Irritable Bowel

The syndrome is probably most characterized by an unpredictable need to defecate that sends people on frantic searches for bathrooms. There is generally little time from the onset of symptoms until the urge to go arrives. This can put you in awkward and embarrassing situations.

If you want a hard and fast explanation for your irritable bowel, you will only meet with disappointment. The cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome is unclear, unknown, and widely debated.

It is largely believed that there is a glitch in communication between the muscles of the large intestine/colon and the brain, which causes Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms. This oversensitivity may cause ordinary events, such as the passage of food, to trigger bowel pain, diarrhea, constipation, gas, and bloating.

All of us experience abdominal discomfort at one time or another. But what if the bowel pain keeps coming back? Or you experience a relief that turns out to be fleeting before the next onset of abdominal cramps, or that gnawing discomfort that makes you want to stay at home, near the bathroom?

Abdominal pain is only one of the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. You may also notice that your pants aren’t quite fitting in the same way, that you feel bloated. Or you feel full before you’ve finished half your meal. Maybe you’ve been passing gasmore frequently than you used to.

The diarrhea can come without warning, and often. With Irritable Bowel Syndrome, you may have diarrhea more than three times per day. But although going can also make the pain go away, you may not know when you are finished because the irritable bowel movement may feel incomplete.

Alternately, you may feel like you need to go, but can’t. You might spend a half hour in the bathroom, only to be disappointed. And when you do go, your stool is rock hard. If you have a bowel movement fewer than three times per week, this is, most certainly,constipation. Constipation is often painful, causing sharp pains and excessive bloating.

But if constipation alternates with diarrhea (which it frequently can), you never know what’s coming.

Diagnosing Irritable Bowel Syndrome is more of an art than a science. There is no single test that can confirm or deny its presence. But before it can be effectively diagnosed, make sure that your doctor or gastroenterologist has ruled out all other possible bowel problems.

The Irritable Bowel tests that your gastroenterologist decides are necessary to rule out other bowel disorders will depend on your age, health history, family history, specific locations and type of pain, and the presence of constipation and/or diarrhea. It is important to rule out inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, and other physical, structural, or infectious bowel diseases such as bowel cancer, bowel infection or other bowel disorders.

Doctors use the Rome II Criteria only to diagnose IBS when there is no structural or biochemical source to be found. For at least 12 weeks in the preceding 12 months (not necessarily consecutive), abdominal discomfort has two out of three of these characteristics:

1. is relieved with defecation, and/or
2. its onset is associated with a change in frequency of your stool, and/or
3. its onset is associated with a change in the appearance of your stool.

The Rome II Criteria only applies after a careful examination of your medical history, physical abdominal examination, and other tests which may indicate other disorders. But it is the means doctors use to reach an IBS diagnosis.

With the discomfort associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, millions of people are seeking easy IBS relief. But because the cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome is unknown, there is unfortunately no known cure. Treatment methods focus on controlling the symptoms with a combination of medication and lifestyle adjustments, includingdiet and stress-management. Often, these lifestyle changes can provide relief fromIBS symptoms. But in more severe cases, these changes can be supplemented with medication. Luckily, bowel surgery is not in the picture.

Certain foods can trigger symptoms of IBS. Generally, it is a good idea to stay away from spicy foods, caffeine, meals heavy in fat content, raw fruits and vegetables (and all forms of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage). Eat small quantities several times a day to avoid over stimulating your bowel. Whether you suffer from diarrhea or constipation will determine how you should handle fiber. If you have diarrhea, a diet low in fiber is best. If you have constipation, high fiber eating can ease your symptoms.

In managing your irritable bowel diet, it is important to keep an IBS food journal. Record the food you consume and how it effects your IBS symptoms. Then you can take note of the patterns that emerge and use them to design a diet regimen that is right for you.

Keeping calm can do more than ease your mind. It can provide treatment for Irritable Bowel symptoms. Stress can over-stimulate the brain and the nerves in your bowel, creating painful bowel activity.

Everyone has stressors in their lives, but if you can manage your life to minimize them, your comfort and overall quality of life can improve. Treat this by making a list of stressors, and find ways to make changes in your life to reduce their influence over you. Meditation, yoga, and self-hypnosis can be a tremendous benefit, as they relax your internal response to stress and can keep you from reacting to stimulus in ways that can exacerbate your IBS.

Make time in your day to relax. Choose a time when you can be alone, and will not be disturbed. Draw yourself a bath, read books that make you feel good, or better yet — practice the stress-management techniques found in meditation, yoga, or self-hypnosis. These include breathing exercises that can calm you down, and even make you feel good. Make this time of relaxation as important as eating, because as you learn to manage your emotions, your Irritable Bowel symptoms can ease up.

In severe cases, Irritable Bowel Syndrome medication is necessary to manage your symptoms. While fiber can be a good addition to the diet of someone with Irritable Bowel Syndrome with constipation, if you suffer from diarrhea, an over the counterantidiarrheal medication such as Imodium or Kaopectate may help. But it is not a good idea to take these on a long-term basis without consulting your doctor.

While antispasmodic medications slow down activity in the digestive track and may help reduce the chance of spasms, they have side effects and should not be added to your regimen without careful consideration and your doctor’s full support.

Antidepressant and antianxiety medications that effect the serotonin in your brain may be helpful. Small doses of antidepressants can actually ease the symptoms of Irritable Bowel. And antianxiety medication can help reduce your response to stressors, thereby easing your symptoms. If living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome is causing you distress, either in the form of depression or anxiety, these medications for IBS can help.

