Your back and gut are physically connected through your body's structure, so back weakness can compress your gut and trigger IBS symptoms. Exercise, especially tai chi and yoga, has beaten other treatments in randomized trials for IBS relief.
I see a lot of people who have irritable bowel syndrome or stomach issues, and I'll ask them, I'll say, do you— how's your back?
You know, do you have back pain?
And almost all of them will say, yeah, absolutely, I do. You're like, no one— you know, why do you ask? You know, you're a stomach doctor, not a back doctor.
Yeah.
I'll say, well, you know, like, the back and the gut are right there. They're not two different systems. Everything's connected. It's about the seams of the body. It's about the connection point. Sometimes diseases are more about the points where things come together than the actual entities that attach, right? This is called tensegrity, or tensile integrity. This is about bending without breaking, like a tree that bends in the wind and doesn't snap.
Yes.
Our bodies are designed as tensegrity systems that are managing the forces of the Earth. And so if you're not going to be strong on your back, you can imagine how it's gonna lead to your gut compressing a lot. And so let me show you a picture, and I'll show them a picture, how they're connected, and I'll talk about how exercise, it turns out, is the most effective therapy we have for IBS by far.
Wait, hold on. Yeah. Exercise is the most effective therapy for IBS?
Tai chi, yoga, osteopathic medical interventions, strength training, swimming, running, Randomized controlled trial after trial shows that this is the most effective therapy we have. Now, I'm not saying that's the only cure-all, okay, to be clear, but you bet. And when I put it this way to people, they go, "Oh, well, no duh!" Like, "Oh my God, that makes sense. I can see how these things are tied together."
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