IBS: Quelling the Furor

I started talking about IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) in my last post, exploring some ways that IBS affects us. So why does IBS happen? Neuro-transmitters are thought to be part of the problem. Maybe even serotonin levels. That’s why sometimes anti-depressants tried to treat IBS symptoms. Other possible areas are food allergies, dyes and grains. It’s kind of a hodge-podge of trial and error of trying to figure out what causes IBS.

Let me just make clear that bleeding, fever, weight loss, or persistent severe pain is not part of IBS. If that’s what is happening then there is something else going on. People with IBS should probably avoid large meals, meals that frequently cause bloating like cabbage, dairy products including cheeses, certain medicines, caffeine and coffee. Caffeine and coffee seem to be on every list. They certainly don’t appear to be very healthy for us. Last, but not least, avoiding stress, conflict, and emotional upsets are always factors in mitigating IBS.

Women have it a little bit more often than men. It seems that during menstrual periods it may be worse. We don’t know if that’s just because you feel worse during those times, thus everything is worse, or if it really is worse during menstrual periods.

It’s largely untreated. Probably 70% of the irritable bowel people out there don’t go to doctors, probably for good reasons. Doctors don’t have any great treatment or pills and tend to give laxatives, fibers, or antidepressants. That can be worse than constipation if you’ve got that. There are no clear cut answers.

There is a new drug approved by the FDA, lotronex. But, it has some pretty serious side effects (PDF link). You have to have a serious problem to even think about trying that.

As far as naturopathics are concerned probably the best treatment is coated peppermint oil if you can find that or get a compounding pharmacist to make it up. Other natural remedies are ginger and chamomile, valerian root, rosemary, and lemon balm. Those are how you would approach that from a more natural perspective.

So there it is in a nutshell. IBS is a serious problem in that it affects a huge quantity of our population. There is no great medicine treatments for the symptoms and there is certainly no treatment that will cure it. But we do know that stress is a huge factor in irritable bowel syndrome.