Help For IBS

Karen Kenney: 00:00:02

Hey, welcome to the Karen Kenny show. And welcome to 2024 you guys. Can you believe it? We friggin made. If you can, if you can hear the sound of my voice right now we survived 2023. And here we are rolling, rolling into 2024 I don't know, I'm gonna I might I might live to regret saying this. But I know we can good feeling about 2024 I think 2024 is going to surprise a lot of us and we're gonna have some fun. So I want to I wanted to start off with saying a few things before I dive into this wicked important episode. So first of all, rolling into 2024, you might have noticed, you might have noticed I have new artwork for the show. So my podcast cover art has slightly changed a little bit, I have a new little tagline. And what's interesting is that the tagline that even though I didn't used to have a tagline, the heartbeat of that tagline is always run through all of my shows, which is trying to just spread more love in the world spreading more love in the world is what I'm trying to do. Okay, trying to help help the peoples navigate this whole human being be human experience. And trying to help people and some suffering, have a little less suffering help the animals less suffering, right and just spread some more love in the world. So I was wicked excited about that. I also you might notice I had a new intro, I new intro music is great. And I just want to thank my sweetie, Chris Lester. Because he did the original music for the show. And he also tweaked all of this to make it work for my new intro and I have a new outro so if you stay to the end, you're gonna hear that second too. So just a big thank you. To my sweetie chrysalis step. My husband is professional musician, as many of you may know. And I also want to say thank you to my podcast team to Amarone and Aaron has been God bless God bless. Amen. And for Aaron, I call her and Ron but for Aaron for helping me like guys we're going on almost five years almost five years of pumping this this sucker out. So she's been with me the whole way. I just love her and appreciate her so much so amplify you team and and Ron, thank you so much for everything. And speaking of spreading more love in the world, you guys, this episode is so near and dear to my heart. You're going to hear why when I get into it, but it's so near and dear to my heart. And it's also a little love letter to any other IBS sufferer to all the IBS sufferers everywhere, because we are everywhere all across the world. This is a little love letter from from my heart to yours. So you guys I actually made I have so many notes for this show. If you're not listening, if you're not watching you just listening, I'm holding up all these pieces of paper, I have so many notes for this show. Because I have so much that I want to share so much that I want to say I'm gonna try to say it quickly. Not so fast that you can't We can't hear me you know, it was like a blur. It's not not to I sound like I'm on four times speed. But I want to try to get through it all. I don't know how long this episode is gonna be, I'm gonna do my best, my best to speak clearly concisely and get you some not only tell my own personal story, and now what I'm doing to help others who are suffering from IBS. First how I helped myself, and now how I am helping others. And that's another new thing and 2024 I'm going to be doing so if you're not on my list, let me just say this up front. If you're not on my list yet if you have not, if you're not in my little email family, go to Karen kenney.com/sign up get on that sucker. So you know all about the offers the shenanigans, the events, the things I'm going to have going on in 2024 because I'm gonna be doing things a little bit differently. And if you want to be in the know, I know there's gonna be opportunities for us to maybe meet in person to do some work online workshops, the shop, a shop, but all kinds of fun stuff, storytime, hypnosis, all kinds of things. So okay, here's the thing. I want to dive into this. So this this episode is really near and dear to my heart. I'm going to try to get through all of this and I'm kind of looking at this episode is part one. And then next week's episode is going to be kind of part two. It's a standalone episode, but it's also going to be part two and I'll explain why in a little bit. So all I want to say up front is Buckle up for safety. Buckle up for safety, because we are diving into all things irritable bowel syndrome, IBS So I'm gonna start of course, with my my story, I always start with the story, right? The title of this episode help for IBS is it's a no brainer. It's a no brainer. And I'm going to be talking about how I helped myself manage and handle IBS. And now how I help others. So if you're somebody who is currently an IBS sufferer, or you know somebody or loved somebody who is, seriously just pause for a moment, right? Get yourself a piece of paper, get a pen get something to write with. But definitely, definitely for the IBS people in your life or the people in your life who have digestive distress digestive disorders, maybe want to send this one make a note to yourself, right now write down the person in your life who has IBS that you know, because let me tell you something, you know, somebody, you could throw a rock right now probably in hit somebody because the numbers say some, some statistics, say one in four people, some say one in five, I've seen up to one in seven. But really, it's like 15% is an even number. But I've seen the statistics say between 10% and 20%. So we say 15 to 20%. Were probably landing in the true Ballmer ballpark. So you know somebody in your life who probably has this issue. They might also though, quietly suffer because of the stigma and the shame of talking about quote unquote, body functions, right? It's like Americans can be really weird sometimes. You know, yeah, there's that whole crew that is, there's a bunch of people who are really comfortable, myself included, talking about body functions, like all the stuff the body does, but there's a lot of shame, a lot of body shaming and weird body stuff, right? We know this, we like the weird things people don't like to talk about. And so part of this episode, for me is a way to also break the shame break the stigma, and to have some adult conversations about something that so many people in the world across the world are suffering with. So we're gonna dive into this, like I said, Get a pen, get some paper out, and let's go. So Okay. Something you should know, when people who have IBS one of the things we talk about is having an IBS attack. This is what it's like when you're like, Oh my God, my IBS is acting up. I am having an IBS attack. So I had my very first IBS attack. When I was 15 years old, I think it was like 1984 ish. And just imagine this and you guys who are local to Massachusetts, in New Hampshire, you're gonna know cannibal Lake Park. Okay, so I'm at cannibal Lake Park with my boyfriend and his family. I'm standing in line to get on the roller coaster, of course, some roller coasters, one of the most popular rides that there is, and we're kind of like at the front of the line. And all of a sudden, you know, when that thing hits, if you've ever had a stomach bug, if you've ever had wicked bad diarrhea, if you've ever had this, that moment, when literally your body breaks out in sweat, your stomach clenches you are gripped, gripped by pain. And all you know is I have to go to the bathroom now. No, like now. Like, squeeze your butt cheeks run, you know what I'm talking about. So the first time this ever happened, and you can imagine I'm a 15 year old girl with my boyfriend and his huge family right at cannibal AIPAC in line. Now I have to somehow get the fuck out of this huge line. So I get to like push my way past people. I don't even have time to say anything to my boyfriend to explain what's going on. I literally feel the cramp. Feel the pain, feel the urgency. I'm so embarrassed, but all I can think about is must get to the restroom. Got to get to the bathroom. So I just kind of break my way through the lunch. She's Excuse me, excuse me. Excuse me, right? Boom, Bum Bum Bum bum. And thank God, thank God, right. And I used to work in Canada like my the summer, the summer between my senior year in high school and my freshman year in college. I worked at Canva like, so thank God. I knew where the bathrooms were. Because there was one right across from the roller coaster. Okay, so I bolt across. And I basically spend and this is not an exaggeration. This is not like for good storytelling. I'm trying to make it dramatic when I tell you, you guys I was on the toilet strapped to that toilet for at least two hours. And I was doubled over in the kind of pain that I had never ever, ever experienced before. It was so awful. It was so awful. And it was so embarrassing. And his cousins who were like friends of mine and his mother who was like my second mom.

Karen Kenney: 00:09:53

You know, they kept coming in and saying Are you okay? And I'd be like, yeah, like but I was not okay, let me just say So I was not okay. Somehow, somehow I managed hours later to finally leave the bathroom. But I was like, I had no idea what it just happened to me. Everybody's like, oh, maybe you just got food poisoning. Maybe you just had, you know, a bad snack like whatever we ate, right that day at the cannibal Lake Park, whatever it was, they didn't matter. It was friggin awful. It was horrifying and humiliating. Okay. So let me just put this in context, though. So I'm 15 years old. It's about three years after my mother has been killed. Okay. Most of you know of you. If you're new to the show. And you've never ever heard my origin story. Go listen to episode one, my origin story. And basically, you'll hear about my childhood. My mother was murdered when I was 12. The whole kit and caboodle, right. So after my mother was killed, my whole life was turned upside down. I was stressed out, I was traumatized. And I was in a family that didn't know how to talk about hard things. And my childhood was tough. The environment that I grew up in was tougher. And in order to survive, I was just that kid and a lot of blue collar New England kids can can relate to this, you know, we were all taught to suck it up and stuff it down. So there was no talking about your feelings. There was definitely in my family, no talking about my poor dead murdered mother. And the fact that, you know, I was now living with total strangers and sharing a room with my sister. And like I said, just traumatized and stressed out of my mind. So after about three years after that first IBS attack I had cuz I kept having like intermittent and sporadic flare ups and attacks at the most inopportune times, right? So I was an athlete my whole life. I was a cheerleader, I played softball. From the time I was five to the time I was, you know, 17 going on 18. And so this is like my last year and a half or two years of high school. And thank God, when we had home games, we would play across the street from this little bodega. And so I would have to often just like bolt across the street, and thank God, thank God, for the owner of that establishment that he let me use his bathroom. And at this point, I wasn't connecting any dots. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know why it was happening. I didn't know what was happening other than I had an urgent need to use the bathroom. And after like three years of like, blinding pain, unbelievable, massive bloating, you guys, and I know, I know, an IBS listener right now is either shaking their head, laughing doing double A men hands because they can totally relate to this. But there are times when I could become so bloated. I'm not even exaggerating. I look like six months, seven months pregnant, like, my stomach would get so distended, and so bloated. And so after like three years of all this stuff, it's like embarrassing, unpredictable, urgent trips to the bathroom at the most inconvenient times. Right? I became desperate, desperate for answers. And so by this time, I'm at BU I'm away at school. And here's the other thing, right? So I basically have no parents. I live with my aunt and uncle who I didn't know like after my mother was killed. And now here I am. I'm 17 years old. I'm dropped off at BU Boston University by the grace of God, I got into college somehow, right? But I'm on my own. I'm on my own. There's no parental advice. There's no nobody's helping me navigate how to be in college where I get my meal cards where I packed my car or like, it is I am like jacked out of my mind with adrenaline and cortisol and all those stress hormones just like gripping, gripping life and trying to stay alive. And on the outside. I put on a wicked good, tough act, right. I put on a wicked good, tough act. And I remember David Green, David Green. That's one of my my friends in college. Wicked Smart man is David Green, wicked smart. But he told me not a few years ago when we connected on Facebook. He said I was telling my wife about you. He said, I told her you were the toughest girl I've ever met you were the toughest girl I've ever met. And I started laughing and I said to him I say David it was all an act. It was all an act was all a tough act. I'm really I'm really I'm really a nice person on the inside. So but I had a lot of fear. So of course, I had my dukes up right, I was a Masshole I was a friggin Masshole doing my best to get through college. I had no idea what I was doing. And I had and but my body was responding right to so many things that were going on inside of me. Okay, so here's the deal. I'm now at BU. I'm desperate for answers. So I go down to the Student Health Center, and the doctor I meet with the doctor and he doesn't officially quote unquote diagnose me but this is what he says. He says to me that he thought he could name he could name what he quote unquote thought was wrong with me. He wasn't though, and while he couldn't give me a name for what he thought it was when he couldn't really offer me is any help or any hope. Because basically he just handed me a pamphlet and you guys I swear to you So I'm one of those kids. And I don't know how this is possible. I don't know how it is that I've moved like 40 times in my life. And I've held on to the most unbelievable thing. So I'm going to show you something right here. So this is the pamphlet. I still have it. I still have it. This is the pamphlet that I got. Hold on a second. I'm going to pause this so I can find it because I thought, oh, here it is. It's right in front of me and are okay. So look at this little pamphlet you guys. So those of you who are listening and not watching, I'm holding up this orange pamphlet. It's from July 1987 is when it was printed. So I got this sucker. I got this sucker like way back in the day. And on the front, it says it's orange, I don't know, it's like, I don't know, half of a half of a quarter of a page saw size big or whatever letter size big. On the front. It says irritable bowel syndrome. And there's a little little like stick finger person and they have like a target, like a target right on their lower abdomen like where their intestines and everything is it's called the irritable bowel syndrome and you and this is appropriate this little symbol a feeling like you have a target on you is so appropriate because we feel like we're having an attack and this is what it says your doctor has diagnosed your problem as irritable bowel syndrome. Here are some important facts about IBS and it goes on to say you know it's not cancer it doesn't lead to cancer it's not an Elsa it's not life threatening. You will not become an invalid because because of this I literally quoting from this thing. And it says attacks are most often brought on by certain life situations and it goes on right so but I'm going to hold it up again so you can see it. So if you're curious about this you guys just for shits and giggles you can watch this episode. Okay, so I get this thing. So he hands me this. Do you know what the guy says to me? He gives me no support, no hope, no help, other than to say this is literally what he said to me. He says it sounds like you have irritable bowel syndrome. You sounds like you have IBS. Try to eat more fiber and lead a less stressful life.

