~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Irritable Bowel Syndrome-Definition

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Irritable bowel syndrome is one of the most commonly encountered chronic gastrointestinal disorders, accounting for more than half of the patients reporting to gastroenterologists with gastrointestinal symptoms,and incidence of it is rising every day. Although it is not a life-threatening illness, it causes distress to those afflicted and a feeling of helplessness and frustrationto the physicians attempting to treat it. It is a motility disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, essentially functional in nature with definite psychosomatic basis. The patients present a variety of symptoms of discomfort without organic abnormalities. Its etiology and functional pathology are unknown. Also there is no specific diagnostic procedure to identify it because the underlying pathophysiology remains unknown. Thus, the diagnosis remains dependent on the symptoms cluster and exclusion of the related pathological diseases.

Further, there is no single approach to treat it, hence it is treated with a variety of drugs and other therapies without notable enduring success.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS is a very common problem that affects about twenty percent of the American population. Irritable bowel syndrome is also known by other names such as spastic bowel, spastic colon, spastic colitis, and functional bowel syndrome.

IBS is usually classified as a functional disorder. A functional disorder refers to a disorder where the abnormality in how the body works is the problem, but somehow or the other the causes of that disorder are difficult to identify.

Usually, through regular methods, a functional disorder cannot be diagnosed. The reason behind this is that it is not an infection. It is not an inflammation. And it is not a structural abnormality either. Because of that, commonly used testing methods such as x-rays or blood tests cannot detect it.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Symptoms

The IBS symptoms may include constipation, diarrhea, abdominal cramps and pains, bloating, excessive flatulence, and nausea. Consult a physician, if you have been encountering these symptoms over a period of time.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome Diagnosis

Visit your doctor to determine if you have IBS. The doctor will ask you questions about your symptoms. He will try to distinguish a pattern; such as how long you have been suffering, what food you have been eating, etc. This line of questioning may lead to information concluding that you have IBS.

The time factor is important here; it is probable that you have the disorder, if you have had the irritable bowel syndrome symptoms for an extended period of time; if not, something else might be the cause. Your doctor will conduct further tests if the diagnosis cannot be easily reached.

IBS Diet

The truth is that food does not lead to the disorder, even though it may seem that food is the direct source of your irritable bowel syndrome problems. However, food can make you feel worse. Your symptoms can become much worse, if you eat the wrong types of food, which means more pain and discomfort for you.

Avoid fatty foods like chocolate. The same thing goes for with milk, ice cream, and other dairy items. Alcohol, carbonated drinks, and caffeine should be kept at a minimum as well.

Remember to take note of the foods which seem to lead to irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. Keep a food “diary”. It will help you to pinpoint the offending food items. Avoid them like you do rattlesnakes, once you have identified these foods.

You will be sacrificing a small portion of your gastronomic possibilities, true, but remember that you will be giving yourself more comfort and better health. Eating a bar of chocolate might make you feel good for about ten minutes, but keep in mind that it might cause you hours of bathroom misery.

On the other hand, certain types of food might help you keep the IBS symptoms at bay. It is highly recommended to take Fiber rich foods. Fruits like peaches and apples, and vegetables like broccoli are excellent choices. Dried and stewed fruits like prunes, raisins, and apricots are also helpful.

You might want to consult a few health books and find fiber rich foods that you would like. Do not increase your fiber intake too quickly though; give your body a little time to adjust to the change. Persevere in your new and improved IBS diet though, and you will soon see results.

IBS Treatment With Traditional Chinese Medicines

IBS treatment methods of several types are available for relieving an IBS sufferer from IBS symptoms. Different cultures apply different healing methods to illnesses such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

You will find that there are many different methods available to help your digestive system start to function normally again, if you are looking for a cure to treat your IBS symptoms.

Traditional Chinese medicines are one of the methods that have recently been researched which can be used to particularly for IBS treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine uses a variety of techniques IBS treatment.

Herbs

One of the most common methods is the use of several types of herbs. Herbs can be used to efficiently treat the specific IBS symptoms that the patient is complaining of. For instance, herbs can be administered to target that specific area and treat those specific problems very effectively, if you are mainly experiencing abdominal pain.

The herbs that are used in traditional Chinese medications will vary from those herbs that are found in other countries. Traditional Chinese medicines will contain a mixture of several types of herbs that are specific to the Chinese region.

A practitioner specializing in traditional Chinese Medicine will also have knowledge of what herbal remedies will cause worsened or heightened symptoms if not mixed properly. Therefore they have to be very knowledgeable in their practice.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is another form of traditional Chinese medication which can be used for IBS treatment. Acupuncture is known to be an efficient method for many illnesses, particularly IBS, and it becoming more commonly used in the Western world.

Acupuncture will target the particular nerves that are causing the specific problems, so IBS treatment involves targeting the brain to gut nerve that is causing the IBS symptoms. Acupuncture, can be used as part of your healing procedure to alleviate IBS and its painful symptoms very efficiently.

Noticing Other IBS Symptoms

Another traditional Chinese diagnosis for Irritable Bowel Syndrome is noticing other IBS symptoms. For instance, if you have a coat over your tongue, it may be directly related to your IBS due to too much heat being produced in your body.

Your abdomen becoming aggravated or painful following meals is another instance of Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms as these different symptoms define some of the different forms that IBS takes.

You will be able to find a variety of herbs as well as acupuncture remedies that you can make use of to help you control your IBS symptoms through the use of traditional Chinese diagnosis.

There are several areas in the western world where you can find locate herbal and traditional remedies to help relieve your IBS, you need to know where to look. You can either search for these via the Internet or within your local community.

These traditional Chinese approaches will then help and assist you to discover your specific symptoms and then determine the appropriate remedies in relation to either controlling your Irritable Bowel Syndrome or even finding a cure.

