Bowel

Calling all men! Ditch the razor this month, create a little extra winter warmth for your face and help raise awareness of bowel cancer. Yes this month is Decembeard!

Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week takes place each year between the 1st and 7th December. Crohn’s and Colitis UK are working hard to make these forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease better understood.

We’re always grateful to our community for sharing their stories and letting others know that they’re not alone with their bladder and/or bowel condition. This week, Ian talks to us about his life with the autoimmune bowel condition,…

Elaine Miller is a successful physiotherapist that has worked in the glamorous field of sports physio but three kids later, a sneeze followed by an uninvited wee changed the direction of Elaine’s career into women’s health.

Having a stoma shouldn’t limit your ability to travel in the UK or abroad. It may just take a little more forward planning. The Colostomy Association have developed a useful guide on travelling with a stoma. Here are our top tips. Make…

Irrigation is a system of bowel management for a colostomy in which you ‘wash’ the bowel to encourage a bowel movement. Over time your bowel will adopt this regular habit, and you should not produce waste in between irrigation sessions.…

If you have a stoma it may help to adjust your diet and exercise routine. Learn about stoma diet, and how being an ‘active ostomate’ can help you.

Looking after your peristomal skin (the ring of your skin that sits under your bag) is a vital part of your stoma care routine. It is important to avoid faeces or urine from coming into contact with your skin otherwise this can cause sore…

There are many different stoma care products for you to choose from. Your stoma nurse will probably help you choose one in the beginning. You may like to try some different pouches to see which type you find the most comfortable and most…

Straight after your stoma operation What will my stoma look like? Don’t be alarmed by the size of your stoma for the first few weeks after surgery. Your abdomen and your stoma will both be quite swollen and your stoma may also ooze…

Your Preoperative Assessment Depending on your hospital you will probably be offered a pre-op assessment a few days/ weeks prior to your stoma surgery. This assessment will involve a meeting with your surgeon to discuss any last minute…

It’s a natural part of our life and we all do it (in one form or another) and some of us have issues with it like any other part of our body but why is it that it’s not socially acceptable to be open about our bowel and having a bowel…

If you have Inflammatory Bowel Disease or an ostomy then you probably know who Sam Cleasby is. Sam is the owner of the hugely popular ‘So Bad Ass’ website and one of the most influential voices for Crohn’s and Colitis sufferers. After being…

We spoke to BBC Radio Essex this week to give our opinions about a man with colitis who got a parking ticket after stopping for an emergency bathroom break in Essex. Do you think he should have got fined?

Meet Lauren; she suffers with a bowel condition called Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which has led her to toilet mapping her home city of Sheffield.

Currently there is no cure for Coeliac Disease. This condition is a considered a long-term chronic illness. You can dramatically reduce your symptoms and heal any gut damage caused by the disease by following a gluten-free diet. There is…

Coeliac Disease is a common chronic autoimmune condition that affects around one in every 100 people. The condition is a reaction of the immune system to gluten, which is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. You are more likely to…

Lauraine has IBD, which has resulted in an ileostomy and she also suffers from endometriosis and an enterocutaneous fistula. Here, Lauraine tells us her story and how she is learning to live with her illness.

This week we’ve all been inundated with those photos of cute smiling kids in their slightly too big school uniforms and large grins. Yes that’s right September is here and it’s back to school time for many children. How do you cope with a…

The only treatment for Hirschsprung’s is surgery. All children will have to undergo a procedure at some stage to connect the healthy portion of bowel to their anus in order to allow them to pass bowel motions normally. Initially, the…

Hirschsprung’s Disease is a rare congenital disorder that affects the large bowel (colon), which causes severe constipation and/ or bowel obstruction. This disease affects one in 5,000 babies born. In Hirschsprung’s Disease, the ganglion…

The RADAR key provides you with access to over 9,000 accessible public facilities around the UK. They can be found in many shopping centres, pubs, cafes, cinemas, bus and rail stations.

Leading bowel charity, Bowel and Cancer Research have created a new identity to cement its commitment to research on bowel cancer and other crippling, incurable bowel disorders such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s Disease and Irritable Bowel…

How to Encourage a Bowel Movement when Constipated If you find yourself having difficulty going to the toilet and emptying your bowels, there are a number of non-medical methods to encourage a dormant gut to relieve you of constipation.…

This week the Colostomy Association launched the theme for these year’s Colostomy Day. Every year ostomates join together to raise awareness to dispel the stigma attached to colostomies, ileostomies and urostomies.

