Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a crippling condition for 43% of IBS sufferers who report severe symptoms.

IBS symptoms include stomach cramping and pain, abdominal bloating and distention and either diarrhea, constipation, or any of these symptoms combined at different stages of day or week.

A study titled ‘IBS in Real World' - IBS Research Findings by IFFGD, August 2002, found that effects of IBS can seriously effects sufferers quality of life and functionality.

Nearly half (47%) of IBS sufferers reported daily symptoms, with 43% experiencing severe symptoms. If you suffer from IBS, good news is that you are not alone, with between 10-22% of population being affected. The bad news is that IBS can be a seriously unpleasant and persistent condition.

Fully a third (34%) of IBS sufferers report loss of bowel control which has impacted significantly on daily life, causing frequent absences at work or school as well as missed leisure activities.

If you have had IBS for years, you would be familiar with its daily effects. As a primary health care provider, I am all too familiar with disappointments and limitations that IBS brings to my patients lives.

If you have lived with IBS for a while, you may also be aware that there is no targeted medical treatment for IBS, only management approaches such as dietary changes and end-agents, such as laxatives and anti-diarrheal agents.

I had already made firm decision to do yoga class every day for two months, after reading Bikram Choudhury's introductory yoga book. He says, "Give us two months. We will change you." After living with years of back pain due to compressed lumbar discs and a sedentary lifestyle, I was ready for that change--so ready, in fact, I was willing to subject my de-conditioned body to 90 minutes of vigorous cardiovascular activity in 105° heat and 60% humidity (making "apparent temperature" somewhere around 145°). But prospective discipline of it appealed to me, and soon I was actually enjoying gentle torture of it, as I began to move muscles, bones and cartilage that hadn't been moved in years.

Beyond rewards of seeing my body stretch and reach new ranges of motion in class, it was after and between classes where payoffs truly lay. Bending over to pick up something no longer hurt, standing up after sitting for a while no longer involved pain and stiffness, and I began noticing how good I felt instead of how bad.

Of course, getting to these improvements took a while; and although I had committed to two months of daily practice, it has now been nearly eight months, and I can now say yoga is an indispensible part of my life. This path has blatantly announced to me how I had incrementally reduced my own range of motion with each tiny discomfort, each injury, each bout of stiffness, in an attempt to protect myself from future pain. It is a common life strategy, but a very wrongheaded one. The body needs to increase its range of motion over time, and each discomfort or injury points way. As World's Stiffest Person at 50, I was on fast track to being a crippled old man by 60.

I drew a valuable conclusion from this, that all little aches and pains and microconditions we had as twentysomethings, if not dealt with in a broad and holistic way, are exact pains and conditions that amplify over time leading us to our ultimate demise. From this perspective, what is commonly referred to as "aging," is actually more like an excuse for not answering body's calls for help early on. I'm just not buying "I'm just getting too old for this" refrain I hear from my friends. Time, friction, and gravity will take their respective tolls, but only with permission from you. If I end up dying at 94, I would rather have gotten there vital, active and pain-free, instead of feeble, crippled, and tormented.

The main thing I've learned from my beginning yoga experience is that it takes MUCH MORE WORK than I thought to reverse my past slothfulness, and much more diligence on day-to-day to maintain what gains I have acheived. Bikram refers to "body's bank account." You invest into account with yoga, and then spend account when not doing yoga. Of course, I found I was sorely and deplorably in DEBT, and am only now seeing light at end of that tunnel, striving for day I can touch my forehead to my toes, rest my leg on my shoulder, and nap on my back with my head on my feet.

SEVEN MORE THINGS I'VE LEARNED IN BIKRAM YOGA