Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a functional disease of the colon and is sometimes referred to as spastic colon. It has no specific known cause. It is diagnosed by exclusion, which means that there is no specific test for it as such, it is more a process of eliminating other possible diseases that leads to it’s diagnosis .
We do know that it’s main symptoms (diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain and white mucous in excrement) are worsened by stress and eating fatty food though. When an IBS sufferer “gets the shits” that can be literally what happens, IBS is a disease that is managed rather than cured.
If the above mentioned symptoms are not enough to make you serious about managing your IBS as well as you can, recent discoveries in immunology have thrown the digestive system in general, under a new and interesting spotlight. The more medical scientists have learned about the GIT (Gastro Intestinal Tract) the more convinced they are that it is a very important part of our physical immunity as well as our digestive system, pathogens are literally destroyed in a healthy gut. How this might specifically relate to IBS is not yet known but it does give us yet another reason to eat well.
Another recent GIT study has located the presence of glial tissue in the small intestine. Previously glial tissue was thought to only exist in the brain, this discovery may well eventually lead to understanding better how and why our thoughts and feelings affect our digestion. On an intuitive level most of us suspect that stress effects digestion because how bad we can feel in the belly when we get really bad news or something important does not turn out how we envisaged.
As mentioned in other posts about stress, a sound strategy for how to control it is really helpful. Most of the quick fixes tend to have only short term value and certainly swallowing things like alcohol, drugs and comfort food into the same alimentary canal that is already under strain is not the best thing you can do to help your IBS.
If you live alone and do not see the point in cooking a decent meal just for one person (you), you are doing your guts no good.
It can be difficult to self-assess how well you cope with stress, maybe you are not as good at it as you think you are, get an unbiased opinion off someone whose judgement you trust and think about how it may be affecting your health.
IBS can be highly debilitating particularly if it’s cause cannot be readily removed or rectified, many find comforting fatty foods too hard to resist when they feel stressed and controlling stress itself is one of the great dilemmas of modern humanity. A mixture of self discipline and the ability to let go and let it all wash over you when you feel emotionally overwhelmed is a strategy worth trying if you have IBS. Please consider meditation, just the act of slowing your breathing can help your IBS by suppressing stress hormones.
Please do not overlook the possible relief that exercise and massage can make to your IBS symptoms.