What Is Ibs Treatment
No specific therapy works for everyone, but most people with IBS can find a treatment that works for them. Your healthcare provider will personalize your IBS treatment plan for your needs. Typical treatment options include dietary and lifestyle changes. A dietitian can help you create a diet that fits your life.
Many people find that with these changes, symptoms improve:
Dietary changes:
- Increase fiber in your diet eat more fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts.
- Add supplemental fiber to your diet, such as Metamucil® or Citrucel®.
- Drink plenty of water eight 8-ounce glasses per day.
- Avoid caffeine .
- Limit cheese and milk. Lactose intolerance is more common in people with IBS. Make sure to get calcium from other sources, such as broccoli, spinach, salmon or supplements.
- Try the low FODMAP diet, an eating plan that can help improve symptoms.
Activity changes:
- Try relaxation techniques.
- Eat smaller meals more often.
- Record the foods you eat so you can figure out which foods trigger IBS flare-ups. Common triggers are red peppers, green onions, red wine, wheat and cows milk.
Medical changes:
What happens if medications dont work?
In some cases, symptoms dont respond to medical treatment. Your provider may refer you for mental health therapies. Some patients find relief through:
Do Gut Bacteria Cause Ibs
The bacteria and other microbes in your gut are strongly linked to IBS symptoms .
While we cant yet prove beyond doubt that your gut bacteria are causing your IBS symptoms, countless studies have shown that people with IBS symptoms are far more likely to have dysbiosis than people with no IBS symptoms.
If youd like to learn more about the inextricable link between IBS symptoms and dysbiosis, check out our blog Irritable bowel syndrome: how can the NHS help?
Dysbiosis is an imbalance of the communities of bacteria and other microbes that live in your gut. There are over 1000 different types of them, and in an ideal world, they all live together in harmony, each one doing important work to keep you healthy.
Your collection of gut microbesknown as your microbiomeis as unique as your fingerprint. While two very different microbiomes can both be healthy, theres one thing that all the best microbiomes have in common: diversity.
A lack of diversity is the hallmark of dysbiosis . And if youve got IBS symptoms, youre very likely to have dysbiosis. In a study conducted in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Spain, on patients between 17 and 76 years old, 73% of IBS patients had dysbiosis, while only 16% of healthy individuals had dysbiosis.
Dysbiosis comes in many forms. Lets take a look at some of the different ways your microbiome can get off track.
Vomiting On A Regular Basis
Vomiting is not a symptom of IBS. This is not to say that some people who have IBS don’t experience nausea and vomiting from time to time, but this is not because of their IBS. There are a large number of health conditions that can result in the symptom of vomiting.
It is essential that you tell your doctor if you are experiencing vomiting on a frequent basis. Seek immediate medical care if you are experiencing uncontrollable vomiting or are vomiting up blood.
There is a health condition, classified like IBS as a functional gastrointestinal disorder, called cyclic vomiting disorder . In CVS, a person experiences episodes of vomiting without any other sign of disease.
You May Like: Does Peanut Butter Cause Heartburn
How Is Ibs Diagnosed
If youve been having uncomfortable GI symptoms, see your healthcare provider. The first step in diagnosing IBS is a medical history and a physical exam. Your provider will ask you about your symptoms:
- Do you have pain related to bowel movements?
- Do you notice a change in how often you have a bowel movement?
- Has there been a change in how your poop looks?
- How often do you have symptoms?
- When did your symptoms start?
- What medicines do you take?
- Have you been sick or had a stressful event in your life recently?
Depending on your symptoms, you may need other tests to confirm a diagnosis. Blood tests, stool samples and X-rays can help rule out other diseases that mimic IBS.
Bowel Cancer: Stool Test
- If a doctor wants to rule out or check for bowel cancer, they are likely to give you a stool test.
- After youve given a sample of your stool, your doctor will send it to a lab to screen it for traces of blood.
- Even if its positive, bowel cancer is an uncommon reason for blood in your stool. Youre more likely to have a tear in the lining of your rectum, and/or haemorrhoids.
- Your doctor may refer you to a specialist who can investigate further. NHS gastroenterologists use a colonoscopy or a colonography to look for evidence of bowel cancer.
Don’t Miss: What Does It Mean When You Keep Having Heartburn
Is It Ibs Or Cancer
Some types of cancer can cause a few of the same symptoms as IBS. Diagnostic testing can rule these out. Unlike IBS, colon cancer can cause rectal bleeding, bloody stools, and marked weight loss.
Symptoms of ovarian cancer include appetite loss and lack of energy. Women with ovarian cancer may notice their clothes feeling tight due to increased abdominal girth.
Such symptoms dont normally show up until the advanced stages, which makes early detection even more critical.
Gas And Bloating Within 90 Minutes Of Eating
Although excessive intestinal gas and bloating are common symptoms in IBS, the timing of the onset of these symptoms can provide you with some valuable information.
