons and ligaments, and of course the skeletal muscles. All align the bones as one rod which is very hard in compression. Get this aligned and you will strike without needing additional support. This is the basic physics of biomechanics and biotensegrity. ‘Biotensegrity’, for here, can be thought of as how the skeletal muscles, the soft tissue that connects and operates them, all work together.

But! You may say, the target is moving, you never hit a target precisely. I fully agree. That's why the hands need to be able to ‘propriocate’, adjusting accordingly allowing the force to be transferred to the target rather than dissipated in the hand. Training lightly without wraps helps the soft tissues and motor neurons controlling the punch learn how to make these tiny adjustments. Wrapping the hands will limit this adaptation.

The hands need to flex slightly on impact to absorb and transfer the force. If wraps are applied too tightly then the force will be contained inside the fist at weak points – and fractures and tears may occur. The hand needs to be able to move ‘just right’ on impact.

If wraps are used, such as in competition, they need to be very carefully applied. Too loose and there is no support. Too tight and the hand will not be allowed to flex as required and stress will be wrongly applied resulting in injuries. Too tight in the wrong places and the bones and supporting structure will be out of alignment. Blood flow may become restricted. Too tight around the wrist and there will be no ability to propriocate. Wraps need to be applied anatomically correct for that individual person’s physiology, and with regard to any pre-existing injury requirements, otherwise injury is a risk. 

There is a potential psychological advantage of wraps, however applied, they may give comfort and reduce hesitation in the fighter throwing a punch as they know their hands are wrapped and therefore 'believe' they will not hurt their hands, or indeed the wraps act as a guide, a reminder, for the correct striking position. As with warm-ups in my previous blog post, the benefit of wrapping may just be psychological and that could be reason enough to wrap.

A further point is that if hands are always wrapped there will be inherent weaknesses being developed in the fist, as continually striking with the wraps applied in one way will provide support in some areas meaning the soft tissues have to do less and atrophy will occur, plus neuronal pruning, all resulting a weaker hand. Wrap the hands even slightly different to usual and problems may occur.

My conclusion then is that wraps are only required if the rules so dictate, or if you have an injury that needs the right support. Whether you decide to wrap or not this post will hopefully make you aware of some of the issues so you are better placed to form the right choice, the one that is right for you. 

If you decide to wrap I suggest that you go to an experience physio or other such person, and one with knowledge of the structure of the hand and wrist in connection with punching and your chosen sport. They will be able to teach you to apply the wraps in the right way so that you are appropriately protected and lessen the risk of you damaging yourself. 

Remember, it is your body, and the choice is yours.

(Photos are of me training at Kops Gym, Amsterdam, here with Rene Rooze and Peter Aerts, circa 2007)