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April 30, 2024
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VIDEO: New book a ‘holistic toolbox’ of nutritional, behavioral strategies for treating IBS

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In a Healio video exclusive, Megan Riehl, PsyD, AGAF, and Kate Scarlata, MPH, RDN, LDN, discuss their new book, “Mind Your Gut,” a comprehensive guide for treating irritable bowel syndrome from nutritional and behavioral perspectives.

“We really came together because there wasn’t a book that specifically merged behavioral therapies with nutrition therapies for irritable bowel syndrome,” Scarlata, a New York Times bestselling author and Boston-based GI expert dietitian, said. “We decided to get this holistic comprehensive guide together for patients living with this condition.”

Dr. Megan Riehl and Kate Scarlata
Kate Scarlata, MPH, RDN, LDN, and Megan Riehl, PsyD, AGAF, hold their new book, "Mind your Gut," a comprehensive guide for treating IBS from a nutritional and behavioral perspective. Image: Megan Riehl, PsyD, AGAF

According to Riehl, a GI psychologist and clinical director of the GI behavioral health program at the University of Michigan, the first few chapters delve right into the food, mood and gut connection in IBS.

“We give patients an opportunity to learn that this diagnosis is complex but there’s hope,” Reihl said, especially when given the “dream-team approach” of a registered GI dietitian, GI psychologist and gastroenterologist.

Additional topics in the book include:

  • the GI stress cycle and ways to calm the body and mind;
  • use of behavioral interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy and gut-directed hypnosis;
  • nutritional strategies, including a gentle diet cleanup and variations of the FODMAP diet;
  • the gut microbiome and how difference conditions, such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, can overlap with IBS; and
  • IBS mimickers that can co-occur with IBS, as well as other features of GI distress.

“This book is a holistic toolbox that we hope that every gastroenterologist — because we know that you’re seeing lots of patients with IBS — will keep on their bookshelf and that you’ll recommend for the bookshelves of every patient with irritable bowel syndrome,” Riehl said, “or even our patients who have other diagnoses who are really looking to complement their gut health with science-backed information from a nutritional and behavioral perspective.”