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You’ve probably had the experience of feeling your stomach “drop” when you hear bad news, or “butterflies in your stomach” before an important meeting or performance. Those phrases reflect a reality: There's a continuous feedback loop between the brain and the gut. Information flows along the vagus nerve, which connects brain to gut, so what's happening in the mind affects the gastrointestinal system.
For people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome , it’s as if those signals are amplified. Everyday stressors can trigger stomach pain, or send you running to the bathroom. And it works in the other direction too: uncomfortable sensations in the gut are more likely to trigger a stress response in the brain when you have IBS.
Oy. But the good news is, stress-reduction modalities like mindfulness meditation, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and even hypnosis (!) have proven useful in decreasing IBS symptoms. Of course, not all of us have easy access to a mindfulness teacher, a CBT-trained therapist, or a hypnotist. So NPR’s Allison Aubrey looked into smartphone apps geared towards IBS patients for each of these techniques, as well as an app that helps users stick to a more IBS-friendly diet. I personally appreciate the mind-gut benefits of listening to an NPR podcast, such as Life Kit, Short Wave, or Rough Translation. (There’s no data I’m aware of to support podcast listening for stress-induced digestive troubles, but do let us know if you try it!)
Plus: Feeling anxious? Here’s a quick tool to center your soul
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For many parents of young children these days, hitting their kids is off the table. Instead, kids who act out will receive a “time out” for their behavior, or have some kind of privilege revoked – say no cookies after dinner, or no screen time for the rest of the day. But clinical psychologist Becky Kennedy, author of the new book Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be, says parents should try a different approach.
She says punishment can make kids feel that they are bad people inside. So rather than using consequences to change a child's behavior, parents should make an effort to understand why their kid is acting out in the first place.
Kennedy says the basis for this approach is assuming that children are “good inside.” She says that helps her see her kids’ negative actions as behaviors, and not a reflection of their inherent character. The next step is then to connect with the child who’s behaving badly, with words like "You're having a hard time. I'm here. We're going to figure it out together." It doesn’t mean you let your daughter continue hitting her sister, Kennedy says. But it opens up another way for her to process those angry feelings. Read excerpts from Becky Kennedy’s interview with NPR’s Elise Hu, and listen to the full interview from Life Kit. Plus: How letting kids take the lead for 5 minutes a day can get them to listen better |
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We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth.
All our best,
Andrea Muraskin and your Shots editors |
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