Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Posted on July 28, 2006 
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Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a disorder characterized most commonly by cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea.

As its name indicates, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a syndrome.

That is, IBS is a combination of signs and symptoms, but not a disease. IBS is classified as a functional disorder.

A functional disorder refers to a condition where the primary abnormality is an altered physiological function (the way the body works), rather than an identifiable inflammatory, infectious, structural, or biochemical cause.

Research also indicates that IBS is a multi-faceted disorder.

For example, the symptoms of IBS result from what seems to be a disturbance or imbalance in the interaction between the intestines, the brain, sensory function, and the autonomic nervous system that alters regulation of bowel motility (motor function).

While IBS will probably recur throughout your life, and may also cause you a lot of pain and discomfort, there is some good news.

The symptoms of IBS will probably not get much worse after the first year. In fact, as you learn to manage the symptoms, you will hopefully attain a more comfortable life.

In addition, IBS does not cause cancer or permanent damage to the bowel. IBS does not cause intestinal bleeding. Finally, IBS does not require surgery, and it won’t shorten your life.

In the western world, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a very common condition, affecting 15% to 20% of the population, and accounting for approximately 10% of all doctor visits and 50% of all visits to gastroenterologists.

Two thirds of the patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome are women. Irritable Bowel Syndrome is the second biggest cause for people taking “sick days”.

For most people, the signs and symptoms of IBS are mild. In fact, many people don’t even realize that they are suffering from this condition. Only a small percentage of people have severe signs and symptoms.

During times when the symptoms are severe, IBS can cause a lot of pain and be quite disabling.

In fact, IBS symptoms range in severity from an occasional mild episode to a debilitating, life altering illness, which prevents the individual from working or from functioning normally.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is also know under various other names, such as :

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is not as serious as some intestinal diseases such as Ulcerative Colitis, Colorectal Cancers and Crohn’s Disease.

For example, Irritable Bowel Syndrome does not permanently damage the intestines, nor does it cause inflammation or changes in bowel tissue or increase your risk of colon or rectal cancer.

In many cases, the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome can be controlled by managing your diet, lifestyle, and stress.

According to popular science there are many possible causes for irritable bowel syndrome (or IBS) from allergy, psychological disturbance to stress and certainly all of them can of course cause an upset stomach.

Something that triggers cramps in your intestines is not a cause though. If you are allergic to wheat, eating it triggers an attack. It does not make it the cause.

IBS is in fact a collection of symptoms that have no other relation than that they happen to manifest themselves in the same part of your body (which is why it is called a syndrome) and this according to Dr Peter Mansfield is a clear indication is that these otherwise unrelated symptoms can only be caused by what you eat and how you eat it.

Can you remember the last time you ate a freshly prepared meal ?

I mean one where all the ingredients were fresh and you prepared everything from the basic ingredients ?

Most people in the modern part of the world don’t eat fresh food, but processed food with added preservatives, chemicals and treated to look appealing.

The only logical explanation for the problem is that we are doing things to our body that it doesn’t like.

Allergies for instance are very often made worse by continued over exposure to certain allergens. Just like a great number of asthmatics have developed an allergy to dust and dust mites.

Stress makes your body and your organs tense up and also release adrenaline to help you react to what ever threat you are responding to.

Although some parts of your body then proceeds to relax and if this fight or flight response happens frequently this can throw the natural rhythm of your intestines out of sync. Depression and anxiety has similar effects on the intestines as well.

So if you want to have a clearer idea about what could be causing your problems, you need to look at what you are putting in your mouth.

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IBS Website Reviews :

1. http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/ibs_ez

What you need to know about Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Defines irritable bowel syndrome, explains its causes and symptoms, and outlines available treatment options.

2. http://www.overcomeibs.com

This is a hyper compact yet resourceful blog with bite sized chunks of relatively interesting IBS information. How accurate it is? Well the blog is quoting research findings on IBS. Interesting read for a one time crash course visit.

3. http://www.aboutibs.org

About Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Reliable information and support from IFFGD about characteristics and treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

4. http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1190.htm

This is a huge resource for Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease, leading with a very comprehensive but rather clinical article on the subject.

The site is as I mentioned massive and includes articles, chats, and more links to information about medicines, diets, symptoms, surgery, diagnostic testing, and more.

5. http://www.helpforibs.com/diet

The Irritable Bowel Syndrome Diet relieves all Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms (abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation).

Irritable Bowel Syndrome can be successfully managed through diet, and eating for Irritable Bowel Syndrome can change your life.

6. http://www.ibsgroup.org

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Self Help and Support Group. Dedicated to helping sufferers, who are living with IBS, manage their own health with IBS since 1987.

This IBS Support Group website, an Irritable Bowel Syndrome Community, provides a bulletin board to talk about ibs, blogs, access to resource lists, brochures, diagnosis of IBS symptoms, medical tests, treatment, books, penpals, meetings, studies and a list of medications.

7. http://ibs.med.ucla.edu

If you are interested in participating in clinical trials then this website should be of interest to you. It has more than that though when it comes to information even though it is more for the professionals.

The site also offers information on the clinical services that are on offer.

Next Post: More Information On IBS

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