It generally takes about 90 minutes for any undigested carbohydrates to arrive at your large intestine, where they are set upon by gut bacteria, resulting in a fermentation process that produces gas.
Therefore, if your gassiness shows up prior to that 90-minute mark, it could indicate that you have more bacteria in your small intestine than you should. This is a condition known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth . SIBO is diagnosed through the use of hydrogen breath testing and can be treated with select antibiotics.
If your gas and bloating happen within an hour and a half of eating, it doesn’t mean that your doctor was wrong about your IBS. It is just that it might be worth your while to be tested for SIBO.
Remember that these conditions are relatively rare and it is possible that your diarrhea after eating is simply a symptom of your IBS. But, if reading about these conditions makes you wonder, discuss your thoughts with your doctor.
You May Like: Can Align Probiotic Cause Nausea
Ibs Quiz: Do You Have Ibs Symptoms
Got gut problems? It might be irritable bowel syndrome .
Take our quick self test quiz to see if you could have IBS, assess whether your symptoms are affecting your quality of life, and get a free evaluation based on your responses.
Irritable bowel syndrome affects 1 in 5 people, with symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation. IBS is a âsyndromeâ meaning a collection of symptoms which can flare-up for various lengths of time and last for years.
Without a known cause, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is diagnosed by medical professionals with a test called the Rome Criteria, a set of questions designed to identify IBS symptoms , changes in bowel movements and distinguish it from other conditions like IBD. While our IBS quiz cannot diagnose IBS it can help you assess if your symptoms are similar to that of IBS and whether these symptoms are affecting your quality of life.
When To See Your Healthcare Provider
IBS follows an unpredictable course. There may be periods of relative calm, mixed back and forth with periods of pain or discomfort, and chaotic bowel habits that interfere with your life. However, if the basic pattern of your bowel symptoms changes or one of the situations described above occurs, a visit to your healthcare provider is in order.
Sometimes a drug you are taking for another purpose or something new in your diet may be responsible for the change, and your healthcare provider can help you determine that. A visit also provides your healthcare provider with the opportunity to review your diet, exercise habits, and drug regimen, and perhaps recommend changes.
Also Check: What Does It Mean When You Keep Having Heartburn
Cancers Of The Gastrointestinal Tract
There are many types of cancer that can cause a few of the same symptoms as IBS. Your doctor can test to rule these out. The most common is colon cancer, which can cause bleeding, blood in your stools, and weight loss.
Women need to be aware that ovarian cancerlike IBScan cause bloating, appetite loss and lack of energy. These symptoms might not happen until the advanced stages, so if you have severe bloating that doesnt respond to changes in your diet, tell your doctor.
Putting It All Together
IBS is long-term and tends to repeatedly come and go over time. It does not predispose you to other GI diseases. However, IBS does not protect you from other digestive conditions, and overlap is possible. New and different symptoms may make you suspicious that something new is happening.
You should visit your healthcare provider if you become aware of alarm symptoms or of a factor that might put you more than normally at risk of another disease. Your healthcare provider may review your symptoms and determine if further testing or treatment is necessary.
Usually, if the original diagnosis was sound, recurrent, but similar symptoms do not signify a new disease.
Adapted from IFFGD Publication: Changes You Should Not Ignore if You Have IBS Updated by: Walter Chan, MD, MPH, Director, Center for Gastrointestinal Motility, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Boston, MA Adapted from: W. Grant Thompson MD, FRCPC, FACG, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Edited by: Darren Brenner, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
Read Also: Can Peanut Butter Cause Indigestion
Is It Ibs Or Ibd
IBS is often confused with inflammatory bowel disease . The names may sound similar, but they arent the same and require very different treatment approaches.
IBD is a group of chronic or recurring diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. In IBD, the immune system malfunctions, attacking cells in the intestines. The body responds by sending white blood cells to the intestinal linings, resulting in chronic inflammation.
The two most common forms of IBD are Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis.
Although many symptoms are similar to those of IBS, people with Crohns and ulcerative colitis are more likely to have fever, rectal bleeding, weight loss, and a decrease in appetite. People with IBD have an increased risk of colon cancer.
Ulcerative colitis can also cause the following:
- bloody stools
Please Help Ibs Or Something Else
Hey guys!
I have recently been diagnosed with ibs by my doctor.
Sometimes the pain gets so bad, I find it hard to believe that it is just ibs that I’m suffering with or if it’s something more serious!
I have a really bloated tummy – looks like I’m about 6 months pregnant some days , I also get this really bad pain between my rib cage that sometimes radiates to my chest , I get pain under my ribs too, especially the left side, find it really uncomfortable to eat and feel full really easily.
Are these all really symptoms of ibs? Like I say, I am worried about my heart . I sometimes find it hard to breath as the fullness makes it painful.
If this is just ibs, can any sufferers recommend any medication that can help with this?
I also suffer from anxiety so obviously this is going to make it worse?