Karen Kenney: 00:17:12

Try to eat more fiber. First of all, I don't even know what that means. I'm like Hello, have you met me at that point? I'm like, I don't even know what that means eat more fiber. I'm thinking salads Metamucil brand brand muffins. I don't even know what that is. Eat more fiber and then try to lead a less stressful life. Okay. Okay. I'm like 18 years old. I'm on my own. Right? My mother's dead. I have no place to go on holiday breaks, right? Like I can crash at my sister's house maybe. But like my life is held together by a finely fine thread of me just sucking it up, stuffing it down. Being tough, being strong, being persistent, but I'm like, Dude, do you know my life? Lead a less stressful life. Are you Hi are you like out of your mind? I was like, Oh my god. Okay, yeah, good luck with that kid. That's what that felt like. Okay, so then Okay, after that, he gives me the pamphlet and all that stuff. So a few years later, I finally go and see a gastroenterologist gastroenterologist. Now, it might have been shortly after that this, this period is a little fuzzy. But then I go to the gastroenterologist, and then you basically have to strip down naked, you get poked and prodded. All right, I had to basically choke down this cup of like, chalky barium liquid, so that they could then watch and do some X rays. And they could watch it go down my digestive tract to see if there are blocks and like weird shit and all this stuff. Okay, we get to the end of the whole thing. And again, it's mortifying, like you're in this place, you don't know what's going on people's bodies are in the bathrooms making really weird noises because they've either haven't eaten for 24 hours, they've gotten some sort of anima, they've gotten a colonoscopy, they've gotten all these different tests, and you're just hearing things and smelling things. And you don't know what's wrong with you. And you're completely overwhelmed. And you don't even know if your health insurance, if you have it is going to cover it. You know, it was just like, oh my god, right? I don't even know if I had health insurance at 18. I don't even know what was going on. But here's what that doctor said to me. He says there's nothing physically physically wrong with you. Okay, there's nothing physically wrong with your digestive tract. It looks like you have IBS. Okay. So there it is, I get the official diagnosis. And I just want to say this to the listeners, right? It is really important. It is wicked important that you actually go and get an official diagnosis from a doctor that you don't play google doctor that you don't play med md.com doctor that you if you suspect that you have IBS, don't do a thing of the duction of your own by looking at all the symptoms go because a lot of times IBS can mimic more sinister conditions, more sinister diseases. So you do want to go In fact, the work that I do with people and for IBS and you'll hear more about this at the end, I won't start my sessions with you and working with you until you have an official diagnosis because that's how important it is. We don't need any armchair doctors, right? So go and get the official diagnosis and we'll talk more about how they do that in a little bit. Okay, so now I have a name for what's wrong with me I officially quote unquote, officially now have IBS, okay, I've been labeled. I've got the pathology, this is what's wrong with me. Okay. And while it was really good to like, have a name for what was happening in my body, what they still didn't know and they still don't to this day, you guys we are talking. Go back 1987 ish. to now do the math 2023 They still don't know what causes IBS. They do not have a cure. medical term, right a cure for IBS. And they certainly didn't know what to tell me that I could do with myself except this guy also said the same thing. Okay. Basically, he was like, try to eat more salads. Drink some you know Metamucil you know, that really gritty? Like psyllium fiber drink that orange drink. It's like, Oh, well. Yeah, eat more salads, drink some fiber. And try not to get stressed again. I'm like, Oh my god. So once again, I leave with more questions than answers. And I am like, basically as we would say shit out of luck. Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep going. This is my personal story. It goes on and on and on and on. So I'm going to try and I'm just trying to give you the kind of the big landing points right first IBS attack. First time I go to the doctor after suffering, suffering suffering. Go go. Finally, go to official diagnosis gastroenterologist and find out. Okay, great. Here we are. Okay. So it also here's the other thing that happened at the doctor's and I know, I know for a fact that IBS sufferers everywhere can probably relate to what I'm about to say. I also kind of felt like, every time I went to go see a doctor about my IBS, they would say, they would say things to me, insinuating that this this IBS, quote, unquote, functional quote unquote, functional disorder was somehow either like my own fault. Because I was to stress I was leaving too much of a stress filled, or, or it was all in your head. Because here's the thing about IBS, you guys, when they go in, to look at what's going on inside of you. It's different than other disorders or diseases where they can actually find something physically wrong, meaning they can go inside you and like, if you have a particular disorder, right, they can go inside you and say, oh, yeah, there's inflammation here. Yes, you have, you know, pus pockets, yes, there's this, there's this, we see where the bowel is in function. And none of that happens with IBS. They go inside, right with their scopes, and their drinks and their X rays, and their ultrasounds and their pills and the pushing all the stuff, the product, the prodding, the pushing, and what they come out and say, say everything looks normal. And you're like, what, and we'll talk about that later. Okay. So, basically, it wasn't until 2001 You guys and I'm going to break it down, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna break it down more on the back end. I'm just trying to get through this. It wasn't until like 2001, that I finally started to get a little bit of a glimmer of information that actually felt helpful. And I stumbled upon, I stumbled upon back then 2001 So we're talking 22 years ago, alright, 2000 year 2000 was when I first discovered my now mentors name, okay, he's my mentor now, but back then he was just a name in a book. And I'm going to tell you about that. So that's when I first discovered who is now my IBS mentor, and that I started to feel even an inkling of hope. But this went on for years and years and years and years. So before I actually had a mentor, I continued to experience debilitating, debilitating physical symptoms, combined with Oh yeah, because it is like a bonus. Not only do you get debilitating physical symptoms, you also get a dose of overwhelming fear and anxiety. Yeah, just a little extra emotional fear and anxiety to go along with it. Some people get depressed some people get anxious out of their minds, but really there's just this loop in cycle of fear and you feel so victimized. You feel so betrayed by your body. You're like, how do I do this? I have to eat to survive, but every time I eat, I suffer. Oh my god. Okay. So then I started to get bathroom anxiety. Okay, my bathroom anxiety meaning always needing to know where there's a bathroom and if you do Don't know where there's gonna be a bathroom if there won't be a bathroom. I'm not going right in my bathroom anxiety that stress that fear of what if I have an accident? What if so I call it like the worst case scenarios, the worry in the what ifs, right? What if I have to go to the bathroom is like my number one fear in life, right? It's like, what if I ever go to the bathroom and there's no bathroom and I'm stuck in traffic? Or I'm stuck on an elevator or I'm stuck on a plane? Or I'm stuck in a line? Or I'm in somebody else's car? Or what if, right, what if I shit my pants? And what if something awful happens? Right? These are real like, and people can laugh about him. And that's one of the things of why there's shame and stigma. Because you see it across the board, on TV, in shows, humor, whatever. Right? They did it. I mean, I can name a few shows, but I know they did it. On the The Sopranos, they gave one of the characters IBS. And they made fun of it. And basically, you know, IBS gets made fun of all the time, but I will tell you this, for those of us who have it, it's not fucking funny. It is truly debilitating at times. It is life changing. And it can be it can be a joy sucker. And it affects your life. It affects your relationships, it affects your career, it affects so many things, your ability to travel, all these things. We're going to talk about this stuff, okay? But at one point, my bathroom anxiety you guys got so bad, I almost started to be feeling like I was going to be housebound. I was literally popping like Imodium all day long, just so I can go out and like teach my yoga classes and like, do stuff and it was wicked bad. It was really bad for a long time.

