What is Irritable bowel syndrome?

IBS is a medical condition that affects your large intestine (bowel). Your large intestine's job is to manufacture and store your stool until it is ready to be eliminated from your body. Trust me, when your body's factory has problems on THAT assembly line, in the form of IBS, you are in for a bad day.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is not a disease. It is classified as a "functional disorder" because a part of your body is not functioning as it should be.

IBS can manifest itself in a number of ways. It can cause intense cramping that makes childbirth look like a walk in the park, or it can cause bloating, diarrhea, or, at the other end of the scale, constipation. Sometimes it will even alternate through all of the symptoms. Often times there is also a presence of mucus in the stool, a bloating of the abdomen, and the feeling that you never quite finish your bowel movements.

When you are suffering from IBS it is the nerves and muscles in your bowel that are not functioning correctly. When your muscles overreact by stretching and shrinking too much, cramping and diarrhea may result. If your nerves are too sensitive then they will react to the stretching of the bowel by causing severe pain.

Usually the presence of one or more of these symptoms is enough for the doctor to diagnose IBS. However, to make sure that you are not suffering from any other condition instead, your doctor will probably perform one or more of the following tests:

Various blood tests that are designed to spot IBS.

Bowel X-Ray using a barium enema. This procedure is often called a lower GI series. It has nothing to do with being in the military. GI, in this case, stand for gastrointestinal series.

Endoscopy: During this procedure the doctor inserts a very thin tube, with a camera attached, into your bowel. This lets the doctor look inside of your intestine and confirm the irritable bowel syndrome diagnosis.

Since this is not a disease, there is no "cure". Your doctor and you will work on establishing a treatment that may consist of changes in your diet, stress-reducing medicine, and other stress relief suggestions. This will not cure the condition but it could keep the symptoms under control

If you do suffer from IBS, here are some things to avoid:

Fried and/or fatty foods Milk and dairy products Chocolate Alcohol Caffeine Carbonated beverages

Fiber has been shown to reduce the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, especially constipation. If you are going to increase the amount of fiber in your diet, do it gradually because too much fiber can produce gas, and IBS sufferers already have enough problems with gas.

You may have to live with IBS for your entire life, but you can do a lot to keep the unpleasant side effects under control. Hopefully this article will help you towards that goal.