Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn's disease, colitis --these disease are on the rise. In the US, it is estimated that over 20 million people suffer from the conditions characterized by irregular bowel movements, constipation, diarrhea, intolerance of a range of foods, and vomiting.
These diseases were almost unheard of a generation ago. Why now?
There are several theories. Some doctors believe, wrongly, that it's all in our heads. Others, having seen the debilitating effects of IBS up close, know that the condition is real and can be life-wrecking.
The key to why we now suffer so much more from nervous stomachs may be found in how we are raised. Our intestines are home to many forms of bacteria. These bacteria are essential to the normal functioning of our bowels. They help to break food down, allowing our bodies to absorb the nutrients it needs. Think of these bacteria as welcome and essential guests in our body's home.
However, with IBS, researchers believe, our bodies start to treat these guest bacteria as hostile invaders. The body then starts to attack them, to expel them. It tries to make us vomit them out or expel them through violent diarrhea.
In other words, our immune system starts to treat them as invaders. Why?
Some researchers believe the clue comes from our childhoods. Generations ago, our grandparents and their grandparents were raised more or less shoeless. They spent a significant part of childhood running around barefoot. As a result, their bodies became accustomed to hosting many forms of bacteria. Their bodies learned to not be alarmed at the presence of bacteria.
“Almost everybody had worms up until the 20th century,” says Dr. Joel Weinstock, a lead researcher at the Tufts-New England Medical Center, Division of Gastroenterology. . “As a result of better hygiene – wearing shoes, sidewalks – children are growing up without the influence of worms.”
“My background is in basic immunology, and I’ve studied immune parasitology, how the host immune system reacts with parasites,” says Weinstock. “Immunology is an area that is always new, is always exciting. It’s a very dynamic field. Immunological diseases are on the rise in industrialized countries, and understanding why this is happening is an interesting challenge.” Immunological diseases include Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, asthma, allergic rhinitis, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes."
This research on worms such as helminths may provide one explanation for the increase in immune disorders. Parasitic worms can live in the animal host’s gastrointestinal tract or bloodstream. To survive within the host, the worms must interact with and change the host’s immune system. Because previous generations of Americans and Europeans grew up on farms or ran around barefoot more often as children, their digestive tracts grew accustomed to these parasites.
Our child hoods were different. We grew up in a far more sterile world. We were taught always to wear shoes outside. We didn't play in dirt. We played on neat sand boxes in tennis shoes. We washed our hands with anti-bacterial soaps.
As a result of all this hyper-neatness, our stomachs and intestines have become fussy. IBS, nervous stomachs and a host of other maladies are, in a real sense, the cost of progress.
So, how do we remedy IBS? Here is a natural home remedy for IBS. Take your shoes off. And walk outside in the dirt. Having suffered from IBS for several years, I can tell you what works for me. It may not work for you. We have been raised indoors and have developed fussy stomachs and intestines as a result. So, what I would recommend is walking outside once a week in your back yard or in a park barefoot.