Karen Kenney: 00:26:41

Okay, and then fast forward, like 40 years, and this is where we are today. And that's where I'm reporting back now from the field, right? I always say I will be steadfast I will be resolute. Right, I'm gonna make my full report. Right. So there's a character in this book that I love. And that's like, I It's a play off of that, right? I'm going to be steadfast, I'm going to be resolute I'm going to make my full report. So here we are. Now we're gonna fast forward like 40 years. After reading so many books after going to so many expensive appointments, trying we I've tried every weird supplement there is you guys. I've taken antispasmodic medications, I've done wind relieving exercises I've tested all the I shouldn't say all most of the alternative practices, I've changed my diet, and I have lost so much money to sheisty practitioners. Because the thing with IBS sufferers is we hit a point where we are so desperate for help. We just want something, anything, anybody to help us to help us end our suffering. And we're willing to try all the things pretty much sometimes anything, right to try and do it. And after a shit ton of suffering. After a shit ton of strategizing, and learning and researching and studying and training and getting certifications and education and firsthand lived experience. I'm now happy to report that I have discovered some things, I have put them into practice for many, many, many years. And I can now turn around and help other people. And this is what we're going to talk about at the end of the show how I am now taking all the stuff that I've learned for having right from having IBS since I was 15 years old to now where I'm 55. So 40 years, you guys, I've had my finger on the pulse of things. And I have found one thing above everything else. I'm not saying that the other things aren't helpful. But there is one thing in particular, that has made a huge difference. And helping me that has been effective at helping me manage and reduce IBS symptoms. And I'm going to tell you about that in a little bit. But first, I want to do a little more education because I know somebody's going to be listening to this and they're going to be like, Okay, can you tell us more about this IBS stuff. And like what what it really is. So I'm going to just this part I can go through pretty quickly. Okay, so I've already told you the stats, like one in five people between 10 to 20% of people have or will experience IBS at some point in their life. Okay, it affects twice as many women as it does men. And look, IBS does not discriminate. It does not care if you are a little kid, or you are the elderly. Everybody in between both men and women get it right little kids get it. Elderly people get it of course there are certain ages and groups that tend to have it more severely or it shows up more regularly in those certain age groups after all the statistics and studies and stuff like that, but I'm going to keep it pretty broad and vague here. One in five people think about that. If you're just in a room look around in a room of 20 people look around about four people probably have it. The symptoms include this in case you're wondering, so what does it look like to have IBS? They can be any of these following constipation and the Usually like ongoing, not just a one off you guys like ongoing constipation, right? diarrhea, abdominal bloating and gas, abdominal pain, spasms, cramps, right, IBS attacks, as we call them. And also stress, anxiety, depression. And the symptoms often show up in ways of diminishing your quality of life. It is really not just a physical thing, there is also mental components, we'll get into that. And there is also this physical components, there's mental components, there's emotional components, and I believe there's also spiritual components. But we can talk about that another time. Okay, so how we get diagnosed is by taking it's interesting, there is actually no test that says, you have IBS, the way that you discover that you have IBS is more a process of elimination. It's more running a bunch of tests to discover what you don't have, hey, that's really important that I say that. So back in like 1994, I want to say it was 94. The first Rome criteria, it's a diagnostic guideline called the Rome criteria, trying to figure out, you know, what, what you have. So I'll just tell you officially, the Rome criteria is a set of criteria used by clinicians doctors, to classify a diagnosis of a patient who either has and I'll explain what these mean, who either have f g, I D, or D, G, B, I, I'll say those again, and I'll tell you what they mean in a moment. F, G, I D, or D, G, BI. So right now, there's no test for IBS, but you might need some tests to rule out other possible causes of your symptoms, that's really important to know that, okay, there's a bunch of different tests you can take. Okay, so there's like a stool, Mike grace, stool Macross. This is so hard for me to say stool, Mike, micro microscopy microscopy, right, where they basically take a piece of your poop, they put it under a microscope, and they look at it and they try to see what's going on there. Okay, there's blood tests, they can take like full panel, full spectrum blood tests, right. But these are all tests for other things to make sure you don't have other more sinister things. Right. This is more of a of a test. It is by elimination, right, ruling other things out, okay. There's the barium swallow tests with X rays, often called like an upper GI or a lower GI. There's abdominal ultrasounds. There's endoscope copies or endoscopies. I think it's endoscopies. sigmoidoscopy is colonoscopies. Right? There's small bowel biopsies, there's hydrogen breathing tests, so they do all this shit, all this rigmarole right, because IBS diagnosis is based on symptoms in the absence of worrisome features, and other and once other potential conditions have been ruled out. So basically, they land on the conclusion. Oh, you have IBS? Because you don't have all the other awful shit, right? So basically, it's a process of elimination. And what they're trying to make sure that you don't have is IBD which is complimentary bowel disease. giardia, gastroenteritis. SIBO, which is small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, right? Celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, lactose intolerance, Crohn's disease, diverticulitis, colon cancer, right? All these other things they're testing for to make sure you don't have that. Which brings me back to why I say, if I'm going to work with somebody, I need to know that they actually have IBS, and not some other thing because God forbid you're trying to treat somebody and help them with IBS, but actually, it's like, hey, maybe they have Crohn's or maybe they have ulcerative colitis. Or maybe they have, you know, God forbid colon cancer. So it's like, we want to know that it's truly an IBS diagnosis. And here's also why it's important. I pulled this. I think this was on Wikipedia, where I got this little this little statistic it says people with IBS are at an increased risk of being given inappropriate surgeries, such as getting your appendix removed, appendectomy and app and directory, gallbladder removal, and hysterectomy is due to being misdiagnosed as other medical conditions. So it's really really really important that you go and see a gastroenterologist and somebody who knows what the fuck they're talking about when it comes to IBS in this stuff, because people can get misdiagnosed this is really important. Okay, so now we're circling back to those. Those little initials I told you, okay, so the Rome criteria remember this is set criteria were they used to classify a diagnosis of somebody with FTD. So f g i D stands for functional gastro intestinal disorder, okay, F GID, functional gastro intestinal disorder, all right, also known as DG bi, which is a disorder of gut brain interaction, I'm gonna say that again, D, G bi. It's a disorder of gut brain interaction. And that's what IBS is. Okay, so IBS, and other D GB eyes. Right. They're basically disorders of the gut brain interaction. Because here's the thing, it's believed that what is the most critical abnormality of what's happening here is that there's an impaired not working great, there's an impaired communication between the gut and the brain, between your belly and your brain, via the nervous system in both directions. So I'm going to hold up for those of you who are watching, I'm going to hold up just a little a little visual, because these can be helpful. So this came from the Cleveland Clinic in 2022. It's a picture of what's called visceral hypersensitivity, and I'll talk about that later, because I have this and most IBS people suffer from this condition as well. Okay, so you can see here, so what it is, it's a drawing of a woman's body. And you can see it's almost like you can see through her to her inner organs, you can see her brain you can see her lungs, you can see her intestines, her stomach, like all the all the different, you know, all the different. Her bladder, the digestive system, the heart, the lung, all this stuff. And what happens is, is that the brain and the belly don't speak well to one another, there is a problem with there's an abnormality, and there's impaired communication between the gut and the brain via your nervous system. So this is just a little picture that is showing a green arrow from the brain down to the intestines, and then a red arrow from the intestines up to the brain. Because this is what we know. Right? So what happens is the body starts to feel a little quirky, you get that you get that girl that rumbling your stomach, right? You get that first little hint or a wave of like pain, and you start to panic. And then so the body right, the gut sends information up to the brain, creating stress in oh my god, and oh shit, and what ifs and whereis, in worst case scenarios, and then the brain starts pumping out all this information like danger Will Robinson, right? So there's, there's a little bit of an impaired communication system, okay, between the brain and the gut. And that's what this is all I always say like this. I always say this is a

