The only thing worse than a stomach problem is a stomach problem that never, ever goes away.

If the pain, bloating and other symptoms aren’t bad enough, there’s also the embarrassment of knowing you might have to dash from your job, meeting or dinner in a desperate run for the bathroom.

Your own doctor will keep trying different meds until he finds one that kinda-sorta works without causing too many side effects, but there are much better approaches for recurring stomach issues.

And the latest research shows that a promising approach for IBS may work just as well for Crohn’s disease: vitamin D3.

Researchers at the Weill-Cornell Medical Center in New York gave either common 1,000 IU doses or 10,000 IU mega-doses of natural D3 (as opposed to the synthetic D2 often given via prescription) to 15 Crohn’s patients every day for six months.

And those who got the higher doses had fewer symptoms.

Obviously, it’s a very small study — but the other research on D3 confirms that this stuff can work wonders for an out-of-control digestive system, and it’s not the only safe and natural option for getting your gut back under control.

One of those options is about as safe and natural as they come: nothing at all.

Earlier this year, a groundbreaking study found that placebos helped bring about a remarkable level of improvement in IBS patients — remarkable, because it even worked when the patients knew they were taking a placebo!

All told, 59 percent of the people who knowingly took their nothing pills got irritable bowel relief — versus just 35 percent in the control group. That’s actually in line with or even better than the drugs most often given for the condition.

But that’s no surprise — because many of those drugs were never very effective to begin with. In fact, the overall success rate of meds for IBS and Crohn’s disease is embarrassingly low.

Along with vitamin D3 and even those placebos, cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation therapy and hypnotherapy have all proven to be better choices for relief from recurring stomach problems… and they come with none of the side effects of meds.

If you’re suffering from irritable bowel syndrome, the problem might not be entirely in your stomach.

What’s locked inside your mind can be just as important as what’s going on in your belly — and a new study confirms the long-suspected link between hidden mental stress and this very physical disorder.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic examined 2,623 patients and found that those who had suffered through serious psychological traumas were far more likely to suffer from IBS than patients without those issues.

Overall, the researchers found evidence of serious mental stress and psychological traumas in half of all IBS patients — or roughly double the rate of what they found in people without the stomach-wrecking condition.

Other studies have also made a link between past trauma and IBS — but most of them have focused on abuse.

For the new study, researchers found that any deep trauma at all can “trigger” the IBS symptoms — car accidents, divorce, death of a loved one, house fires and more — even if it happened years ago, and even if the patient thinks he or she has overcome it.

In other words, you might be fooling yourself… but you’re not fooling your body, and you’re certainly not getting one over on your gut.

That’s not to say the problems aren’t real — because as the 10 percent of Americans who battle the stomach pain, cramps, bloating and sudden runs to the bathroom that mark IBS will tell you, it’s all too real.

And that’s because stress, trauma and other issues often written off as “mental problems” can have a real and direct impact on the body itself — and not just for stomach disorders like IBS.

Pain conditions, including recurring back pain not tied to any specific injury, have strong links to stress and other problems of the mind. The mainstream even acknowledges it — in its own twisted sort of way: Antidepressants and other “psychological drugs” are often given for pain as well as IBS.

And they work about as well for those conditions as they do for depression — in other words, not very well at all… and they can come with horrific side effects to boot.

Fortunately, you don’t need to turn to these dangerous and ineffective meds for stomach relief (or even pain, but that’s a story for another day)… because you’ve got safer, better and far more natural options.

The researchers behind the new study seem to suggest psychological help, but there are some things you can do on your own, right now, for relief from IBS and other recurring stomach disorders.

We’ve used and abused antibiotics to the point where many of them are now completely ineffective–with many others getting ready to join them on the pharmaceutical scrap heap.

So what do researchers want to do next? Give out more antibiotics!

It was downright frustrating to read a study in the New England Journal of Medicine pushing the antibiotic rifaximin for irritable bowel syndrome, despite lackluster results and far more effective drug-free alternatives.

