Irritable Bowel Syndrome
At GutFit Health many of our clients come to our clinic for support and treatment due to experiencing the physical and psychological distress and the often debilitating quality of life effects of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
You may be one of these people or perhaps you know someone who has told you they suffer from it. With this is mind we thought it was a good idea to delve into this topic of IBS for your learning and reference.
Starting with a definition, IBS is a functional gastrointestinal disorder. It can be experienced anywhere in the abdomen but more likely in the lower belly area. The large intestine (bowel, colon) if we were to examine it internally, usually would look normal , therefore there is no structural anatomical abnormality.
IBS is more of a functional , way it works issue. Therefore the symptoms you are experiencing may become less or worsened by eating food or eliminating.
IBS is chronic in nature (so it has lasted three months or longer). It is present in both females and males, but there does tend to be more incident of it reported in the female population. This may be because there actually is a greater occurrence or that females tend to self report health and wellbeing concerns more to their Doctors. It is estimated around and up to 23% of people experience IBS, noting that again poor rates of self reporting in some demographics, or that the person thinks what they are experiencing is just normal. We suspect the number to be higher based on the number of motivated desperate people who visit our clinic for relief and management.
IBS symptoms can be mild to severe and how much these affect a persons life tends to correlate with how they gain relief and long term management.
One of the most frequent sentences uttered at GutFit Health are “ l have really bad IBS” and after the colonic “ l feel so much better, like what was stuck has moved out”. In fact our Therapist Kate has had lifelong IBS and discovered colonics as a way to manage her discomfort. Colonics are now just part of her health and wellbeing management.
SIGN AND SYMPTOMS:
Abdominal pain anywhere, but usually lower area
Bloating, usually lower belly area
Diarrhoea
Constipation
Alteration of the two
Abnormal appearance, consistency of faecal matter
Disturbed pattern of elimination
Maybe mucus discharge in faecal matter
Usually your bloods if checked are all biochemically normal
If you visit the Doctor (and we encourage this if you have acute or ongoing abdominal pain), they will rule out things like appendicitis, rectal bleeding, ovarian cysts, celiac disease and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. There is not a specific test that can be done so the diagnosis is based on your symptoms. Don’t be shy about going to your Doctor, it is one of the main reasons for people to seek out a General Practitioner or Gastroenterologist opinion. The therapists at GutFit Health know how many new and existing clients are very challenged by their IBS, we see so many suffering people in our clinic and are so happy we can support them to feel better.
WHAT CAUSES IT?
The pathophysiology ( what happens) of IBS is still not really clear, but there are many research papers on it and many valid theories. It is thought genetics may play a role, hormones (particularly females), after a gut infection, food intolerances, current gut infection, dysbiosis (see our microbiome blog on this) parasitic infection, altered gastrointestinal motility, colon transit time issues, (slow in constipation, rapid in diarrhoea), visceral hypersensitivity (the large intestine is very reactive to any stimulus like gas, water, faecal matter), intestinal inflammation, brain-gut interaction with a defect in signalling ( see the blog about this) and Serotonin which is a major regulator of peristaltic reflex, ( how faecal matter moves through the colon) with a deficit or too much Serotonin.
TYPES OF IBS
While to you IBS is just that thing that causes you to feel terrible a lot of the time, you may be interested to know there are 4 basic recognised types that you therapist may have mentioned.
IBS -C this is IBS that has constipation as the main bowel elimination type
IBS-D this is IBS that has diarrhoea as the main bowel elimination type
IBS -A this is IBS that has an alteration between constipation and diarrhoea as the main bowel elimination type
IBS-PI this is IBS that happened post ( after) an infection of the gut.
CONCURRENT HEALTH CONCERNS
Many people who have IBS also have symptoms of general fatigue due to not sleeping well, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Anxiety or mood disorders can also be present. It is unclear whether low or too high Serotonin levels causes this, or if because of the negative impact IBS has on peoples lives they develop changes in mood and ability to cope. In some people they believe there may be a link between people feeling anxious and due to the brain gut interactions experiencing stress results in having IBS symptoms.
You probably know yourself when you feel stressed you feel it somewhere in your body (this is called somatisation) , for many they get belly aches. For some stress causes diarrhoea ( have you seen the cue to the portable toilets before a running race!) or how many of you ( particularly females) notice when you travel, stay in unfamiliar places, have only a shared bathroom with strangers all of a sudden your bowel just stops working!
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO TAKE BACK YOUR POWER?
There are lots of non prescription and prescription medicines and herbal remedies available. Some have really good research behind them , others less so. You are an individual so will need to search out what works best for you.
Some of the easiest things you can implement right now are listed.
Eat low FODMAP foods, get rid of your trigger foods
Stop eating foods with artificial sugars as it will make you feel worse
Herbal teas like peppermint to help with gas build up
Think about how you could include some relaxation time in your day. Start small and build on it. Consistency is more important than a big time consuming type of relaxation. Start with some belly breathing, Meditate for just a few minutes a day on nothing but your breath
Exercise, yoga do whatever makes you feel good and connected in a positive way to your body
Hypnosis. Kate was in a study using this as a management method and the research showed it was a winner strategy in a lot of people
Lots of the medical literature around IBS says that the Doctor should listen to their patient, which they didn’t for a very long time about people’s experiences with IBS. At GutFit Health we pride ourselves and excel at listening to YOU . We in the initial consult spend time getting to know you and the reasons you have come to our clinic and from that moment you come to us we are already thinking and formulating a a management plan to get you back feeling like you should, vital and heard!
Your individual management plan is structured to fit your needs and budget, with you in the driver seat taking responsibility for your health and wellbeing, it’s your journey we are cheering you along all the way.
Such a plan might include:
Our STARTER pack filled with gut friendly goodies
Colonic program. You will likely get relief of some symptoms after one but to fully address the IBS you will need a intensive program then maintenance colonics
Colonics with rectal probiotic additive ( see blog on probiotics)
Infra red sauna to detox and melt away all that tension
IBS specific oral probiotic, this is given after every treatment
We look forward to meeting you, or saying hi after not being able to see you for a while. You may always have IBS but you can learn to manage the symptoms and greatly enhance your life quality. We are here to help.