Karen Kenney: 00:37:48

impaired communication is just a fancy way of saying your brain and your belly don't always play nicely with one. So we know in the work that I do, right, so if you're new to the show, you may or may not know but if you listen to the intro, you heard, I'm a spiritual mentor. Right? I am integrative hypnotist. I'm an integrative change worker and life coach. I've been a yoga teacher for 25 years. I'm a writer, I'm a storyteller. Obviously, I'm a podcast host, right. But I've been involved in these kinds of things. subconscious. I'm a hypnotist, right, as I said, involved in subconscious reprogramming, neuroplasticity how the brain works, how the body works. So the somatic the subconscious part, the spiritual part, all these things, right. And so what we know is that the brain is only sending about 20% of information down to the body, but the body is sending like 80% of information through the nervous system back up to the brain. And sometimes those wires get a little cross those wires get a little weird, right? They don't always again, like I said, play nicely with one another. And while it's like really great to know, like when you get a diagnosis and stuff, there's a part of you that just relieved because you're like, Oh, this is the name of the thing that I have. Right? So your doctor will go and run all these tests and do all this shit, right? And then they come back and they're like, hey, hey, pal. Hey, buddy. Good news. Good news for you. Like all your test results came back negative, everything's normal. So you're all sad. And you're sitting there, like, you just want to weep. You just want to burst into tears. Because this point, you're so exhausted. You're so exhausted, and you're so tired of feeling like there's no hope, and nobody can give you any fucking answers. And they can tell you, Oh, they can give you a name. But they just tell you stupid shit like lead a less stressful life. They don't give you any tools. They don't give you any ways of helping yourself. And if you're like me, you're a proactive person. You want to help yourself. You don't want to just sit around and be victimized by it. Right? Maybe in the beginning, right. Maybe in the beginning, you realize some people do this all We use what we call like a, you getting some sort of getting some sort of a payoff what we call a secondary gain. Sometimes like, Oh, I get a little more attention when I have a tummy ache, dotted, dotted, dotted die, right. But at some point, you're just like, I'm so sick of this shit, right? I'm so done with having this thing. And I want some real help. And they're telling you, you're all set, your tests are all negative. So you're good to go. Everything's normal. And you're like, how is that possibly even right? How can that be correct? Because I feel miserable. I am suffering, I am suffering. How is it that everything is normal, and I feel this way. And the thing is, is you can feel misunderstood. You can feel like totally alone and isolated. You feel like nobody understands. You have oftentimes family and friends making fun of you. They think it's fucking funny how long you've been in the bathroom, or this and that or that you're like, Oh, my God, hurry up, I need to go to the bathroom drive faster, right? And then you see society and culture making fun of you in the movies and on TV. And everybody thinks it's a big joke, except for you the one who is suffering on the inside. Right? And it is no joke. Okay? And it's frustrating, because they don't know how to help you, you go to the professionals, right? How is it that the doctors, after all, this time, still don't know what causes it? What cures it, there's no cure for IBS. So until there is a cure for IBS, people like me are going to step up and try to help using an alternative therapy. And we're gonna go like I said, we're going to talk about that in a little bit. I also want to share this and part of what I'm sharing here today, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girl peoples humans, right? All the humans. I'm not just talking to the IBS sufferers. This is also for those of you who don't have IBS, but has somebody in your life who you care about, or you love who does, and you don't understand sometimes what it's like to have it. And so I'm going to show you a couple of visuals. And I'm going to tell you a couple of things to try and maybe you'll understand and have a little more patience, understanding, compassion, kindness towards your people who are suffering with this, right? You know, there's always these, like, when people have autoimmune diseases and stuff like that, they'll say, you know, it's no fun suffering in silence or with a silent disease, because a lot of times you can't see their disease on the outside. But it's a fascinating thing to me. Even if we just stay with intestinal disorders. If you say to somebody, I have Crohn's disease, they're like, oh my god, that's so awful. If you tell them you have celiac disease, they're like, Oh, my God, that's so awful. You tell them you have ulcerative colitis, or God, again, colon cancer, or you've had diverticulitis, you have IBD, right? If you if you tell them those things, everybody understands. And they're like, of course, this is awful. You tell them they have you have IBS, and they laugh. A lot of people think it's funny, a lot of people don't take it seriously, a lot of people think you're just making shit up. And it's really, really, really, really had and challenging. For the IBS sufferers to feel that misunderstood to feel that alone. And they will start to isolate, they will withdraw, they will sacrifice intimacy physically, sexually, emotionally, their relationships will suffer. Right? Imagine what it's like we're, you can't you have to explain to your boss, why you were late to work. All those days. You want to go into your boss's office and talk about your bowel movements, or lack of bowel movements, or the pain and the suffering and the unexpected, urgent diarrhea, right? Or the fact that you haven't pooped in like, you know, seven days, right? It's like, because this culture doesn't make it okay to talk about these things. So a lot of people suffer in silence. And then when they do speak up, they get made fun of, or people don't believe them. And it's not funny, and it's awful. And so it's one of the reasons why I'm telling my story in this way. And I've never told my whole story I've always talked about the people in my life who know me they know that my body I have been on a journey with yes, let's put it that way. But this is really important, and I want to talk about it. So very basic. I'm not going into all the depths of this but very basic right of digestion starts in the mouth when you start chewing and your mouth starts releasing, you know spit, you know, saliva, that's when those enzymes start breaking down the food it begins in your mouth, and it goes down the esophagus, it goes into your tummy, it goes down it drops through these little valves, right, drops into the small intestine goes down into the large intestine goes down through the rectum and out to the anus, okay, that's how it works. But the way that the food moves through your body is through the gastro colic reflex. So if Think about how a little inchworm This is how my mentor Michael talks about this is a little inchworm. And think about how they move their body in that little wave. That's like what your intestines are always doing. They're just slowly contracting. And if you're watching this, you just saw me do a little thing, a little caterpillar invitation with my hand across the screen. But it's also like I'm now I'm just squeezing my hand and releasing my hand and squeezing my hand and releasing my hand into a fist and then open. And that's what the muscles in your little into your intestines are doing, as they're just kind of contracting and moving the food along. Okay, listen to this statistic, and I got this off my I will call her a friend, my internet friend we've never met in real life. Heather van Voros has been Boris is famous in the IBS community. I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a bit. And her website.

Karen Kenney: 00:45:50

This came from her website, okay. And it says, and I think she got this statistic from somewhere else, but I'm not sure where but I just want to give credit where it's due. It says while Healthy People have between six to eight Peristaltic contractions in their colon within a 24 hour period. So that means within a 24 hour period, you're a normal healthy intestine or colon gets the signals, right, it gets the signal from the brain and stuff to just squeeze like six to eight times. And that's why a lot of people have regular bowel movements. They're like, Oh, yeah, I always have to go in the morning or some people like after my coffee. And this is what's interesting. A lot of people use coffee is a laxative and they don't even know it. Right. But they they're like, oh, I need my coffee to get things moving. In the morning. I've heard that so often over the years, right? So a normal healthy, right colon basically contracts six to eight times an IBS sufferer, those with diarrhea presenting, right may have as many 25 as many as 25 Peristaltic contractions per day. And the people who have IBS that are more prone to constipation, and we're going to talk about this in a minute, both of these things, they almost have none. None. So you can see why somebody who might just be normal and regular is like, I don't get what's wrong with you what's wrong with you? How come you always have to go to the bathroom. Um, hello, because my intestines do not work the same as yours. Yours do six to eight, how you doing? Somebody else's over there suffering with IBS, IBS constipation, they get none. And those of us with D, we get like up to 25 times. So that means that food is cooking through you. And that's why sometimes if you've ever eaten something, who here who here has ever said, whoa, whoa, that Taco Bell, that food just went right through me. Right? It's not actually the food that is in your mouth that is going right through you. It doesn't like that food is probably still in your digestive track. But it's causing when you eat, you're also starting the digestive process. So whatever was already in your intestine is coming out fast for those with IBS that are more diarrhea predominant, okay, and I'm going to show you a picture of this. And this came from irritable bowel syndrome examining new findings and treatments. The authors were Marvin Schuster, Michael Crouwel, Nicholas trollee. And it's for continuing education. I'm just going to show up, I'm going to show you

Karen Kenney: 00:48:28

this graphic. So again, if you're not watching this, if you're just listening, I'll try to describe what I'm showing up. So what they're basically showing on this graph is the contractions of the colon after a meal and a normal human. Okay, so those of you who are watching, you can see what I'm holding up. And you can see it just looks like okay, here's before the meal, and you just see barely any movement on this graph. So you guys think of like a heartrate monitor how they go boop, boop, boop. And just think about those little peaks, those little like, you know, little mountains that show up on a graph. I'm trying to describe this as the best I can. So before a meal, somebody who has a normal human right, and they call them normal humans, right, they're colons, there's barely any activity. And then about 15 minutes after a meal, those lines start to go a little bit more bumpy, like up and down, up and down, up and down. It's really just indicating, okay, the digestive system is turned on. It's starting to move some stuff through the system, and it looks pretty calm, right? Pretty normal. You're like, Alright, 15 minutes after a meal. That's normal. Okay, that's the normal colon. Okay, let's take a little look see, shall we? Take a little look see what it might look like for somebody like me, who has IBS D. and is sometimes this is called IBS is also sometimes called spastic colon syndrome. So that gives you a clue right now gives you a clue of what you're about to see. So in this right in this graph, thick, what you're seeing is 15 minutes before a meal, there's already some spikes and activities, right or before a meal, there's already some spikes in inactivity. And then Jesus Christ, 15 minutes after a meal, if you guys can see this, here's how I'm going to describe it. If you've ever seen somebody taking a lie detector test, and they are totally lying, and that thing goes from zero to 100, right, and it creates those huge sweeping spikes all over the place. Yeah, this is somebody with a spastic colon, aka IBS, 15 minutes after a meal. And you wonder why those of us with IBS can sometimes just eat something and we're still at the dinner table. And we both like we just get up and run to the bathroom. Because our digestive system, remember, our brain and our belly have miscommunication. They don't always talk well to each other. And once this pattern gets established, it's also creating patterns of thoughts and belief systems in our brain. Our brains are getting wired for fear around food for anxiety of if there's a bathroom like, oh my god, what if this happens when I'm driving when I have to walk across the stage for my graduation, when I get on that plane to go on vacation, when I have to give a speech when I have to get up in front of my work and lead a group activity when I have to, like, you know, 1000 things, right? What if I have to drive, I'm a babysitter I have to drive people's kids and I get an attack. What if you're a bus driver? What if you're in any kind of job, where you're required to stay in one spot like a cashier or a tollbooth collector, or again, like I said, somebody who speaks for a living and you're supposed to be on stage, or somebody who does a bunch of interviews and you know, you're on somebody else's time schedule, and you don't want to screw up their plan, their program their event, right? There's 1000 ways where things can go wrong when your digestion acts unpredictably. And it is terrifying at times. And this is why a lot of people will start to withdraw, they'll stop literally going out of their house, they will become shut ins, right? They will not leave because they get so much bathroom anxiety, or they're suffering so much there are people on the other spectrum will talk about this right? Where they can't get out of bed because they're so debilitated. They're so debilitated with with abdominal cramping, bloating, spasms, all of that, okay. Here's another thing that is happening for the people in your life. So if you have IBS, and you don't know these things, I hope this is helping you if you don't have IBS, but you love somebody who does, I hope this is helping you that you're getting a benefit from this and if you are please, please, please share this episode with somebody that you love. Okay, we're gonna move on to the next thing which is visceral hypersensitivity, okay, and this is something that it least up to 40% of people with IBS experience, okay? So visceral hypersensitivity, what it really means is, we experience pain or discomfort in our vital organs and the visceral organs, not the vice and the visceral organs. So these are like your soft internal organs, the ones that live in your belly that live in your chest that live in your pelvic cavity. So when a person has visceral hypersensitivity, the threshold my threshold for pain, okay? Or your threshold for pain, if this is also you, in those organs, is lower than normal. So to give you a visual, let's say that to a normal person who eats a regular meal, okay? They eat their food, it goes down through the whole process, the mouth, the esophagus drops down into the tummy, it's getting a little bile, it's getting all the acids, it's getting everything it needs, the gut microbiome biomes doing its job, everything is and they're just like, Oh, that little those pieces of food going in. It feels like a pea sized, like literally think about like a green pea. Right? I'm just gonna, I'm making I'm trying to make an exaggeration, so you understand, but I'm not exaggerating in the amount of pain we experience. But for you, it might feel like a pea. If you have like a normal, normal, like a little garden variety, like little green pea, right? For us. It feels like a softball. Okay, it feels like up bugging softball. And I am telling you, I'm not exaggerating you guys, there have been times when I've had an IBS attack. I thought I was going to pass out literally blackout from the pain. And you're just like, you start to sweat. You start to sweat, your heart starts to race. You're like doubled over in pain and you think oh my god I might pass out I've known people who have actually passed out from it. So all this to say this is not a disorder to make fun of this is not something that's just like Oh, get over it. You did? I thought you were trying a new diet. I thought you were taking those pills. I thought you were taking laxatives I thought you were taking those supplements. I thought Why isn't anything working? It's because we have bits in pieces and paths that aren't playing well with each other. And I know all of this can sound a little bit hopeless, right? It's like, oh my god, this is awful. And yes, it can be awful. And there is some hope there is some light at the end of the tunnel. And I'm going to tell you more about that. And we're just going to keep going. Because, for me, it's so important to educate people about IBS because I don't think it gets talked about enough or the ways it gets talked about is not always very helpful. And I don't want people to feel ashamed or feel no to have that stigma anymore. This is like your invitation. This is like your pink permission. So I'm wearing my pink sweater today. So you can see a little pink permission slip to talk about this stuff and to not be embarrassed or ashamed. Okay, here's the different types of IBS, so maybe you can identify it. Okay? IBS C. This means IBS, predominant constant constipation. Okay, IBS, D is IBS with predominant, okay? Diarrhea. There's IBS M, which is mixed bowel habits. It used to be called IBS a back in the day, meaning alternating, but now it's IBS M,

