Adrenaline Junkie

Although we repeatedly hear about the negative health effects of stress, today we’re here to tell you that stress isn’t necessarily all bad. Like food, sex, and shoes, it’s quality, not quantity, that determines whether stress helps or hurts!

Beneficial stress comes in the form of an acute, stimulating surge, like when your raft starts to overturn in some seriously churning rapids. The resulting single adrenaline (epinephrine) burst that comes and goes very quickly is a good thing because it gives you energy and gets you ready to mobilize for immediate action.

Physiologically, the adrenaline created by an abrupt blast of stress sends a flood of oxygen-rich red blood cells through your body, boosts your immune system, and signals your brain to start releasing painkilling endorphins.

Bad stress, on the other hand, is intense and drags on and on. This constant grind causes your adrenal glands to leak a slow, steady stream of another stress hormone: cortisol. And unlike adrenaline, which tends to hit your system in a flash and then dissipate, cortisol often wears out its welcome by hanging around in your bloodstream, driving up blood pressure, suppressing your immune system, and making you more susceptible to a slew of stress-related ailments, including colds, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, and even heart disease and stroke.

So how do good stressors battle the bad ones? It all comes back to the positive power of adrenaline. In addition to all of its performance-enhancing effects, it triggers the release of dopamine and endorphins, two neurotransmitters that make you feel good – really, really good.

It also makes me feel good – really, really good, given the activities I have planned this weekend. But more of that later…

For now, let’s return to our favorite stress hormone – epinephrine. If you’ve ever tried skydiving, bungee jumping or heli-skiing, you’ll probably remember literally flipping out during your first attempt. But once you landed safely you probably experienced a euphoric, fist-pumping high thanks to dopamine flooding your brain’s pleasure center, giving you. During the next jump, you may still have felt all the same physiological stress responses such as a pounding heart and sweaty palms but instead of being terrifying, it’s exhilarating, because your mind’s already anticipating the thrill of that dopamine reward.

And the more times you do it, the less anxiety you’re likely to feel and the more fun you’ll have. That’s because your brain’s tagging the experience as a positive one.

And the benefits persist.  Before long, your body can start to develop an almost Pavlovian response to stressful situations. If your nerves are tingling, your stomach is clenching, and you can barely breathe, then it’s tricked into thinking something really awesome is about to happen!

That’s what researchers at Texas A&M University found when they put a small sample of men and women through a series of purposely stressful outdoor adventure tasks. Some subjects – the fittest ones who were already comfortable with physical challenges fared better than others. The researchers discovered that those participants had a reduced stress response (including lower blood levels of cortisol) when facing demanding activities like whitewater canoeing or rock climbing. Essentially, they were more confident and less stressed out, even though the tasks were potentially hazardous. This may be because their past experience blazing through strenuous situations made them less likely to perceive new challenges as stressful or difficult. And according to the researchers, it’s possible to transfer that oh-so-cool-and-collected response to life’s other nerve-racking events.

Better still, you don’t have to scuba dive with great whites or BASE jump off the Empire State Building to reap the stress-busting perks of adrenaline. Whether you hit the bunny slope or the double-black-diamond mogul fields, as long as you’re taking a giant step outside your comfort zone, you’ll give your body that adrenaline kick and when you do it regularly and keep testing your edge, you’ll change your relationship with stress for the better.

So next time that little voice inside your head starts clamoring, no freaking way, just go for it and be prepared to reap the rewards.

Which brings me back to my weekend. Keen to test the above theory for myself and readers of SRxA’s Word on Health, I will be spending tomorrow riding some of the longest, highest, fastest most insane rollercoasters in the country…and the following day I will be running with the bulls. If being pursued by twenty-four 1,000-pound bulls doesn’t set my adrenaline firing on all cylinders, then I guess nothing will.

I”ll let you know (hopefully) on Monday!

The Scoop on Poop

What are your bowel movements telling you?

Whether you love or hate the Quilted Northern TP ads on TV,now’s the  time to get real about what happens in the bathroom. Before March morphs into April we need to spread the scoop about poop in recognition of colorectal cancer awareness month.

Bottom line, (excuse the pun), we all poop. So now it’s time to stand up, or sit down, and take notice of what our bowel movements are telling us.

Signs of everything from disease to stress may show up in your bathroom bowl. The key is knowing what to look for — and what the signs may mean.

First off, there is no normal. People are different. So are bowel movements. The size, shape and consistency of feces will change greatly from person to person.

So instead of looking for “normal,” look for change. Are you going less, or more often? Has the consistency altered? Have you gone from runny to solid? If you experience a noticeable change that lasts, it’s time to see your doctor.

