Irritable Bowel Syndrome Irritable Bowel Syndrome Basics

Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Misunderstood Condition

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common gastrointestinal condition in the United States, but all too often people are too embarrassed or reluctant to discuss or seek treatment. Not surprising since this condition involves chronic abdominal pain, diarrhea or constipation or both—and is exacerbated by stress.

Another hurdle people with IBS face is actually getting a diagnosis. IBS is often diagnosed and treated according to the symptoms alone since there aren’t medical tests that confirm the condition. While a great deal is still not well understood about IBS, experts have made major advances and encourage people to have an open dialogue with their doctors about their IBS symptoms.

What is irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)?
IBS is a chronic disorder that affects the nervous system and the digestive system. For an IBS diagnosis to be made, patients need to have abdominal pain about 25 percent of the time. Other primary symptoms include constipation or significant diarrhea or, in some patients, alternating constipation and diarrhea.

Secondary symptoms include bloating, abdominal distention, feelings of incomplete evacuation. Sometimes patients experience urgency; they feel like they have to go to the bathroom right away. Finally, about 20 percent of patients with IBS have fecal incontinence and lose control of their bowels.

What causes IBS?
Some research has pointed to people with IBS having a genetic predisposition. Other possible causes could be environment factors that trigger the condition, or medications, viral infections, bacterial infections. Experts have yet to pinpoint the exact cause.

What is wrong with the digestive systems in people with IBS?
Experts used to attribute IBS only to abnormal gut motility – abnormal muscle or nerve movement in the gastrointestinal tract. However, over the last 20 to 30 years, experts have learned that patients with IBS sense things in their gut differently. Their body may interpret normal gut function as abnormal. During the day the gut is in motion – the stomach is growling, mixing, churning and emptying of food in the small intestine and colon. Most people are not affected by those signals, but many patients with IBS seem to feel those signals and find them painful. Also, through studies using MRI and CAT scans of the brain, patients with IBS seem to sense pain in the brains differently.

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