In the study, funded by the drug’s maker, researchers gave 1,258 IBS patients either the drug or a placebo for two weeks, then tracked the patients for 10 more weeks.

In the end, they found that 41 percent of the rifaximin patients reported significant relief, versus just 32 percent of those who took the placebo.

The researchers call that “significant,” but that’s positively comical coming on the heels of another recent study on IBS I told you about–because that one found a much higher rate of success among patients who took a simple placebo.

Researchers gave patients either a placebo or nothing at all–and even told the placebo patients they were getting a dummy med.

In that study, 59 percent of the patients who took the phony med reported adequate significant relief–versus 35 percent of those who did nothing. (Read more about the study here.)

Now that’s what I call significant.

And that’s not the only drug-free option for dealing with IBS.

Dietary changes can offer dramatic relief–especially if you’re willing to undergo thorough tests for food allergies (just make sure you find a doctor who knows how to do it right).

One study even found remarkable results from hypnotherapy.

Any of these treatments are safer and more effective than antibiotics–and not just for you, but for all of us. The more we use these meds, the more bacteria can learn to resist them–until eventually, no drug in the world can kill it.

While some researchers insist that bacteria have difficulty building resistance to rifaximin, that’s not the same as saying it can’t happen–because as “difficult” as it may be, it is happening… and it’s happening right now.

One study last year found that 17 percent of drug-resistant strains of the bacteria that cause traveler’s diarrhea (aka “Montezuma’s Revenge”) are now resistant to rifaximin–a number that becomes more frightening when you consider that the med has only been in use for a dozen years.

Give this med to the estimated 35 million Americans who suffer from IBS, and who knows how long it will take before even more bacteria learn to resist it.

But you can count on this: It will happen.

Move over, aspirin–there’s a new wonder drug in town, and this one’s the real deal.

Well, it’s as real as a fake drug can be anyway.

You’ve heard of the placebo effect–but now, a new study finds that even patients who know they’re taking one of these phony meds can get some very real results.

Researchers divided 80 patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome into two groups. One group got nothing, while the other was given a placebo and told to take it twice a day.

The researchers told the patients that the placebo was “like a sugar pill,” made from an inert substance and contained no active ingredient. And just in case that didn’t make it clear enough, the word “PLACEBO” was printed right on the bottle.

The patients were even told they didn’t have to believe in the placebo effect–just take the pills twice a day and see what happens.

And what happened was this: Significant improvement on par with the most powerful IBS drugs.

Overall, 59 percent of patients on this new “wonder drug” reported adequate symptom relief, versus just 35 percent in the control group. The placebo patients also enjoyed double the rate of improvement in other measures.

“I didn’t think it would work,” senior author Anthony Lembo, an IBS expert, confessed in a news release from Harvard Medical School. “I felt awkward asking patients to literally take a placebo. But to my surprise, it seemed to work for many of them.”

Maybe he shouldn’t feel so awkward anymore.

Truth is, docs have known for years about the incredible healing powers of the placebo effect–they just haven’t understood it very well. Most researchers have chalked it up to the power of “positive thinking.”

People believe they’ve been given a treatment that will help them, so the body responds by helping itself.

But the new study shows the body may respond even without positive thinking–all you need is to take something, anything, to kick-start the healing process.

Even something as simple as a sugar pill.

Let’s see Big Pharma try to patent that!

It’s coming at the right time, as more docs than ever before seem willing to try a placebo. One recent survey found that 56 percent have used one, usually to appease a patient who’s demanding a drug he doesn’t need.

What’s more, 85 percent of doctors believe placebos have “psychological and physical benefits.”

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the placebo of choice isn’t exactly an inert substance–40 percent of doctors use antibiotics, which come with real side effects… not to mention a risk of creating drug-resistant bacteria.

So if you’re ready to ask your doc if “PLACEBO” is right for you, be sure you get a real placebo–and not an antibiotic.