Maia Dunphy: We shouldn’t be afraid to talk about Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Maia Dunphy was first diagnosed with irritable bowl syndrome when she was aged 16 and believes in speaking out about the condition.

Writer and broadcaster Maia Dunphy says she gets all the glamorous gigs — this month, for instance, she’s the poster girl for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

“Yes,” she says with a little laugh, “I’m the face of IBS.”

Though, she’s as far from flippant as only a sufferer of the condition can be.

She was first diagnosed with IBS at 16 and there were times when she got stomach cramps so severe she had to go home and lie in a dark room until they passed.

However, in doing this campaign she’s realised other sufferers have symptoms that interfere with their lives more regularly — and more radically.

For some, the condition, which affects up to 700,000 Irish people, can mean missing school or work, limiting outings, cancelling holidays, social isolation, and even despair.

“I get asked to do a lot of campaigns, but I was very glad to do this one. I have never shied away from anything because it is embarrassing and IBS affects an enormous number of people. We shouldn’t be afraid to talk about it,” she said.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a digestive condition that includes symptoms such as bloating, pain, diarrhoea, wind and constipation.

For Maia, the main symptom was stomach pain but, over the years, she has learned to manage it by cutting out, or limiting, her trigger foods which, ironically, are the mainstay of the so-called clean-food diets.

She avoids raw food, apples, citrus fruit, onions, coleslaw, juices and finds that taking the prebiotic Alflorex helps.

However, foods such as bread, pasta and milk — common triggers — pose no problem.

She’s not one to pretend that she watches every morsel that goes into her mouth either — it’s time to speak out honestly about what we really eat, she says.

“I have chocolate every single day,” she says, to hammer home the point.

However, now that she’s mother to Tom (20 months), she starts the day with a more substantial breakfast — toast, avocado, eggs — to boost her energy.

Lunch might be a garage sandwich on the go, or rice and good sushi if she’s near her favourite restaurant, Itsu.

She loves to cook, though since her Masterchef days she doesn’t get as much time in the kitchen as she’d like.

When she’s in London with hubby Johnny Vegas and stepson Michael (13), she does family dishes (lasagne and baked chicken), and tries to batch cook healthy food for little Tom.

She’s also really busy travelling, between Dublin and London, and with ‘The M Word’, her phenomenally successfully blog and now website for women who just happen to be mothers. Having said that, she’s enjoying motherhood far more than she thought she would.

“We were the first generation who were told that we could do it all, but we probably can’t. If you go back to work, you feel you’re letting the kids down. If you don’t, you’re letting the sisterhood down.”

Meanwhile, the stress of juggling everything could just trigger an IBS attack.

Maia, who classifies herself as a terrible worrier, recalls her doctor telling her that people who suffer from stress are particularly prone to IBS.

A new survey carried out by Alflorex prebiotics backs that up. Seven in 10 people said stress was a major cause of their IBS flare-ups.

Nearly half of those surveyed said it had lowered their self-confidence, too, while two-in-five said it made them depressed.

Consultant gastroenterologist Deirdre O’Donovan at Blackrock Clinic, Dublin, said IBS significantly affected quality of life and that patients were too often embarrassed to seek help.

Seven in 10 of those under the age of 34 suffer in silence, according to the poll.

“This survey shows that the stigma of living with IBS is a major cause for concern. Patients struggle to discuss symptoms like unpredictable diarrhoea, constipation, wind or bloating with their families and friends,” Dr O’Donovan said

The study found

29% of IBS sufferers say it still carries a big stigma

Almost a third of women (29.6%) say their IBS affects what they wear

More than 20% of people have not told their partner about their IBS.

April is IBS Awareness month. For more on the condition, check out the Alflorex educational video online.