Are you seeing red?

If there is blood in your feces on a recurring basis, you need to see a doctor, stat. Blood can be a sign of polyps or colorectal cancer. It also can be caused by benign conditions such as hemorrhoids and anal fissures. In any case, it’s worth getting checked out.

Also, keep an eye out for other symptoms: weight loss, fever, chills. When they come together, those are “high-alert” symptoms of bowel disorders.

Size does matter!

If you used to have sizeable stools but now they are always pencil thin and hard to pass, consult your doctor. In certain types of colorectal cancer, the bowel gets narrow, and so can your bowel movements. And while thin stools do not automatically mean cancer you should still see your doctor and have a  colonoscopy just to be on the safe side.

Consistency, consistency, consistency

We all have bouts of diarrhea from time to time, usually as a result of food poisoning or an infection. But if you have frequent diarrhea it could be a sign of an inflammatory bowel condition such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

The scoop on stress

Your body as well as your brain reacts to things that go on around us. The impact of stress and unresolved issues may show up in your bathroom.

So next time you go to the bathroom instead of simply wiping and flushing take a moment or two to look and learn what your bowel movements are telling you.

No s**t!

 

Oh S**t! – Don’t Try This At Home

In the mood for a little DIY this weekend?  Paint the bathroom…put up a few shelves…perform a poop transplant???

Regular Word on Health readers will recall that last year we brought you news of a successful, yet controversial, new treatment for inflammatory bowel disease – fecal microbiota transplantation. While we remembered to warn you of the “yuck factor” associated with this post, we never thought to add the caution “don’t try this at home.”

Seems we should have.

Lately, stories about the success of at-home fecal transplants have been spreading virally, or should we say bacterially, across the internet!  Stranger still, some respected science writers  and researchers have expressed support for the procedure. People are literally buzzing about the possibilities.

Dr. Lawrence Brandt, head of gastroenterology at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, says that he receives several emails a week from people begging for fecal transplants. While they used to come only from people suffering from bowel disease, now he’s getting requests from people who are hoping to beat diabetes, autism, asthma, MS and obesity too.

As it’s not clear whether gut bacteria can help with any of these complaints, many doctors are unwilling or unable to help.

And that’s why, it seems, patients are now doing it themselves.

Chris Gorski is one such person prepared to take this drastic step. Last year, his daughter developed a gut infection that caused severe and chronic diarrhea. Despite antibiotics, she still has symptoms and now Gorski worries that the infection will destroy the lining of her intestines and affect her for the rest of her life.  Armed with what he’s read on the internet, and a burning desire to help his daughter, he’s decided to collect some of his own stool, strain it, and then squirt it into her body using colonoscopy instruments.

He hopes that his “good bacteria” will become established in the girl’s body and repair her gastrointestinal tract.

Gorski’s plan may sound gross, but he argues that what he’s doing is revolutionary. In an age when probiotics, are being extolled for their beneficial qualities, he says his solution is just an extension of living medicine.

Do you think this is a good idea, or how shall we say it, just a crappy one?!?  Let us know what you think.

Bad day for your bowels?

Having one of those days…weeks…months?  If so, you should consider getting help before you end up with toilet troubles.

Seriously?   According to the results of a study unveiled this week at the American College of Gastroenterology’s (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific Meeting, the psychological and emotional traumas experienced over a lifetime, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, natural disaster, house fire or car accident, physical or mental abuse, all may contribute to adults with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, found that adults with IBS reported more traumas over a lifetime than matched controls .

“While stress has been linked to IBS, and childhood abuse has been reported to be present in up to 50 percent of patients with IBS, most studies of abuse have focused on sexual abuse with sparse detail and also have not looked at other forms of psychological trauma,” said Yuri Saito-Loftus, MD. “This is the first study that looks at multiple forms of trauma, the timing of those traumas, and traumas in a family setting.”

IBS is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder marked by abdominal discomfort, bloating, constipation and/or diarrhea and may be caused by changes in the nerves and muscles that control sensation and motility of the bowel. Trauma may sensitize the brain and the gut, according to Dr. Saito-Loftus, who said that the results of this study indicate that patients with IBS experience or report traumas at a level higher than patients without IBS.

In the United States, it is estimated that 10-15% of the adult population suffers from IBS. The burden of illness for IBS is significant and can have such a severe impact on Health-Related Quality of Life that it has been linked to an increase in suicidal behavior.

“Patients and their families frequently wonder, ‘why me?’, ‘why did this happen?,’” said Dr. Saito Loftus. “This will help them understand why IBS happened to them.”