Karen Kenney: 00:56:10

which means mixed. And there's also IB Su, which is like the letter U. Okay, and it means IBS unclassified. So people with IBS D, we tend to be more, right, those who like the urgent need to use the bathroom, those attacks and stuff like that ibsc Those people with constipation, who almost never go to the bathroom, and they're so bloated, and they're so distended and they're so uncomfortable. There's a lot of other symptoms, but I'm not, like I said, I could literally do like a four hour episode on this. So a lot of times with mixed with IBS em, you fluctuate back and forth. So you'll have a severe attack, right, IBS D attack, and then your intestines will shut down from the trauma of the or from the, I don't want to call it trauma, but that's what it feels like. But from the from the attack, then they'll shut down. And then they'll stop working. So you basically go back and forth between IBS, C and IBS. D. That is what that is the the fantastic, wonderful gift not of IBS M. Okay. So here's what I want to talk about a little bit more. Okay. On my website, okay, I now have a page. And it's Karen kenny.com/i. B. s really simple, Karen kenny.com/ibs. And on that, on my website on that page, there is a list of things that basically say, if you've ever had, and I list all these experiences, and I'll tell you, I'll tell you a couple, I'll just I'll name a couple because it's a long list. If you've ever been officially diagnosed with IBS by a medical doctor, if you've ever canceled plans, vacation, or travel duty, or IBS, if you've ever called in sick to work because of your symptoms, and P 's business owners, something you should know and PS employees and employers something you should know IBS is one of the number one reasons why people call in sick to work. So many businesses lose productivity, because of IBS. And this is why we want people to get help. We want people to find ways to manage effective ways to manage and reduce their IBS symptoms. And that is part of my movement. This is part of what I'm trying to do and show up and help. Also it is I think the the most popular reason why I think it's the number one reason why people go to gastroenterologist, is because they are having IBS symptoms, IBS like symptoms. Okay? Have you ever had to explain why you missed a relate for class school or the bus because your belly was acting up, you had to skip a family gathering or an event, you have not been able to get out of bed due to excruciating pain or energetic fatigue, you've almost passed out due to debilitating stomach pain, you've lost work or jobs or have had to turn down opportunities. Because you know, with your unpredictable IBS, you had to say no, like me, here's an example for me if real life example, I would love to be I would love to be on a jury panel. But I have to turn down drew, I literally have a medical note that says I'm excused from jury duty, because I don't know. That's how unpredictable right and in high stress situations, there's more likelihood. And we'll talk more about this later, but more likelihood that I could have an attack and the last thing I want to screw up is the justice system. Okay, so if you've ever had to map out where all the bathrooms were before leaving the house if you've ever had bathroom anxiety, if you've ever planned a traveling, listen to this, this is a real thing. This is a real thing, and I know it's gonna sound funny, you're gonna be like wait, why? had to somebody who is quote unquote, has a normally functioning bowel or normal function digestion. This is going to sound crazy to you. But this is a real thing. And I'm going to tell you from firsthand experience. Me too, I'll explain this. If you've ever planned if you have as part of your strategy, if you have somewhere in your car, right, a traveling Bucha

Karen Kenney: 01:00:26

garbage bags Ziploc bag, or some sort of a system for your car, quote, unquote, just in case, okay, this is a real thing, you guys, if you've ever been too embarrassed to openly discuss your bowel issues, if you've chosen not to eat sometimes for days, that's me, so that you can prevent IBS tax or manage outcomes. On and on and on. If you've ever had to find an orthodox place unorthodox places to go to the bathroom, right now, I'm going to tell you two stories about that in a minute. If you ever thought you were the only one with weird stomach issues, you guys, I'm here to tell you, you are not alone, you are not alone. And I 100% understand, I get it, I may not get your exact situation, you might have IBS C instead of IBS D or whatever. But I do know what it's like, for 40 plus years, right for 40 years to be an IBS sufferer, I really, really get it. And if you've ever been told it's all in your head or get over it. And if you've ever felt like you didn't know where to go for help for irritable bowel, IBS or irritable bowel syndrome, then what I'm going to tell you about in a little bit just might be perfect for you. But I wanted you to know about this, that these are some of the things you are not alone, you guys, there are 1000s I mean, there are millions there are millions and millions and millions and millions, if one in four people or one in five, and let's even be generous and say one in seven people have IBS. Think about out of 8 billion people on the planet. Think about how many people are walking around with IBS symptoms with suffering. Think about how many IBS sufferers their app, and the world is only getting more stressful, the world is only getting more unpredictable, the world is only getting more fucking crazy. So it's not surprising to me that IBS is on the rise. But a lot of people and here's the other thing about those statistics you guys, only about 40% Not everybody who has IBS even knows they have it, they just think that they have food allergies or food and food sensitivities. Or, oh my mom had i My mom has always had a sensitive tummy right? So many people have it don't know they have it. So many people have it and don't go to the doctors, they don't report it. So the statistics aren't even the full gamut. If you can imagine that. Okay, so two stories, okay. Just because I'm trying to humanize this. I'm trying to humanize this, and what it can be like so this one time, it was one of the first times I've ever had to break up with somebody and I was breaking up with somebody. And think I was in my late 20s. I might have been in my 30s. My early 30s, like early, early 30s. And I was dating this guy, and I was like, yeah, no, I can't do this anymore. And I had to go over to his house because I had to return something of his but he didn't know it was going to be a breakup conversation. Like I said, it was one of the first times I ever had to break up with somebody. And I was so anxious. I was so anxious, and I was so scared. And my stomach was just like turning and turning and turning and I'm literally sitting on the side street, I can see his apartment building. And I'm near this cemetery. And there's a bunch of bushes thank God, thank God because I didn't have anything in my car. And I could not have made it to his house and nor did I want to go use the bathroom of the guy I was about to break up with. So literally, I'm sitting there and I'm just like, churning in my stomach and I can feel my stomach right. Rumbling I feel the cramping start, I start to sweat. My heart starts to pound and I'm like, oh shit, like literally right? Literally. Oh shit, right? And I'm like, What am I going to do? And I had to dive in the bushes. Thank God, thank God it was warm out. It was in a season where there was like leaf coverage, you know what I'm saying? And I was like, Oh my God, and it is the worst thing. Thank God, I always have tissues and stuff in my car. But at that point, my IBS was like out of control. And I was like, oh my god, that was so awful. And then I had to basically like hope nobody sees me crawling out of these bushes. And it was it was like at dusk right so it wasn't too bad. I had a little coverage and but it's so humiliating you're like oh my god, I'm a grown ass adult and I can't control my bowel and you feel like a baby. You're like what am I back in diapers like what is happening? It is so awful. And look I get it there are way worse things you could have in terms of like yeah, you're right IBS is not going to quote unquote kill you. But it is like death by 1000 paper cuts. It is like one humiliating thing after another one limiting One thing after another, and the thing that I know about IBS, especially when how you're going to feel is so unpredictable how you're physically going to feel is so unpredictable, is it you, it makes your world constrict, it makes your world smaller. It makes you dream less big. I know that's not great grandma, but that it's like, you won't go after your dreams for a lot of people. Because they're like, I have no idea when when you know, chaos isn't going to strike. And so how can I possibly dream of having a book tour or a speaking thing, or this huge company where I have to be out in the field or I have to be doing X, Y, and Z? You know, how can I be a professional athlete when I have to be on the court, but I gotta go to the bathroom, right? There's all these ways that this this combination of physical, emotional, mental, right, this dysfunction, it limits you and it limits your life, and it can limit your joy and it can limit your love. And it can limit your relationships, and it can limit it can limit your your professional life and your personal life. So it's a big deal. Another time I had gone down to so every year on the anniversary of my mother's death or Mother's Day, one of those days, they're very close to each other. May 7, there may 10. I go down to Massachusetts, and I go and I visit the spot where my mother's body was found when she was murdered when she was killed. For whatever reason, one this one day, and I've been doing this for years and years and years. I don't get anxious about it. I don't I mean, I might shed a few tears sometimes. But I don't like to like I'm sobbing and wailing. It's all like I'm emotionally wicked worked up or anything like that. And on this day, I'll never forget, it was a totally normal day. hadn't eaten anything weird, hadn't done anything. I just drive down like I always do to the spot, you know where her body was found. And I'm sitting on this little side street in my car. And I go up, I do my little ritual. I said, I talked to her, I do the whole shebang. I get back in my car for a second. And all of a sudden, I get hit with a with an IBS attack. Like out of the blue, like out of the blue. And I'm like, holy shit. I am not. And I'm like, I'm like the mythical in malls, like right over there. Where's the gas station? I'm like searching my mind. I'm literally doing like GPS, driving distances in my head trying to map out I'm like, am I going to make it? Am I going to make it? And I still had to go to the cemetery in North Andover. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm not going to make it. So thank you, Jesus. My back seat has like tinted windows. And again, by this day and age, I'm no dummy. I have provisions in my back seat. We'll talk about that. Another time. Other than to say ziplock bags, wet wipes, toilet paper, you know, big jumbo bags is also a little portable toilet system that I now a little a little porta Potti thing that's collapsible that I keep in my car. And most people have these for little kids, the elderly, if they get stuck in if you live in a state where you might be stuck on a highway for a long time because of a natural disaster or snow and stuff like that, you know, people have these little portable things, and it collapses down really flat. Oh, no, I'd say it's about like five inches thick, four inches thick. It's a whole thing. The whole thing story for another day. But I have one of those in my back seat. But so imagine, imagine having to dive into your back seat because you can't make it to the bathroom in time. This is why people are afraid to take public transportation. What if they're on a subway? What if they're on a bus? What if like, you guys, I'm just trying to explain to you the rigamarole the shit literally that people with IBS have to go through. So it's not something to laugh about. And I know again, I'm saying all these things, I'm telling you all these things. I'm not embarrassed by this stuff. I'm like, these are just facts. This is just how it is to be in my body, how it has been to be in my body. And I've done so many things, so many things to help myself and that's what we're gonna get to now. Okay, so I know what it's like to move to the world with bathroom anxiety. Number one, I just want you all to know that. Okay, so IBS treatments. I've tried them all. So here's the five different ways, right five different ways there's diet, changing your diet, there's supplements, there's prescription medications, there's stress management, and then there's alternative therapies. So very quickly, I'm going to talk about these Okay? Diet. So what you eat and how you eat makes a wicked big difference and it plays an obvious role, not just what you eat, not just what you drink, not just what you put in your body but how you put them in your body.

