Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is much more than just a bowel disorder. This causes chronic discomfort, anxiety, social constraints (especially when it comes to food and drink) and reduced quality of life. There are various factors that lead to IBS, including, but not limited to, altered bacterial microbes in the intestines, infection from the immune system, inflammation of the intestines, stress: emotional and physical, food sensitivity and chronic microbial infections (viral, bacterial, protozoan, etc.) .).
You struggle with:
- Chronic abdominal distension, even when you eat a seemingly healthy diet?
- Are you chronically constipated without the help of fiber supplements or laxatives?
- Do you have pain and cramps in the stomach after eating?
- Are you chronically tired even after getting a good night?
- Are you suffering from anxiety and / or depression?
- Fighting catering, not knowing how your body will react to food?
IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) is a disorder of the intestinal tract. IBS is defined as a common condition associated with recurrent abdominal pain, diarrhea, or constipation often associated with stress, depression, anxiety, or a previous intestinal infection. Common symptoms of IBS include recurrent abdominal pain, changes in bowel habits (constipation or diarrhea, or both), indigestion, abdominal distension, weight gain / loss, nausea, chronic gas odor, the need to empty the bowels, fatigue, difficulty sleep, anxiety and depression.
Approximately 11% of the population is diagnosed with this disease by their primary health care physicians, many are silent and undiagnosed. There are self-help and support groups, popular IBS related searches, and general bowel cleansing offered throughout the web. We see that patients often try to independently control this state using different diets, oregano oil and probiotics, but without success. Many people come to the conclusion that it is just their “new normal”. On the contrary, just because these symptoms are common in the general population, they are not normal!
IBS is a difficult condition for diagnosis, since there is no “gold standard” test. IBS is often a diagnosis of exclusion; this means that you can eliminate all scary things like cancer, Crohn's disease or internal bleeding, and then you have a bladder diagnosis for a long list of digestive and systemic symptoms.
What causes and contributions to IBS?
- Microbiome imbalance: We are talking about intestinal flora.
- Dysbacteriosis
- SIBO (reproduction of small intestine bacteria)
- Adrenal Health / Chronic Stress. When the nervous system is in the predominant sympathetic state, it closes the rest and digests the mechanisms. This leads to poor digestion and malabsorption, which, in turn, causes anxiety and moodiness from drops of blood sugar.
- Dysregulation of sugar in the blood often causes oxidative damage to the nerves in the intestines and the intestines, which further destroys the digestive function and creates inflammation.
- Increased and decreased intestinal mobility depending on the part of the gastrointestinal system.
- Chronic infections / with biofilm. Often this occurs after an attack of gastroenteritis. In fact, acute gastroenteritis accounts for 30% of all cases of IBS.
- Food Sensitivity.
- Stress: both emotional and physical - a history of abuse (physical, emotional, chronic, anxious). We often see that the fewer people support people in their lives, the greater their IBS can be.
- Visceral sensitivity aka rectal pain sensitivity - Perceived rectal pain - this pain is lower for patients in IBS. Patients with IBS have more gas and discomfort in their intestines. IBS patients show changes in the esp brain in afferent symptoms of pain in the brain.
Let's look at some of them in more detail:
- Microbiome
Dysbacteriosis
Why is the microbiome or bacteria in your gut so important? Did you know that some of your neurotransmitters are made in your gut? That's right, bacteria in the gut can determine how well you break and use your food, and even how happy you are. Did you know that enterocytes in the intestines are one of the main producers of serotonin (your lucky neurotransmitter)? The presence of unbalanced bacteria can lead to symptoms of depression and anxiety. In addition, neurotransmitters in your intestines regulate your perception of pain and digestive function.
Bacterial overgrowth
You can read more about small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) here. SIBO essentially has too many bacteria in the intestine. With healthy food, SIBO, especially slow digesting carbohydrates, really nourishes the growth of bacteria. This perpetuates symptoms such as gas and bloating, especially on that day, and it looks like no matter what you eat.
The immune system
The immune system is very important in the pathogenesis of IBS. Your immune cells, primarily mast cells, are important for your gastrointestinal motility. When these cells are activated, they cause inflammation in the intestinal wall, affecting peristalsis (contractions of the intestinal wall that moves food through the gastrointestinal system).