What is a stoma? A stoma is an opening on the abdomen that can be connected to either your digestive or urinary system to allow waste (urine or faeces) to be diverted out of your body. It looks like a small, pinkish, circular piece of…

The treatment for a bowel obstruction will depend on what is causing it. For a total mechanical blockage, surgery will most likely be required. Most bowel obstructions will need some form of hospital intervention to relieve the problem. If…

Short Bowel Syndrome is a rare and complex disease which usually develops after a significant portion of small bowel and /or colon is removed surgically. This condition can also occasionally happen as a result of a portion of the bowel…

There is no cure for short bowel syndrome at present and treatment involves alleviating the symptoms suffered by the patient and working to balance the right level of nutrition needed by the body. Treatment may be coordinated across a team…

Diarrhoea can cause frequent and urgent desires to go to the toilet. Learn about what causes this diarrhoea, the symptoms and how to treat it effectively.

The Bladder and Bowel Foundation has been serving the Bladder and Bowel Community since 1989 offering help and support to thousands of people across the UK. Earlier this year the Bladder and Bowel Foundation went into receivership due to…

Morrisons install accessible toilet signs in 492 stores. The Bladder and Bowel Community is delighted to share some fantastic news from the Crohn’s and Colitis UK charity. They have successfully managed to recruit Morrisons supermarkets to…

We are delighted to announce that Blake Beckford has been shortlisted for Business Person of the Year at the 2017 Pride of Stratford Awards. The nomination is jointly held with fellow Bladder and Bowel Community Director, Ian…

Amongst other things, April marks IBS Awareness Month. So we thought it would be a good idea to put something together on what this oft-misunderstood condition is really like, and what’s involved in the day-to-day management of it. It’s…

On July 2nd this year, Mike Quinn (Miromedia) is riding with 14 like minded gents around the gruelling Ring of Kerry Cycle Challenge, in Ireland. B&BF are delighted and grateful to Mike and all of the riders for supporting the charity…

Elaine Miller is a physiotherapist based in Edinburgh. She wrote a comedy show about pelvic floors called "Gusset Grippers" in an attempt to break down the taboos which surround continence, pelvic pain and sexual dysfunctions - all of which…

Dr. Adrian Wagg, from the University of Alberta, is conducting a survey exploring women's sources of information, knowledge and use of continence pads.  If you are a woman over the age of 30 who uses some sort of containment products for…

Scientists claim method is potentially more accurate than PSA and could minimize predicament of over-diagnosis at screening. Scientists in Ireland have developed a technique they hoped would be a more reliable and accurate method to…

A newly-launched Cancer Research UK study could be the first step towards exercise training being introduced as a new NHS treatment for prostate cancer. The PANTERA study, led by Sheffield Hallam University, will focus on 50 men who have…

Benjamin King, star of Disney Channel's hit TV series Liv and Maddie, helps others, especially kids, learn to live well with Crohn's disease. He spoke with NIH MedlinePlus magazine about his own long journey with this condition. To read…

New evidence published highlights benefits and harms of using artificial mesh when compared with tissue repair in the surgical treatment of vaginal prolapse. Slightly better repair with mesh needs to be weighed carefully against increased…

A report into the financial and emotional  costs of constipation has been launched on 1st March 2016. Called, The Cost of Constipation, the report has worked out that the cost to the NHS last year from hospital admissions due to…

On Tuesday 16 February, Improving Quality in Physiological Services (IQIPS) hosted its very first patient engagement event at The Royal College of Physicians (RCP). The event was a valuable opportunity for ensuring that programme…

NICE has issued final guidance recommending abiraterone (marketed as Zytiga by Janssen) for some prostate cancer patients. This is a change from the appraisal committee's previous draft guidance decision. It is estimated that 5,900…

Ahead of Continence Awareness Week to be staged in June, the Chief Nurse for NHS England in the South explains the need for commissioners to listen to patients: I recently attended the National Continence Care Awards organised by the…

Current therapies for children with Crohn's disease don't fully restore healthy bacteria and fungi populations in their digestive systems, a new study shows. These findings suggest that treatments don't have to bring bacteria and other…

NICE has developed medical technology guidance on the UroLift system. NICE medical technologies guidance addresses specific technologies notified to NICE by companies. The ‘case for adoption’ recommendations are based on the claimed…

A new understanding of inflammatory bowel diseases has been prompted by the analysis of genetic and clinical data from more than 30,000 patients. This study reveals that genetic factors affect the location of the inflammation in the gut,…

Training in meditation and other mindfulness-based techniques brings lasting improvements in mental health and quality of life for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), according to a study in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases,…

September 16th 2015 marked the momentous achievement of 100 years of the WI. Much had been organised to celebrate the anniversary including a Centennial Fair in Harrogate, which took place from the 3rd to the 6th of September. The Fair was…