Tip #1 – Keep an IBS Food Journal

Only you truly know how foods effect your symptoms. Doctors and dietitians can come up with all kinds of recommendations, but until you try them and see how they make you feel, they are useless. You need a way to keep track of how food affects you. Buy a notebook. Label it with a big sharpie “IBS Food Journal.” Keep it in your kitchen and use it as faithfully as you use Joy of Cooking.

As you prepare a meal, list all the ingredients. Leave nothing out – even spices or salt. If you use pre-prepared foods, such as salad dressing or chicken broth, take note of the brand you use.

After you eat, pay attention to how you feel. Develop an IBS vocabulary for the subtle differences in your pain, the texture of your stool, and time how long it takes to have a bowel movement. And above all, write it down! After few weeks, even one week, you will begin to notice patterns you hadn’t realized were operating. Or you will confirm what you have long suspected. Most important — you will have an IBS reference you can use from now on, whether you’re preparing a dish for an evening meal, packing a lunch for the office, or ordering at a restaurant.

Remember that you are not condemned to a bland diet because of your IBS. By keeping this journal, you will see how ingredients actually affect your digestive track.

Want recommendations for foods that generally cause/prevent diarrhea or constipation? Want to manage your symptoms but don’t want to be condemned to a bland diet? Need help interpreting your food journal? Don’t know what to cookanymore? A dietitian can help you with all these things, and can be a source of support.

Keeping calm can do more than ease your mind. It can provide treatment for Irritable Bowel symptoms. Stress can over stimulate the brain and the nerves in your bowel, creating painful bowel activity.

Everyone has stressors in their lives, but if you can manage your life to minimize them, your comfort and overall quality of life can improve. Treat this by making a list of stressors, and find ways to make changes in your life to reduce their influence over you. Meditation, yoga, and self-hypnosis can be a tremendous benefit, as they relax your internal response to stress and can keep you from reacting to stimulus in ways that can exacerbate your IBS.

Learning new ways to minimize the stress in your life is not necesarily easy. You will need to alter your lifestyle to reduce stressors, and learn new stress managementtools. A psychologist can be your perfect resource. They can take your particular situation and mind set and make recommendations. They can guide you through changes so that they are not just stints due to good intentions, but rather changes that take hold and transform you and your life.

In fact, studies have shown that cognitive therapy can reduce IBS symptoms.

Being diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome forces you to slow down and take stock of your life. You are forced to ask yourself, “what’s not working in this picture?” Things you took for granted before (like fast food dinners) no longer serve you.

You need to pay attention to prevent an IBS flare-up. Watch what’s being served to you in a restaurant. Breathe deeply for a few minutes rather than yell at your underperforming staff. Do what you need to do, or you’ll be running for the bathroom. You know the consequences, now, become that much more familiar with the means of prevention.

Abdominal pain is only one of the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. You may also feel bloated and pass gas more frequently than you used to.

After you eat, food absorbs water as it moves through the colon, eventually becoming stool. As muscle contractions force the stool through the colon, the water is reabsorbed and the stool is more or less solid when it is passed through the rectum. When too much water is absorbed, or the process of moving waste through the colon is too slow, the result is hard and frequently impassable stool. When not enough water is absorbed, or the process of moving waste through the colon is too fast, the result is loose and watery stool.

Diarrhea can come without warning, and often. With Irritable Bowel Syndrome, you may have diarrhea more than three times per day. But although going can also make the pain go away, you may not know when you are finished because the irritable bowel movement may feel incomplete.

Alternately, you may feel like you need to go, but can’t. You might spend a half hour in the bathroom, only to be disappointed. And when you do go, your stool is rock hard. If you have a bowel movement fewer than three times per week, this is, most certainly,constipation. Constipation is often painful, causing sharp pains and excessive bloating.

But with IBS, constipation can alternate with diarrhea (which it frequently does). This alternation between the two is the feature of Irritable Bowel Syndrome that causes the most anguish, because you never know what’s coming.

The cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome is unclear, unknown, and widely debated.

It is largely believed that there is a glitch in communication between the muscles of the large intestine/colon and the brain, which causes Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms. This oversensitivity may cause ordinary events, such as the passage of food, to trigger bowel pain, diarrhea, constipation, gas, and bloating.

There is no single test that can confirm or deny the presence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, because it is not a structural or biochemical disorder. It is usually diagnosed primarily through the absence of other explanations. Before it can be effectively diagnosed, doctors and gastroenterologists rule out all other possible bowel problems. So if you think you may have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, see your doctor to be certain of the cause of your symptoms.

With the discomfort associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, millions of people are seeking easy IBS relief. But because the cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome is unknown, there is unfortunately no known cure. Treatment methods focus on controlling the symptoms with a combination of medication and lifestyle adjustments, includingdiet and stress-management.

If you have diarrhea, a diet low in fiber is best. If you have constipation, high fiber eating can ease your symptoms. In managing your diet, it is important to keep an IBSfood journal. Record the food you consume and how it effects your IBS symptoms. Then you can take note of the patterns that emerge and use them to design a diet regimen that is right for you.

Keeping calm can do more than ease your mind. It can provide treatment for Irritable Bowel symptoms. Stress can over stimulate the brain and the nerves in your bowel, creating painful bowel activity. Everyone has stressors in their lives, but if you can manage your life to minimize them, your comfort and overall quality of life can improve.

Often, these lifestyle changes can provide relief from IBS symptoms. But in more severe cases, these changes can be supplemented with medication. See your doctor for their recommendation of over the counter remedies and prescription medications. Luckily, bowel surgery is not in the picture.

If you are experiencing anemia, blood in stool, or fever, see your doctor immediately. These are not characteristic of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and can be indicators of other bowel disorders.