Karen Kenney: 01:09:34

Are you sitting down when you eat? Are you stressed out when you eat? Are you angry? Are you slurping down your food? Are you eating wicked fast? Do you not chew all these things? So it's not only the food that you put in your body? Some bodies have a really hard time. So there's a reason right? So I am vegan for the animals. I am an ethical vegan. I love animals and I benefit from it. IBS is also one of the one of the reasons why eating a vegan diet has been so much better for me. I did not digest dairy Well, I did not digest animals dead because that's really what you're eating. Let's call a spade a spade. When you eat animals, you're eating dead body parts. That's what it is. My body did. And here's the thing. It wasn't just hard for my stomach to digest. It was hard for me to emotionally and spiritually digest the fact that I love animals so much what the what the fuck am I doing eating them, like how hypocritical and out of alignment and not congruent is that? So things really improved when I when I became vegan. And then also the way that I learned to eat better again, we don't have time all day, but these are things that if I work with people with IBS, if I become your IBS, menta these are all things we can talk about. Okay, supplements, oh my God, I've tried every supplement out there. I know what helps and what doesn't help for me, but I can definitely talk to you during our first consultation if we work together and start to figure out like, Okay, this sounds like this might be helpful, but these things are like after the fact these aren't even I'm not even at the main thing that I think is the best thing that people can do. For IBS. We're getting them okay. Prescription medications, I've never taken laxatives because that is not what I need. I do not need more stuff moving through very quickly. So laxatives I've never taken them. But people with ib ibsc They often take them. They take anti diarrheal oils, they take antispasmodics So you're talking over the counter stuff like Pepto Bismol. Imodium? Right so many people take gas X, they take Urbino they take all these things, digestive enzymes, right? They like oh, that's all mostly supplements, though for the for the digestive enzymes, right? So all the different kinds of supplements and then you have the prescription medications. Low tranex. I tried low tranex for a while. That was interesting until the report was it started killing people. So low tranex was designed by the FDA or whoever the FDA approved this thing back in the day, low tranex For people with IBS D. And slowly but surely, people started dropping dead because it was slowing down the motility of their digestion so much that they were having major blockages and they were dropping dead from it. So hello, right. It's like it's been an insane journey from 1990 9090. Let's say 1990? No. When did I first when did I first whenever I first got diagnosed at 18. Yeah, so that was like 1989. It's been a journey. It's been a journey. So there's all kinds of medications out there. But here's the thing with all of these things. They don't always work. And they don't always last and they don't always work and always last for everybody. So not everybody's system does well on the same thing. One thing that has been wicked helpful. And again, these are things I can talk about with people if we work together, but like stress management, so we're talking things like yoga, getting really good sleep, you guys sleep is so important when you have IBS, so yoga, sleep, relaxation, exercise, moving your body, exercise is important. And I know it can feel hot and you're like I feel like shit and it's like okay, but we have to move the body. Yoga can be a really powerful and gentle way to help yourself. Breathing exercises. Okay, yoga, Nidra relaxation NSDI this is like non sleep deep, deep breaths stuff, all this stuff is really helpful because this is all stuff that calms down the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the fight and flight right that reaction thing that amygdala turns on the fear stuff like oh, my god chased by a lion, right? So all the stress management stuff, what it's doing is it's turning on the parasympathetic nervous system, which is rest and digest, which is the relaxation response. That's what we're trying to do. Okay, so those are the five things I'll say him again, diet supplements, prescription medication, stress management, and then the mack daddy. And this is the one I really want to talk to you about. And this is the one that has been a lifesaver for me. And that is this. It is called alternative therapies. But what is it specifically so for me, got specific hypnotherapy. Got specific hypnotherapy. Now, you've heard probably if you're in the IBS world at all about gut directed hypnotherapy, there's different apps and little things that you can do. But gut specific hypnotherapy, here's the thing about hypnotherapy. And I'm not going to go into a whole big rigmarole about it, other than to say since the 1980s. The doctors know this, the medical research and the statistics prove the data shows that hypnosis is an effective treatment for irritable bowel syndrome and its symptoms. They've known this since the 80s. You guys, okay? Doctors don't know what causes it. Doctors don't have a cure for it. But we do know what really, really really really helps to effectively reduce and manage IBS symptoms and this is got specific hypnotherapy and this is something that I do not only have I done it not only have I used it for myself, it's what I also offer people. Okay, the Google just Google it, you know hypnosis for IBS data you will see it will come up that it is a viable it is an effective thing to do. Okay, so this is the one I want to talk about and I want to talk to you about how I discovered got specific hypnotherapy. Okay, because I want to mention a few people. I want to tell you a little bit about my mentor. And I want to tell you a little bit about these books that changed so I'm gonna hold up this little envelope. You guys look at this. So this is a little envelope right? This is from it stamped Burbank, California and I live in California 1993 And I wrote to the digestive disease associates, right I was all these little pamphlets. I have all these different I'm holding them up you guys can see them I have all these different little like you and irritable bowel syndrome, right, the International Foundation for bowel dysfunction. You guys, you can see how old these things are. I've kept them this whole time. This one is from June 1987. This one is the irritable bowel syndrome, digestive disease associates, Burbank, California, right. These things are so old. This is how long I've been trying to figure out how the BOK to help myself and help other people that I love. Like I said, I've tried it all I used to drink aloe vera juice. I used to wrap my stomach and Castor Oil wraps like when I tell you I have tried every weird thing like Maya abdominal massage. When relieving pose like I've done it all. You know what has helped me the most? The most? I'm not saying the other things haven't been helpful. I don't want to I'm not being dismissive of that because Hello, yoga teacher. I know how powerful yoga can be. In fact, my friend Heather, who I'm about to tell you about, oh, let me tell you about her first. And then I'll mention something else. Okay, so back in 2000 This book finally comes out. Okay, I worked at Crown books in Burbank, California. I was I was. So I love I've loved books, my whole life books have saved my life. If you again listen to my origin story, and she'll know books have saved my life.

