Treatment is for chronic rapid transit, as massage is contra-indicated for acute issues, presuming the body is doing what it needs to do and does not need interference, well-meaning or not.
Reading two articles from the web on rapid internal transit:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14572571/ and
https://badgut.org/information-centre/a-z-digestive-topics/inflammatory-bowel-disease/
The cause of severe diarrhea in patients with systemic amyloidosis is obscure.
Diarrhea could not be explained by malabsorption of ingested nutrients, bacterial overgrowth, bile acid malabsorption, or epithelial cell malabsorption of electrolytes.
All of the patients had autonomic neuropathy that remained unrecognized for 15-36 months after onset of chronic diarrhea; it seems likely that this was the cause of rapid transit.
Inflammatory bowel disease is a term that primarily refers to two diseases of the intestines: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These diseases have a few similarities but differ significantly in two key ways: the area of the digestive tract affected and the extent of the inflammation.
Inflammation can result from infectious agents such as bacteria, fungi, parasites, or even viruses. It can also arise from a chemical exposure, burn, trauma, or a number of other causes. The cause of IBD is undetermined but there is considerable research evidence to suggest that interactions between environmental factors, intestinal bacteria, immune dysregulation, and genetic predisposition are responsible. There is an increased risk for those who have a family member with the condition.
The typical medical experience is: measurement of transit time, management of diet and stress, take pills or get surgery.
Similar to my post on Gastroparesis: (Slow transit)
Nerve impingement. If the nerves leaving the thoracic spine are compressed, reconnecting at ganglia outside, then signals to and from the stomach and GI tract may be ’noisy’, resulting in a speeded peristalsis. Subluxation there or tight muscles and fascia in that region would respond to massage. Scoliosis could lead to this and is amenable to visceral manipulation and fascial work. The nerves have to pass through the abdominal wall, through the peritoneum which can also be released through visceral manipulation.
There’s also the Vagus Nerve, with a pinch point under the skull, this Nerve always has a part to play in organ functioning. Impaired ‘rest & digest’ innervation would result in faster peristalsis.
A rapid diaphragm would be immediately obvious – rapid breathing would be the chief complaint, not rapid compression of the abdomen.
Fascial tightness within the walls of the GI tract, maybe from prior injuries, contact sports, motor vehicle crashes etc. will shrink the size of the Intestines, food will flow faster through a smaller ‘pipe’. Such tightness will also squeeze all the blood supply and digestive glands, reducing their effectiveness. This can only add to problems, less digestion occurring on top of a faster transit time not giving the body enough time to digest the food. This can be released by visceral manipulation and fascial release.
The biome. Gut bacteria. A problem at this level requires medical treatment to kill off GI gut bacteria and replace it with beneficial bacteria. Meanwhile we can talk about diet, giving the good bacteria the environment it needs through food containing lots of fiber, low sugar and processed foods, removing pesticides or avoiding them by buying organic only.
Immune system – this has to deal with unwelcome bacteria and leaky gut, it may be solving the problem by moving food out quickly, if unable to remove the harmful bacteria. Boosting it energetically can be done but the response gets intense, as the immune system finds ‘invaders’ behind its lines and goes all out to remove them, calling on every other system in the body to help, an almost total shut down of activity by the person, once over, the person feels better than ever. One possible side-effect, the hyped up immune system finds similar tissues (your tissues) and attacks them, leading to an auto-immune problem. Going this way is not a ‘push it and see’ method, small steps, slight boosting is the only way to go.
Donna Eden has a variety of techniques to reset a dysfunctioning immune system if the problem lies there. See my next article entitled ‘Correcting Immune system function – an energy / medical massage process’.
If the digestive glands are not getting the nutrients they need, that might be diet, or problems further down the digestive tract in the intestines, visceral manipulation may help here, and can improve blood supply if restricted to the intestines, restoring functions, better transportation of nutrients.
Meridians work may help, whether Acupuncture or Acupressure which can be done by a medical massage therapist. Thai massage works on Sen lines such as Itha and Pingkala, Nantakawat. Working these via Thai massage may help.
Maybe it’s the brain that has an issue, fine motor control in the cerebellum, or the body image areas, compression by the supporting fascial structures of Falx and Tentoriums, this irritation could increase activity in the matching body part, relieved by Craniosacral work with enhancements learned by focusing on whiplash injuries. Maybe you had a mini-stroke affecting that part of the brain, the brain is capable of getting another area to take on the missing function, but that takes years and is outside of massage treatment.
If the blood supply to the GI tract is impeded then the muscles will struggle to control the flow, food will just pass through, I once saw a video of a mal-nourished baby given liquid food, and less than a minute later it flowed out the other end. This restriction can be reduced through visceral manipulation.
The abdomen has two neural nets, mini-brains that control peristalsis, movement of food through the abdominal GI area. Communicating with these brains may lead to understanding, possibly slowing this motion. If the GI tract is slowed, the stomach may ‘learn’ to slow up too. Visceral manipulation works on the Duodenum too.
Cupping can reveal underlying congestion; if strong darker tissues result then further treatment by cupping is indicated to release this congestion.