"I Can't Eat That, I'm Intolerant..."

Do you have IBS? If so, then if you’re like the majority of IBS sufferers then you’ve probably wondered at one time or another if you really have IBS… or if you just have an allergy, a food allergy to be specific. (It seems that between twenty and sixty-five per cent of us have such suspicions.)¹ Maybe two or three, or more? Or maybe it’s an ‘intolerance’? This is when some of us start flipping through the ‘alternative health’ sections of our daily paper…

But is it really a possibility, or something with no scientific basis? I’m sure many of us have encountered medical scepticism on even bringing the subject up. An alimentary ailment… brought on by food intake? Come on! That’s ridiculous! (Some of us may have met with a much more vehement and aggressive response from self-appointed internet forum ‘nearly-not-quite-doctors’, bathed in the white lab-coat shaped halo of their scientific aura.) Perhaps your medical adviser has come up with helpful but strictly limited suggestions of NHS allergy testing (if you're a UK bod).

What's Your Experience?
If you find that modifying your food intake – avoiding this and that, cooking in such-and-such a way, being sure to include something or other in your diet – seems to help with your irritable bowel syndrome, then it’s hard not to jump to the conclusion that your diet itself must be in some way at fault. (And there may be a temptation to start drastically modifying and limiting your food intake. Of course you need to talk to your doctor before doing anything drastic – and you always would, wouldn’t you?) It's hard to know how much of any perceived benefit is real and how much is merely subjective perception or wishful thinking. Correlation, as we're often reminded, doesn't necessarily mean causation.

Is There Any Evidence?
But is there any actual scientific basis for such a belief? Is there any data to back it up, and if so what does it suggest? One review by Park and Camilleri, published in 2006 in the Southern Medical Journal, examines the intestinal immune response to foods. It did find some food-specific gastrointestinal immunoglobulin activity present in a proportion of patients – immunoglobulins being the molecules produced by the immune system to attack invaders. The review suggested that immune system activation in the gut might be related to IBS, but suggested other possible causes for such activation as well as food.

Park and Camilleri did conclude by calling for further research on the subject, and I’m sure that’s something all IBS sufferers can concur with. More knowledge, perhaps enabling better management of a difficult and troubling condition, can surely only be a good thing.

References:

Park, M-I.; Camilleri, M. ‘Is there a role of food allergy in irritable bowel syndrome and functional dyspepsia? A systematic review. ‘ Neurogastroenterology & Motility. 18(8):595-607, August 2006.