Karen Kenney: 01:17:18

But I found this book back in 2000. And I'm holding it up and this is by Heather van Boris and it's called eating for IBS. Okay, so I read this book, it came out 23 years ago, right and way in the back, I'm gonna hold this up. I have it bookmarked. It's so funny way in the back. I'm holding it up. You'll see all that's mentioned in this book, because this is really it's like, supposed to supposedly delicious, nutritious, low fat low residue recipes to stabilize the touchiest tummy. So I get this book just looking for like recipes and stuff like that. Okay. And way in the back under the directory of resources. I see this and I have it highlighted here and all it says is this. It says IBS hypnotherapy tapes, you guys, this is when they were still cassette tapes. Now if you're really young, you might be like, I don't know what a cassette tape is. It's just it's like, you don't even need to know but guys guys who are in my age group, you know, IBS hypnotherapy tapes, right from a guy named Michael Mahoney, right hypnotherapy hypnotherapist, but he's all the way in England, England, and the cost was 88 US dollars. So this is the first time that I ever see IBS, right? hypnosis that there is help for IBS using hypnosis and it's some guy named Michael Mahoney, and I'm like, okay, he has these cassette tapes. They're at a box and I don't do anything with it except I become aware of him. Okay, that's step one. A year later, have the puts out another book. Okay, same same person had the van Boris I'm holding it up here. This one is called the first year irritable bowel syndrome the first year IBS and it says a patient expert, which is basically what I am to. Okay. A patient expert walks you through everything you need to learn and to do. And this is an essential guide for the newly diagnosed okay, I'm holding this book up and those of you who are watching and see I have this little orange tab here. Because in this book, it goes from Michael Mahoney this little dude with his $88 IBS cassette tapes in the back of a book to having a whole chapter on him. And on IBS hypnotherapy. Okay, so you can see these are all two so I'm flipping through some of the pages you can see I highlighted so much information in this I was like oh my god, what is happening? Look at all the yellow you guys look at much I highlighted this. Okay. So in this one is talking about this guy named Michael Mahoney, and he has created like guts specific hypnotherapy for IBS Okay, you go back into the talks all about the research he's done the medical because he's he was in the medical profession all the all the work that he's done he's been a hypnotist hypnotist or hypnotherapist for like all these years he's been awarded like the Queen's medal like literally the Queen of England he got invited to like the Tea Party and he was given an award for his dedication and work and helping IBS sufferers and so he's a really big deal. Okay, he's a really big deal. And when I go to the back of this, it basically says hypnotherapy has been approved by the American Medical Association as a valid medical treatment since 1958. Though the concept of using a state of hypnosis to alleviate both physical and mental ills, has recurred throughout history of medicine from ancient times. So it's true. We know the Egyptians used hypnotherapy. Everybody's used it throughout ancient times and in 1958. Finally, the doctors get on board and start to say, Yeah, this is a valid like medical treatment. Okay, for IBS, when a hypnotherapy is greatest benefits is its well established ability to reduce the effects of stress. It goes on and on and on. Okay, hypnosis decreases both pain sensation and a bunch of other stuff. I'm not going to read you the whole book. But so in this one, it talks about right again, in the resources that's highlighted in pink, you can see he's still he's still talking his wares, right? He's got his he's got his hypnotherapy tapes. Now they're 98 bucks, right? This is a year later than $98. Okay. I don't still I still don't buy them, then. I wait. I don't know when it was like a year later, two years later, I finally get them. I think it was like, I think it was like maybe at the end of 2001 or 2000. And beginning of 2002, I get them but now they're CDs. And they literally were shipped to me, right? And they have these these like six different CDs and they were in these little pockets and there was a listening schedule. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm totally going to do this. Number one. I've had a fascination with hypnosis, and how and why people do what they do. I have been obsessed with why people like why mom was my mantra as a little kid. Why mom? Why? So I've been obsessed with why people do what they do think what they think say what they say my whole life, specially then show me a Scooby Doo cartoon, where there's like the evil hypnotist, right? And I'm just like, oh my god, hypnosis. You can you can affect how people think you can of course, okay. And then society comes along. And all they really show us is stage hypnotist. They show us the people who are like getting you on stage and making you act crazy and cluck like a chicken and try to embarrass yourself and all this stuff. So hypnosis has kind of been getting a bad rap. And it's gotten a bad rap. And it's highly, highly, highly misunderstood. Because it's also seen as a way to just kind of like entertain, or to get people to do things that aren't really that helpful to them. Right? They're embarrassing. It's like it's stupid. And it's, like I said, those of us who use hypnosis in a therapeutic way, in a healing way, in a way to help people reprogram the subconscious mind to install better belief systems, all this stuff. We have a lot of heavy, heavy duty lifting to do, because it's kind of coming off of the fact that so many people think of hypnosis, hypnosis as being some sort of stage performance act. And that's not what this is. Okay, so I've had a fascination with hypnosis for a really long time. So I discovered Michael in this book. And to me, Michael is the godfather of hypnotherapy for IBS, right, going all the way back to his cassette tapes, and then his CDs and then his audio programs. So what I started to discover from following him, and, you know, I bought his product, and I read all the stuff that comes with it. And he'd been in practice since like 1987. And then in 1991, he saw his first his very first IBS patients. So now he's been working specifically with IBS, for like, 30 years, okay. And what he discovered through his medical trials and errors, okay, he did all these studies, he, like put all of his own money into these things. And he discovered that his work as as a hypnotherapist that was gut specific IBS directed had an 80% success rate. And 80% success rate, which is huge, you guys. Okay, fast forward, I get the CDs. I get the listening schedule. I'm supposed to listen to these hypnosis audios for 100 days. So it's like give or take like, three months ish, okay. And I get them, but I'm at that stage in that age where I have no patience. And at the time, I don't see the value of it because I'm I'm young and stupid. Let's just call it what it was. I'm impatient. I wanted a quick fix. I wanted to just feel better right now make a different data make me stop having to run to the bathroom, get rid of my bathroom anxiety, all this stuff. And so I didn't stick with it. And that was on me. It wasn't about the efficacy of his program. It wasn't that the hypnosis, hypnosis and the hypnotherapy couldn't help me. It's that I couldn't help myself. I couldn't get out of my own way. I couldn't sit still in my anxiety and in my nervous system and in my own body and mind long enough to actually help myself. Here's the catch. Here's what's important. Just I want you if you aren't IBS sufferer, I want you to hear this loud and clear. Okay? When I finally got sick and tired of being sick and tired, I sat my ass down, and I committed to the program, and it had x financial, exponential relief, help effect. My symptoms got so much better. Now I use a combination of things. But my main go to because again, like I said, I already told you I'm vegan. I do things a certain way. I don't drink coffee. I don't and I it's I don't not drink coffee, just because IBS. I don't drink coffee, because I don't like coffee. I don't drink coffee. Right. But there's a lot of things I don't do. And there's a lot of things I do do. And one of the most important and powerful and life changing things that I've done is got specific hypnotherapy for IBS life changer. Okay. So what's so fascinating about all of this is when you look at all the things that actually help IBS, I've literally became those things. It's like change your diet, became vegan did that I was also macrobiotic. I was macrobiotic and vegan for two years. And it was the best I ever felt in my life when it came to like food and my digestion and stuff in that way in that way and that foods specific way.

Karen Kenney: 01:27:01

And then it's like oh, do some alternative therapies and practices. Hello, I totally became a yoga teacher I became a Reiki instructor, right? I use pranayama and breath work practices. You know, I use all Thai Yoga massage became a Thai Yoga massage person. It's so fascinating to me. Now looking back, that I became all of these things. You know, under the guys, it might look like, Oh, she helps other people. But at that time, I think my spiritual team and this is the spiritual aspect. I think my highest self, the part of me that is not insane. I always say whoever is the most sane at the time. So there were I think that there were times when my inner teacher, my inner knowing my highest self was like, we're gonna help this kid and we're gonna give her a curiosity, right, we're gonna give her a curiosity and a leaning towards these modalities towards these practices towards these brain science tools. They're gonna help her to help herself first. And I think about this work that I do, and we're gonna, we're gonna get to that in a minute, I think of this work that I do is that so first of all, number one, I had to get I had to suffer enough, my pain had to become so bad, my bathroom anxiety, my debilitation all those things had to become so fucking bad that I was willing to be uncomfortable and try something different. I was willing to commit to it. Right, I had to get sick and tired enough of being sick and tired, and not looking for a quick fix, and not looking for the immediate solve and not looking for. I didn't have to do any of the work or change. Right? When I started to get serious about my own happiness, my own health, my own wholeness, my own peace. Right, when I got serious, then things started to change. So the great thing though, about hypnosis is that you don't have to do anything except to get quiet and listen. To relax, lay down, get still. And listen. And if you can't commit to the listening part, if you can't commit to doing your part, there's a reason why they say in programs that work, it works. If you work it, you've got to do your part. No hypnotist, I don't care if it's Michael Mahoney, or me or whoever. No hypnotherapist can make you do this stuff and listen to the audios and do the things that are part of the program and the protocol. You've got to want the change. You've got to want to do it. That's that is the pinky swear of saying like yeah, all right, I'm committed to this. And I really only want to work with people who are truly committed to playing a proactive role in their own healing. Who are gonna do and follow the protocol. Because I know that when it's followed, it helps. Okay, and I'm back. Okay, so here's the thing. So I think it's fascinating that I decided to become all these things because here's the thing, here's how I look at the work that I do. And whether I look at it as a spiritual mentor, an integrative hypnotist, an integrative change worker, a life coach, a yoga teacher, a writing instructor, blah, blah, all the things right, all the certifications, all the things, I think of it like this. Think of it like a burning building. So I was a person who was on fire. Like, let's say it will say IBS specific. I was a person whose intestines were like, felt like they were on fire. And I get out of that burning building. And I went over to the medical tent, and I rested, and I started to heal. And I gathered resources, right, and I got education. And I trained myself and I practice and I embodied and I learned, and I got well enough to now turn around. So I can grab some buckets of water, aka hypnosis and stuff, and run back to put out the people who are still on fire, to help the people who are still suffering. That's how I look at this. It's how I look across the whole spectrum of what I do, right? I don't just do IBS hypnosis. I also have like one to one spiritual mentoring, where I use hypnosis, but in this specific case, right, I am using IBS, specifically to help people. Okay, we're going to talk about my program and how I help and all that in one second, but I just really want to talk about this. Okay, so there's another way of looking at this. And I always say that if you're lucky enough, and I first heard this, I first heard this from Dennis Lehane, who's who's a wonderful Boston, right? I mean, he's bigger than that. Now, if you read you do it probably know who Dennis lane is, but Dennis Lehane was quoting the father of my writing mentor under the abuse the third, so Dennis Lehane quoted Andre De abuse senior as one saying, you know, it, basically, if you get to the top floor, if you take the elevator to the top floor, you don't stop the elevator car and keep it up there and be greedy, and stingy. If you're lucky enough to make it to the top floor, you send the elevator back down to pick up the people who are coming up behind you. And I believe that, that is how I like to help. If I go and learn something, it's a protocol, a program, a tool, a skill set, whatever, I often then once I've spent time with it, practice it, utilize it myself, understand it, have my own wisdom and spin to put on it right have something to add to it and to help people with I like to send the elevator back down and offer something because that's one of my biggest things. You know, if you listen to the show, it's spreading more love in the world. It's helping to end suffering. For more humans and more animals. This is my purpose in life. This I know to be true. And whether I do it through storytelling, or yoga, or mentoring or spiritual mentoring or hypnosis or leading workshops or retreats, I'm going to bring all parts of myself and we're gonna try to do the best that we can do to help you are meaning me and all my paths. So I'm going to do the best that I can. I'm going to try to do it in the most compassionate but yet fun way you know what I'm saying? Okay, so here's the thing. Okay. I finally discovered Michael I do I finally do the program who died, okay. been obsessed with hypnosis in my own way, like my whole life. So recently in the last two years, right, so two years ago, I finally do my certification. I get certified in Hip Hip hypnosis. Through the national guild of hypnosis, the MGH, which is one of the largest and oldest hypnosis hypnosis what do we want to call it? Not a it's um, you know, the overseer association that exists for like four in the US anyways in the US. Okay, so I get certified to become a hypnotist. Then I go on to study and get certified and learn from the brilliant the brilliant Melissa tears if you don't know who Melissa tears is. So I've taken not one but two certifications with Melissa Tia. So I'm an integrative hypnotist. I'm also an integrative change worker using all these different modalities and tools. And so I've been lucky enough to study with some really, really, really brilliant people. And I've taken like I said, national guild of hypnotist, Melissa tears. And then when I was like, I want to start to help people with IBS.