What are IBS symptoms?

The primary purpose of the gastrointestinal tract is to digest (break down) and absorb (take into the blood stream) food. In order to fulfill this purpose, food must be ground, mixed, and transported through the intestines, where it is digested and absorbed. In addition, undigested and unabsorbed portions of the food must be eliminated from the body.

In functional diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, the grinding, mixing, digestion, and absorption functions are disturbed to only a minor degree. These functions are essentially maintained, perhaps because of a built–in over–capacity of the gastrointestinal tract to perform these functions. The most commonly affected function in these diseases is transportation. In the stomach and small intestine, the symptoms of slowed transportation are nausea, vomiting, abdominal bloating (the sensation of abdominal fullness), and abdominal distention (enlargement). The symptom of rapid transportation usually is diarrhea. The interpretation of symptoms, however, may be more complicated than this. For example, let’s say that a person has abnormally rapid emptying of the stomach. The sensing of this rapid emptying by the intestinal sensory nerves normally brings about a motor nerve response to slow emptying of the stomach and transportation through the small intestine. Thus, rapid emptying of the stomach may give rise to symptoms of slowed transportation.

In the colon, abnormally slowed or rapid transportation results in constipation or diarrhea, respectively. In addition, there may be increased amounts of mucus coating the stool or a sense of incomplete evacuation after a bowel movement.

As discussed previously, normal sensations may be abnormally processed and perceived. Such an abnormality could result in abdominal bloating and pain. Abnormally processed sensations from the gastrointestinal organs also might lead to motor responses that cause symptoms of slowed or rapid transportation.

Slowed transportation of digesting food through the small intestine may be complicated, for example, by bacterial overgrowth. In bacterial overgrowth, gas–producing bacteria that are normally restricted to the colon move up into the small intestine. There, they are exposed to greater amounts of undigested food than in the colon, which they turn into gas. This formation of gas can aggravate bloating and/or abdominal distention and result in increased amounts of flatus (passing gas, or flatulence) and diarrhea.

The gastrointestinal tract has only a few ways of responding to diseases. Therefore, the symptoms often are similar regardless of whether the diseases are functional or non–functional. Thus, the symptoms of both functional and non–functional gastrointestinal diseases are nausea, vomiting, bloating, abdominal distention, diarrhea, constipation, and pain. For this reason, when functional disease is being considered as a cause of symptoms, it is important that the presence of non–functional diseases be excluded (ruled out). In fact, the exclusion of non–functional diseases usually is more important in evaluating patients who are suspected of having functional disease. This is so, in large part, because the tests for diagnosing functional disease are complex, not readily available, and often not very reliable. In contrast, the tests for diagnosing non–functional diseases are widely available and sensitive (able to diagnose most cases).

IBS Syndrome And Exercise

What should I know about IBS?

IBS Syndrome or Irritable bowel syndrome is a common disorder which causes the intestines, which is also called the bowels or the gut to be oversensitive.

IBS Syndrome Symptoms

The oversensitivity of the gut causes a variety of symptoms, which usually includes abdominal cramps, abdominal swelling, constipation, diarrhea, stomach pains, nausea, and gas or flatulence.

Causes Of IBS Syndrome

These IBS syndrome symptoms may occur at any age, although late childhood and early adulthood are usually when they first appear. Nearly twenty percent of the population is suffering from IBS syndrome and it is women, who are also more likely to be afflicted than men.

The causes of IBS syndrome are unknown. Your intestinal walls are lined with layers of muscle that relax and contract as they move food from your stomach, through your intestines, and onto your rectum.

Usually these muscles move in a balanced rhythm, but the contractions become stronger and last longer with IBS syndrome. Food is forced through your intestines more quickly (or slowly), causing cramps, diarrhea, and/or constipation.

IBS syndrome is a potentially devastating disorder and cannot be taken lightly. Both physically and psychologically, people afflicted with IBS syndrome are subject to much pain.

Anyone who has ever had abdominal cramps will tell you that it is not exactly nice to have; anyone who has ever had diarrhea knows just how inconvenient it could be. Some IBS syndrome sufferers have been known to spend eight to ten hours in the bathroom. And that is just not the way to spend your life.

Unfortunately, a large portion of IBS sufferers find that their condition is chronic; the IBS syndrome symptoms appear from time to time and cannot be fully cured.

Availing the medical health is the best thing what an IBS sufferer can do, as well as make changes in his/her lifestyle. Making the right changes usually lessens the probability of the IBS syndrome symptoms surfacing; they can also decrease their impact.

On the top of the list is changing your diet; coming a close second is getting some regular exercise.

Makes Your Body Strong

For a IBS syndrome sufferer, exercise is important for a variety of reasons. First, exercise generally makes your body stronger. It is usually a good idea to be on a regular exercise program, no matter what disease or disorder you might be suffering from.

Exercise boosts the immune system, making other diseases and disorders less likely to occur.

Stress Reliever

Second, exercise is an excellent stress-reliever. Some medical practitioners believe that IBS syndrome has psychological roots. This means that IBS syndrome might have its beginnings in a mental state.

A highly-stressed mind is prone to mental problems; mental problems lead to physical problems. IBS syndrome symptoms have often been observed to occur when a person is under unusual amounts of stress.

So it has not been proved that stress is a cause of IBS syndrome, but it certainly worsens the situation. Every effort to reduce undue stress must be made. Exercising is one of the best ways to do this.

People who exercise regularly report a feeling of well-being after their sessions. This is what is called the “jogger’s high.” After an exercise session, the brain releases endorphins and these endorphins actually have the same effect as morphine, albeit in a more sedate manner.

These endorphins act as natural painkillers; a must for serious IBS syndrome sufferers. So don’t forget: exercise is not only good for you; it makes you feel good as well.