Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Causes of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Calendar Date

Jan

2009

Causes of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

If you want a hard and fast explanation for your irritable bowel, look no further. No – the answer is not included below, quite simply because the cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome is unclear, unknown, and widely debated.

How the colon works

The colon’s primary job is to absorb water and salts from food waste. Two quarts of liquid waste enter the colon each day and can stay there for several days before the fluid and salts are absorbed into the body. This forms stool, a more solid form of the waste. Muscle contractions send stool through the colon, and then stores it until a bowel movement occurs.

Colon motility (movement of waste through the colon) is controlled by nerves, hormones and muscle contractions. Colon motility propels stool toward the rectum, and several times each day, these powerful muscle contractions can result in a bowel movement.

Cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

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.

Studies show that, in a person suffering from IBS, the colon muscle spasms after only mild stimulation. An IBS colon is sensitive and reactive, responding painfully to stimuli that would not bother most people.

Causes of Diarrhea and Constipation in IBS

Food absorbs water during the digestive process, eventually becoming liquid. 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 not enough water is absorbed, or the process of moving waste through the colon is too fast, the result is IBS diarrhea with its loose, watery stool.

When too much water is absorbed, or the process of moving waste through the colon is too slow, the result is IBS constipation with its hard and frequently impassable stool.

Causes of IBS Symptoms

While no one knows the cause of IBS, the experience of tens of millions of sufferers worldwide can give doctors and dietitians a good idea of what triggers can cause an onset of Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms.

Diet

After you eat certain foods, you may notice your IBS symptoms getting worse. Within a half hour of eating it, a curry dish can send you to straight to the bathroom. Fried chicken can have you doubled over in pain. Other foods may have you sitting on the toilet for a half hour – with no result. Just looking at the plate in front of you may bring on your symptoms, purely out of anticipation of the cramping, diarrhea, constipation, and bloating it could cause. That’s right -- if you are living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome , you may even develop a sensitivity to the act of eating itself.

Stress

Because the colon is, in part, regulated by the autonomic nervous system, stress can exacerbate both diarrhea and constipation – and the host of other symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

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