Thank you, Charlotte x
Don’t Miss: Do Bananas Help With Bloating
What Can Be Mistaken For Ibs
There are some serious medical conditions that share the same symptoms as IBS.
However, IBS symptoms are unlikely to indicate a serious disease.
IBS symptoms can also accompany other symptoms, like nausea or vomiting. You can learn more about nausea and IBS on our blog Is nausea a symptom of IBS?
IBS is a tricky thing to define, because its not a disease: its a set of symptoms. Because constipation, diarrhoea and bloating are the symptoms of so many diseasesboth serious and not so seriousIBS symptoms could indicate an almost infinite number of conditions.
If you have IBS symptoms and you want to investigate what else it might be, our symptom checker is a good place to start.
According to BUPA UK, one in five people in the UK have IBS.
IBS is often called a diagnosis of exclusion . That means that if a doctor cant find any evidence that youre suffering from a disease with a known cause, they could diagnose you with IBS.
If youve been diagnosed with IBS, while its great news that you arent suffering from anything more serious, youve still got your symptoms to deal with. And as anyone with IBS knows, they can really ruin your fun.
On top of dealing with your symptoms, you might be wondering why you have them, and how you can be free of them. You might have been told that IBS is just something youll have to live with.
Myth: This Treatment Works For Someone I Know So It Will Also Work For Me
Reality: Each individual with IBS has a unique experience. There are many different treatments available, and some of these will work perfectly for one person but might do nothing, or even cause unwanted side effects, for someone else. It is important for you to work together with your physician, gastroenterologist, and/or registered dietitian to find the treatment that works best for you, whatever that might be. Some common treatments include medications, physiotherapy, probiotics, alternative therapies, and dietary changes such as increasing fibre or following a low FODMAP diet. Visit badgut.org for more information on IBS treatments.
You May Like: Can Prenatal Vitamins Cause Diarrhea
Are Your Symptoms Ibs Or Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer shares some symptoms with a less serious, but much more common disease: irritable bowel syndrome . So how do you know if your symptoms are cancer, IBS or something else?
We talked to David Richards, M.D., about the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and colorectal cancer, and what action you should take if you are experiencing either.
What are the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome?
IBS can be hard to diagnose. Its not something a doctor can see, feel or detect under a microscope, and the symptoms come and go. The main symptoms of IBS are constipation, diarrhea or a combination of the two, accompanied by abdominal pain.
Someone with IBS may also experience one or more of the following:
- Abdominal bloating
- The feeling that you havent finished a bowel movement
- Relief of symptoms after a bowel movement
You can gauge whether these are IBS symptoms based on how long youve had them. The symptoms have to go back at least six months, with at least one day a week of pain in the last three months, Richards says.
What are the symptoms of colorectal cancer?
Diarrhea, constipation and abdominal pain are all symptoms of colorectal cancer. However, there are additional symptoms that are more concerning.
Sudden and unexplained weight loss, rectal bleeding or blood in the stool are all cause for concern, says Richards.
Other colorectal cancer symptoms include:
I would be especially concerned if these symptoms came on suddenly, says Richards.
Do I Have Ibs Or Something Else
- Reactions 0 reactions
Irritable bowel syndrome is a condition that can cause a range of different symptoms. These symptoms can come and go, and may change over time in terms of type and severity. The main symptom of IBS is pain and cramping in the abdomen, which is linked to a change in bowel habits such as diarrhea or constipation . Other common symptoms include bloating, gas, heartburn, lower backache, the urgent need to use the bathroom, and/or a feeling of incompleteness after a bowel movement.
Read Also: Does Bloating Cause Shortness Of Breath
How Does Ibs Affect My Body
In people with IBS, the colon muscle tends to contract more than in people without the condition. These contractions cause cramps and pain. People with IBS also tend to have a lower pain tolerance. Research has also suggested that people with IBS may have excess bacteria in the GI tract, contributing to symptoms.
Ibs Celiac Disease Or Lactose Intolerance
Celiac disease and lactose intolerance are conditions that can also cause symptoms that are similar to those caused by IBS, such as:
- Diarrhea
- Abdominal pain or bloating
- Gas
Celiac disease is a condition in which eating gluten causes the immune system to damage to the inner lining of the small intestine. This keeps the personâs body from being able to absorb enough nutrition from digested food. IBS is not related to the immune system, nor does it cause damage to the inside of the intestines. Celiac disease can cause symptoms that are not related to the digestive system , while IBS cannot cause symptoms outside the digestive tract.
Lactose intolerance is a condition in which a personâs body is not able to tolerate lactose, which is a type of sugar found in milk and certain dairy products. Consuming lactose can cause bloating, gas, diarrhea, and nausea between 30 minutes and 2 hours after eating or drinking it. The symptoms of lactose intolerance can usually be eliminated or reduced by avoiding dairy products, while the symptoms of IBS cannot generally be controlled as easily. Some people can have both IBS and lactose intolerance, but they are not the same thing.1,4
Read Also: Peanut Butter Cause Heartburn