Abdominal massage can help prevent bowel obstructions (sometimes called Adhesive Small Bowel Obstruction or ASBO). Because hands-on work (sometimes called massage, manual therapy, soft tissue manipulation, or STM) and body movement help keep the tissues of your intestines and belly operating fluidly, these interventions can reduce the chances of material getting stuck in your gut.
Obstructions can happen for many different reasons:
- Adhesions due to abdominal surgery (after surgery)
- Impaction (extreme constipation)
- Intestinal loops stuck to each other or other organs
- Intestinal loops stuck to the abdominal wall
- Chronic inflammation or infection in the gut
- Sudden diet change
- Change in the gut’s ability to process food
- Twisted bowel
In order to avoid an obstruction, it will help if you can:
- Stay well hydrated
- Avoid highly repetitive motion or staying in one position for hours on end
- Proactively manage your stress level and consider physical activity to help prevent stress hormones lingering in your system
- Actively (safely) massage areas of your belly where you know or suspect you have abdominal adhesions
- Be aware of and work to reduce any intestinal inflammation through good overall health management with your primary care provider
- Manage your diet in a way that avoids challenging your digestive system. Common foods to be suspicious of in obstruction cases are corn, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and other cruciferous vegetables. However(!), dietary triggers are highly individual and are often the most frustrating aspect of bowel management to figure out. Of note, some people who experience obstructions respond very poorly to high fiber diets.
- Be aware of the side effects of your medications
May people who have experienced a bowel obstruction live with a high degree of fear of it happening again. Many of my clients, and those in my programs, have been able to prevent their own obstructions by:
- Learning to recognize the earliest signs
- Immediately beginning the appropriate hands-on and movement techniques
- Staying hydrated
- Learning their digestive system and managing their diet
What to do next?
Often, the trickiest part of all of this is figuring out if your obstruction was triggered by a specific food or by your intestines being restricted within in your abdomen, or sometimes both.
Over the last decade-plus of working with people on this issue, I suggest that the hands-on massage work is a huge help. It helps to ensure that the intestinal loops are not getting stuck together or to other tissues in your belly. Even if your obstruction was triggered primarily by diet, the tissues of your belly will likely need to be addressed. Correct abdominal massage can go a long way toward making sure you can avoid the ER again for an obstruction.
If you are looking for a safe and effective method to learn to help yourself, I hope you’ll check out the Recover Program.