Low grade infection and inflammation
Ever been a parasite? Revenge of Montezuma? Mononucleosis (also known as Epstein Barr virus)? Most likely, you still have it! We would call them subclinical chronic infections. The reason for this is that you may not have swollen lymph nodes and fever, but you may be chronically tired or your digestion has not been exactly right since the initial infection. This may indicate that although you do not have an acute infection, you may have a low degree and a chronic infection. These infections can create biofilms that make them essentially inviolable with the help of your immune system. Without disturbing these biofilms, these pathogens continue to damage your immune system and intestines. Biofilms can be attributed to prolonged symptoms such as chronic gas and bloating, diarrhea and constipation, chronic fatigue and weak immune function.
Food sensitivity
Food Sensitivity is not an allergy. Although they do not create a life-threatening and immediate response, like real food allergies, they stimulate and regulate your immune system, creating symptoms such as bloating, gas, diarrhea, acne, fatigue, diabetes ... list on. The only way to control these symptoms is to eliminate or minimize the foods that create these symptoms so that your body can heal and regulate. The hard part is to understand which products (products) are triggers. Simply eliminating one suspicious food can help ease your symptoms, but if there are several products that trigger you, your symptoms will not disappear completely; forcing many to come to the conclusion that it is not their food sensitivity and continues to eat. For this reason, elite diets, such as Whole30, were designed to cut out the most common nutritional sensitivities, to “reboot” your system in a sense, and then slowly re-enter these excluded foods.
The most common food sensitive substances for most people are gluten (sometimes whole grains), eggs, dairy products, soybeans, corn, and seafood. However, because everything is so individual, even healthy foods, such as bananas or sweet potatoes, can create your symptoms. If you find that eliminating a diet does not do the trick, it may be due to the fact that you are still eating something that you are sensitive to. Always start with the foods you eat most often. This may be a criminal. Diet diaries are also a great way to keep track of your eating habits. In our office, we strongly recommend testing food sensitivity — these tests help cut out guesses, as well as identify products that can be cross-reactive in your system.
Leaky gut
If you are not familiar with the leaky gut, this is when the gut wall becomes compromised and permeable, allowing food particles to enter your bloodstream, thereby activating the immune system to respond to the alien "invader." Over time, you may become sensitive to more products. You react to products that you once are not sensitive. When you restore your gut wall, many of these new sensitivities will be eliminated.
stress
Stress is all for our society. From traffic jams to long working hours at family reunion. It's hard to find time for yourself, period. Forget about simple self-help, such as meditation, exercise, breathing, you are lucky to get a shower for 4 days a week. Sounds familiar? Stress has a profound effect on your physiological processes. It slows down and makes your digestion less effective (perpetuating IBS), causing inflammation and blood sugar, and allows you to not forget anxiety, insomnia, depression and pain. Practical methods that will help your body adapt and calm down from stress are incredibly important. Taking breaks from stimulant users, such as coffee, and replacing adaptogenic herbs, such as Ashwagandha, Reishi and Maca, can be incredibly beneficial.
How we treat differently to the traditional model
Much of what is usually done for IBS in a traditional medicine model is symptomatic relief. More and more changing what we love to see! However, when antibiotics, laxatives, antidiarrheal drugs (or antispasmodic drugs) and long-term elimination diets fail, we do our best to pick up the slack.
We use functional medicine to evaluate your work with blood. We use different values than the standard to assess optimal health and see where your body can begin to fight. With this model, we find that we get the root cause of the problem to eliminate the symptoms, not to treat the symptoms.
- After the blood confirms the presence of infection / co-infection, we will treat the pathogen (s) PLUS, excluding biofilms
- After working in the blood will confirm any food intolerance or a leaky gut, we will treat the permeability of your small intestine, and also recommend which products or products to avoid or replace.
- Elimination of diets
- Lifestyle changes
- Exercise patterns
- Determination of stress factors and proper adaptation
- Treatment of depression and anxiety by adding and exercising
- Detoxify your system and support the microbiome
- liver
- Gut
- Dump your metabolism
- Manual methods such as Visceral Manipulation for reducing pain and inflammation
IBS can be a difficult condition to resolve on your own, as there are usually several variables that contribute to your symptoms. If you do not decide on all variables, it will be difficult for you to eliminate your symptoms forever. With all these factors adding to IBS, having a little tutorial can be incredibly helpful.