Karen Kenney: 01:34:26

I wanted specific training. I wanted specific with something that I know that works. And I start looking on Demi and all these different courses and all these different platforms trying to find somebody and then I have this crazy idea. Because I'm like, why am I nickel and diming this like why am I bouncing around all these? I don't want to say knuckleheads but you know my you know, Vicki, that's how she talks sometimes Vicki with two kids and bounce around. I'm checking out this course and I'm like, this is awful. Like I find this thing I pay them I'm like this is awful I read some books I see that Mind Valley is doing something and Marissa piers not Melissa tears this other lady recipient she's doing something Grace hypnosis with all these people are like doing stuff. And but I'm looking for like IBS specific stuff. And the stuff that I find out that is not impressive, because now I've had my experience with Michael's audios I've had, I've listened to somebody who knows what they're doing, has been doing it for 30 years. And I'm like, oh my god, like that's the experience that I want. But my brain can't comprehend that it would be possible for me to study with the guy. Like the godfather of IBS hypnotherapy. It doesn't even occur to me for a long time that that's even possible. And then one day, I'm like, Screw it. I'm going to I'm going to find out. So I just start Googling some things. I stopped them, I reach out to him. And you guys, this is how it works. Here we are. So now I have trained with Michael. I've studied with him. I am in a mentorship with him. Because I want to continue continue to be with the leading like I went right to the source is what I'm trying to say I went right to the source of IBS hypnotherapy because I wanted my skill set to be strong. I wanted to have that ongoing mentoring. So if I had a question, I can go right to the source and say, Hey, I need help with this a little supervision. What do you think? So I'm just so delighted, and so excited to tell you that I've been studying with him. I'm continuing to have an ongoing mentorship with him. And it's just mind boggling. I still am giddy with laughter I kind of laugh. I can't believe this has been going on for a little while. I haven't talked about it. I haven't told anybody. I mean, my sweetie knows my best friends now. But I don't really talk about it because I've been waiting for the perfect time to just kind of announce it and bring it out and say like, I'm ready to start doing this thing. I'm ready to offer this in 2024. January 2024 is the perfect time going into a new year with this new offering. And I'm so friggin excited. So you guys, IBS help hypnosis. Okay, this is a transformational program. I'm not doing some weird sales pitch, I'm just telling you about it. It might be for you. It might not be for you, but it might be for you. And it might be beneficial to somebody that you love. So if anything I've said today has been helpful to you please just pass this on. And if you want to know how I'm helping people just keep listening. Okay, so my program IBS help hypnosis. It's a three month program. It's a transformational program. And it uses gut specific hypnosis to help people who are irritable bowel syndrome sufferers. So this is basically got specific hypnosis for IBS sufferers. Okay. And basically what would happen is, and I'm not going to go through the whole rigmarole if you really want to hear more about this and see this more in depth and see the whole thing, just go to Karen kenney.com/ibs. But I do want to tell you a little bit about it. Number one, I want people to know that they're not alone, because so many people suffer with IBS in silence, again, out of shame, embarrassment, humiliation, feeling misunderstood, feeling like nobody gets it feeling like they've been made fun of all the stuff. And that day is over like those days are over. Because I'm here and there. There are people out there not just me, there are other people who do this, of course, and we genuinely want to help. But the difference here is that a lot of the people who offer IBS hypnosis or gut directed hypnosis or other, they didn't have IBS. They're doing it more from I read that this can help. I know that this many people have this and it can be a good business that it when I tell you guys from the bottom of my heart, like I am doing this, because I really, really, really want to help people because I know like, I know, I can't tell you how many tears I've shed out of frustration, out of anger out of physical pain. Because of IBS. The multiplicity weighs on you, if that's a word doesn't matter, that IBS has affected my life. And I just really want to help people, but I'm somebody who also understands what it's like. So there's no judgment, there's no embarrassment, there's nothing you could probably say to me that I'd be like ill or I'm not gonna is nothing you can say to me, I'm going to be ill. But what I mean is, I've probably heard it all. I have probably heard it all. Because even just in my day to day life of people knowing that I have IBS, I have coached and counseled and mentored people all along, when they come to me and they're like, oh my god, I think I have IBS and I'm like, Okay, here's some things that'll be helpful for you. And what I find is they're not willing to give up the habits They're not willing to give up the thought processes are not willing to give up the eating. So they're not willing to actually do the things that are actually going to help them. And I know hypnosis, I know this can help people, Michael has already gone first. He's done all the medical research. He has his protocol he has his program. I'm like, I look back on it. And I'm like, this has been proven to work for the last 30 years helping people to get an 80% success rate. Okay, here's the deal. If this is something that you're interested in, we have an initial consultation. And it's for both of us, it's to see if we're a good fit, it's to see if I'm a good fit for you. It's for me to see if you're a good fit for me. And if I really think that this protocol, this hypnosis protocol is going to be able to help you, because I no more, no more suffering, no more suffering and silence, no more suffering and shame. So even if all you do is that first consultation, it'll be really helpful. Okay. So there's that. And then after the consultation, if you decide that you want to move forward with the hypnosis, because there's no hypnosis, and that first consultation, that is just a 90 minute session where we're going to get together, I'm going to listen, I'm going to really listen. And I'm going to ask questions, and you can tell me all about your IBS experience, what's going on what you've been feeling, what you've been experiencing all that stuff, because remember, I'm also a spiritual mentor. I've been doing this for many, many, many years, listening to people, helping people guiding people, supporting people, coaching people. So even if that's the only thing we do is that first 90 minute thing you can, but if you really want to get down to the root problem, because what happens is in the IBS world, is all those pills, all the supplements, all those things, all the medications, all they're really trying to do is to get rid of the thing that's showing up right now and whether that's the constipation or to stop the the stop that the diarrhea right now, but it's not getting to the root cause of things. And I really believe that hypnosis gets down to the nitty gritty, it gets down to the root causes of the ways that our brains have been wired, the way that our nervous system is talking to our belly. I really believe it helps to like we think about IBS, Michael says that like, IBS, yes, it stands for irritable bowel syndrome. It also stands for install belief system. And in hypnosis, we are installing a new belief system that helps with all the things that help write stress, it reduces stress. It helps us to relax, it helps us to sleep better, it helps us to change our mind from a thought system. I really believe this a fear to love. It helps us to feel more resource more confident, less anxious, more empowered. I mean, it's an incredible, incredible thing. Okay, so I have a three month program, and we end up having like six sessions, five of those, you'll get six sessions. And then there's also like five IBS specific that specific hypnotherapy audios that I send to you, you get a wicked easy to fall listening schedule, all this stuff, I'm not going to go on and on about it. Go check it out, Karen kenney.com/ibs. And some of the benefits you're gonna get from this if you decide to move forward, and help yourself number one, just feeling not helpless, hopeless, or powerless. This was such a big thing for me, knowing that there was something that I could actually do to help myself that was actually going to help. That was such a huge thing like my brain like, flipped. A switch got flipped in my brain when

Karen Kenney: 01:43:28

I was like, oh my god, I get to be proactive. I get to play a role in my own healing and my own well being my own happiness and my own health. It was such a powerful thing. To be able to know all I have to do is listen to this thing and it's gonna get into my subconscious mind and work. Its magic. It was so huge. Okay, but when you work with me, because I'm somebody again, who's not just an IBS, specialized hypnotist, I am also an IBS sufferer, I know what it's like to go through it. Okay, you're gonna get one to one private support, you receive a systematic approach. It is built on progressive, ongoing system management. It is so powerful you guys. And I think that's all I want to say right now. But if you're looking for an IBS mentor, right, somebody to walk along beside you on your path to effectively reducing and managing your IBS symptoms. That's me, and I would love to help. I would love to help. So again, just go to Kern county.com/ibs. You can see the program on there. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to be able to be working in this way and helping people you guys I feel like I really feel like that I've been talking about IBS is an affliction. Like I always feel like I was afflicted with this. Because I was the kind of person who I am tough. I am strong. I am persistent, right. I am persistent. I'm that person who's like I'm going to figure this out. I'm not giving up, I got knocked on my ass so many times by IBS. And I'm still like, I'm not giving up, I'm going to continue to do this. And now I'm going to start to take some other people along the way with me, right, so that they can also feel better. And look, it's an ongoing thing. I'm not saying I'm sure there's no cure for IBS. But the way that my life is now is remarkably different, remarkably different. And so this is part one of like the whole dive into IBS. And then next week, I'm having Michael on the show, I am having the godfather of IPS hypnosis on the show, so that we can talk to him. And we can hear his journey, and why he started really deciding for 30 years to specialize in this and to help mentor and train people like me so that I can help more people. Because again, when you go back to the statistics, and you think, okay, like one in four, one in five, one in seven people have this, we know that there are a lot of people out there that need help, and they don't know that help exists. So I'm so excited for you to meet my mentor. He is the best he has the best British accent by the way, I friggin love it. I love his accent. And I love him as a human being he is one of the most kind, compassionate, smart, brilliant, just funny, just lovely, like lovely human being. And he has such a servant's heart. And he has been helping 1000s and 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of people, and now you're gonna get to meet him too. So you guys, thank you for being on this long ride with me. I don't even know how long this episode is. I hope it's been helpful in some way. I really, really, really do. And I hope if it's not for you, maybe it will help you to understand somebody in your life who has a, you know, digestive disorder of some kind. But if you know somebody with IBS, please, please, please help me to spread the good word and spread the love by sharing this episode with them. Thank you so much for sticking in here. And if you could still hear the sound of my voice, thank you so much for being here. With me, I appreciate you so much. And here's to a fantastic Clean Slate new stat 2020 24. Right, it's going to be amazing. I just have good feelings in my bones Fingers crossed. And I know that's not to say that I'm not pretending like there aren't still awful things happening into the in the world. Of course they are. But the way that we can actually be helpful for those other things that are happening in the world is for us to get ourselves right to get our bodies right to get our minds right to get incongruency right to get the assignment is alignment. So I'm not pretending that other awful things aren't happening in the world. But I feel hopeful that 2024 More people are going to start to as I say, get their shit together. And start to think beyond just the self and the different ways that they can go out and serve and help their brothers and sisters and help their neighbors and help the animals and help humanity and help the planet. So I always say you guys, wherever you go, may you leave yourself, the people the place the animals, the environment, the planet better than how you found it. Wherever you go. May you be a blessing. Bye