Emotional Effects of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome sufferers often find that they have to deal with two sets of symptoms. The physical symptoms of diarrhea, constipation and pain form the main part of IBS, but sufferers may also develop emotional problems such as mild or moderate depression and anxiety because of the strain that IBS places on their lives. There's no doubt that IBS can have a huge impact on your mental and emotional health. One of the reasons why people assume that IBS is caused by stress is that IBS sufferers can appear so stressed and unhappy. But is this really surprising? If you had explosive diarrhea, never-ending constipation or stabbing stomach cramps you'd be a bit stressed too! The nature of IBS symptoms can mean that they are very difficult to deal with, both practically, in terms of being afraid to go out because of fear of diarrhea, and emotionally, because of embarrassment and the sometimes unsympathetic reactions of others. Sufferers find that their social lives quickly diminish to nothing, or that they can no longer eat the food at restaurants or dinner parties without ending up in pain. Work or school can become a chronic struggle as you drag yourself in on days when you feel ill, knowing that if you didn't you'd get fired or kicked off your course. You may also feel that you have to pretend to be healthy most of the time in spite of how you really feel, because people get tired of hearing about your condition or begin to say things like "Well why don't you go to the doctor" or "My mum had that and ate lots of bran and now she's fine. That's what you should do." It can be very hard to bite your tongue and stop yourself answering back. "Oh, go to the DOCTOR, I see, that's where I've going wrong all this time, I thought you had to go to the hardware store. I shall now be cured." What is important to remember is that anyone who is battling with IBS is going through a very difficult time, and deserves some genuine support, as does anyone with a chronic, long-term condition. Hopefully, if you explain your condition to family and friends, support will be forthcoming, but if not you should ask yourself how much misunderstanding you are willing to put up with, and whether it is hazardous to your health. This is what Heather Van Vorous says in The First Year - IBS:
"You may even have friends or family dismiss your problem as 'all in your head.' It's up to you to educate these people, and then dump them if they persist in their ignorance at the expense of your health." If they are truly your friends then they will want to learn about the condition and be ready to accept that their views are based on prejudice and assumption rather than fact. But if they still believe that you're exaggerating then ask them to explain exactly why they believe that IBS is psychosomatic or 'all in your head', what scientific studies they are basing their views on, and how they explain the success of new drugs such as the selective 5-HT3 antagonist Lotronex. That should keep them quiet. Sophie Lee has suffered from IBS for more than 15 years. She runs the IBS Tales website http://www.ibstales.com where you can read hundreds of personal stories of IBS and self-help tips.
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Many of the experiments performed on CAPE were done so in vitro, however the anti-inflammatory properties of Propolis have been documented in rats when treating rat adjuvant arthritis. A paper by Park et al in 19997 concluding that the ethanolic extract of propolis had profound anti-inflammatory effects on both chronic and acute arthritic inflammations. These anti-inflammation properties extend to other illness and disorders such as asthma and allergies reducing both smooth muscle airway contraction8 and allergic responses. Any disorder or illness related to inflammation could be helped by Propolis.
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Propolis and CAPE have been shown to reduce the size of tumours and to selectively destroy and to curb the proliferation of malignant cells of many different types of cancer. As recently as June 10th 2005 Cancer researchers have been given a grant of a million dollars to investigate the therapeutic value of Propolis for cancer. Costas Koumenis the lead investigator for the study was quoted as saying, "a very interesting property of these compounds is that they have been shown to cause cell death in tumor cells but not in normal cells." This study along with other current studies promises to propel Propolis into the limelight in the field of cancer treatment.
Current Propolis Research in the UK
BVR (BeeVital Research) recently won a major government Research and Development Award, part of a £250,000 research programme looking at the chemical, biological and clinical properties of propolis.
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1. Documenting the regional variances in chemical and biological properties, by HPLS, GC-MS and NMR. (Taking place at Univeristy of Strathclyde)
2. Futher investigating the role of Propolis in the Hive (University of Gloucester)
3. Dental trials ? looking at effectiveness of Propolis for Mouth Ulcers, Pericorinitis, Gingivitis and Sensitive Teeth. (Manchester University Dental school)
4. HIV/AIDS trials ? looking at the effectiveness of Propolis with anti-virals in Zambia and Tanzania
5. The effects of standardised propolis on mood, stress, fatigue and cognition at the Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit at University of Newcastle.
6. To evaluate the use of local and non ? local propolis for wound healing and the treatment of skin and other dermatological problems. ( The Regional Teaching Hospital for University of Dar es Salaam)
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