Our advice?  Do not “underplay” the role of stress. Even if you think you can cope with life’s little traumatic experiences on your own, your bowels may not agree.

Patients Don’t Pooh-Pooh Fecal Transplants

Let’s start this blog with the disclaimer that what you’re about to read has a high “yuck” factor…unless it seems you’re a patient or a parent of a patient with ulcerative colitis.

A new study just published in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Disease examined the social and ethical issues associated “fecal microbiota transplantation” (FMT).

Yes, FMT is just what you’re thinking it is!  Also known as fecal bacteriotherapy, it is a provocative treatment performed in an attempt to calm a troubled bowel by reintroducing the vast diversity of collaborative bowel inhabitants after the usual mix has been disturbed. More than 1,000 different strains of bacteria co-exist peacefully in the typical healthy bowel. But when the delicate balance is altered, by antibiotics or other causes, a few strains can become dominant, leading to severe diarrhea, inflammation and tissue damage.

Although transplants of fecal matter have been used sporadically to treat gastrointestinal disease for more than 50 years, more recently, the approach has produced lasting remissions for a small number of patients with ulcerative colitis.

The first fecal transplants date back to 1958, when they were used to treat life-threatening bowel infections. They did this by collecting fecal matter from a healthy donor and injecting it into the patient’s colon.

Then in 2003, an Australian team published a report on successful treatment of six patients with longstanding ulcerative colitis with this approach.

And although you may be feeling a little squeamish by now, it seems that patients with severe inflammatory bowel disease develop a high tolerance for therapies that others might consider unorthodox. According to study author David Rubin, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, “Once patients get past the yuck factor they find the concept appealing.”

Like an organ transplant, fecal microbiota transplantation begins with finding a donor, often a family member. The treatment team collects a fresh stool sample of at least 200 – 300 grams (7-10 ounces). The sample is mixed with salt water in a blender and filtered to remove particulate matter. It can be administered to the recipient through a colonoscope, as an enema, or, when the inflamed region is higher in the colon, through a nasogastric tube.

The researchers organized six focus groups with patients or parents of children with ulcerative colitis to explore the attitudes and concerns raised by this approach.

They found that:

• 21:22 patients or parents of patients were interested in trying FMT for themselves or their child
• Most wished it were already available
• They viewed the treatment as more ‘natural’ than using drugs to control the disease, and easier and safer than currently available therapies
• Many compared it to probiotics, a popular alternative therapy among patients with colitis.

The major concerns were focused on how donors would be selected and screened. Patients wanted healthy donors, usually family members, and asked that even their diet and medications be considered. A donor who had eaten peanuts recently, for example could be hazardous for a recipient with peanut allergies.

The “yuck” factor came up in the focus group discussions of bacterial delivery. Patients and parent were comfortable with the idea of a “spray” colonoscopy or delivery via enemas, but were disturbed by the idea of using a nasogastric tube for the transfer of fecal bacteria.

“What our study ultimately tells us is that patients are not only tolerant of this therapy but are eager for it to become available,” Rubin said. “A few have already tried this strategy at home, using ‘protocols’ they found on the internet and tools available at any drug store.”

The team plans to begin offering FMT this fall.

Would you sign up for a poop transplant or consider being a donor?

IBS – a pain in the mind?

Some health problems are pretty simple to understand. If you have a sore throat, your doctor will take a swab and run tests to see if you have a strep infection. An odd-looking lump can be biopsied to see if it is cancerous. Unfortunately, with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) it’s just not that simple.

IBS is a tough disorder to understand. Estimates suggest it affects as many as 1:5 Americans.  However, studies have failed to show any structural problems in the gut that would account for the symptoms of pain, bloating, diarrhea and constipation, leading cynics to suggest it’s “all in the mind”.

Now researchers have found a possible connection between IBS and the brain. Using  MRI scans, scientists revealed changes in the brains of women with the disorder. They took MRI scans of 55 IBS patients and 48 healthy women for comparison. Women with IBS tended to have decreases in gray matter in parts of the brain that govern attention and areas that suppress pain.

A similar link between the brain and chronic pain has been identified in other disorders, such as lower back pain and migraine. The study on IBS suggests that, like these other conditions, the problem may be due to the brain’s inability to inhibit the pain response.

Emeran Mayer MD, co-author of the UCLA study said, “The findings remove the idea once and for all that IBS symptoms are not real and are ‘only psychological and will give us more insight into better understanding IBS.”

SRxA’s Word on Health would like to hear from you, whether you have an IBS drug to promote, or a IBS story to tell.