Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a bowel disorder which is commonly characterized by abdominal pain [which can range from mild to very severe], discomfort, bloating and disruption of normal bowel habits.
Commonly, diarrhoea, constipation, or fluctuations between the two, tends to occur. IBS sufferers also often experience sudden urgency for bowel movements, a feeling of incomplete evacuation (tenesmus), bloating or abdominal distension, often have reflux, fibromyalgia, headaches and backache.[1]
Years of Mis-Diagnosis
Very often IBS is mis-diagnosed as a reaction or allergy to certain foods, most commonly Gluten, Yeast, Sugars, Wheat, Alcohol, etc.
Worst still is the mis-diagnosis which labels the sufferer as being Ceoliac, or suffering from some psychosomatic illness [2,3] or worse, simply as a time wasting Hypochondriac and thus Untreatable.
Bizarrely, medical research has, since the 1990's, shown the involvement of biological and pathogenic agents are almost always the major causal factors of IBS. And, on the majority of occasions, has shown that the onset of IBS invariably occurs after an infectious illness characterised by two or more of the following: fever, vomiting or diarrhoea. [4.5] and yet they still persist in the erroneous belief that IBS is an actual disease in itself.
Yet, its very name "Irritable Bowel Syndrome" clearly shows that it cannot be a primary disease. Refer to any medical dictionary and you will see it clearly state that "syndromes" are not diseases - They are "a pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease" [6].
Why Mainstream Medicine Fails IBS Sufferers
So why can't doctors find the cause of IBS? The reason is they just don't know how to go about it.
Mainstream medicine openly admits that it has no answers or cure for IBS and at best only offers fairly ineffective treatments which attempt to relieve symptoms, including dietary adjustments, medication and psychological interventions.
It is therefore not surprising that mainstream medicine fails to help IBS sufferers as they are only trying to suppress or reduce the symptoms. THEY ARE NOT TREATING THE CAUSE.
Even if they accept that IBS is a symptom, they will argue that, because there are so many diseases that can cause a combination of IBS-like symptoms there is no specific laboratory or imaging test which can be performed to diagnose and confirm irritable bowel syndrome.[7], there is no way of tracking down the actual cause.
To be fair, many doctors do send blood or stool samples off for testing, but since most of the tests they carry out do little more than confirm the symptoms the patient already knows they have, they get no closer to isolating the true causal pathogen.
Published research by the American Gastroenterological Association has demonstrated that some poor patient outcomes [ed. by which they mean, having treated a patient, the results were either no better or in many instances worsened their condition] are due to the mis-diagnosis of the condition as being IBS. Common examples include infectious diseases, gastrointestinal infections, Celiac disease,[8] parasites,[9] food allergies[10] and lactose intolerance.[11]
So, where can you turn?
How Clinical Homeopathy Can Help
From a Clinical Homeopathic view-point, there are three simple steps to curing IBS (and any other illness):
1) Find the Cause/Causes
2) Confirm the correct Cure/Cures
3) Treat (kill) the Cause/Causes
Get these three steps right and you must, by definition, get better...
Clinical Homeopathy believes that almost every illness is caused by a specific, or combination of specific pathogens and, as such, there is, in almost every case, a corresponding "specific" solution - a logical and natural cure, whether Homeopathic Treatment (often termed alternative medicine), Allopathic (generally regarded as mainstream medicine), Herbal or Naturopathic.
Clinical Homeopathy uses Bio-Electric Functions Diagnosis, or Electro-Acupuncture as it is sometimes called, to track down the causes of IBS (or any other illness they might be faced with). This is a galvanic skin reaction test which, by measuring changes in the Galvanic (electrical) readings of the skin at specific meridian (acupuncture) points, when subjected to various pathogenic test materials, it is possible to accurately confirm the pathogen(s) causing the illness, whether bacteriological, viral, parasitical or fungal.
In this way, once the pathogen has been isolated, Clinical Homeopathy will use remedies that are derived from the actual pathogens that are causing the problem in the first place to treat the illness. [ed. using exactly the same principles as mainstream medicine when using immunization, inoculation and vaccination to treat illnesses].
The level of recovery and the time it takes will be dependant on a combination of:
•a) How long ago the infection occurred (and took hold)
•b) The cause of the infection - bacterial, parasitic, fungal, viral (or a combination of any of these)
•c) The state of health of the individual both at the beginning of the infection and subsequently [as the individual weakens it is very common for further infections to establish themselves and so exacerbate the condition]
•d) The strength of the individual's immune system
•e) How quickly the individual's body is able to heal the damage caused by the pathogen
However, in most cases, once treatment has begun, signs of improvement are apparent in a relatively short space of time.
For more information and further comment, visit www.bedfordshirehomeopathy.co.uk
References:
(1) Talley NJ (2006). "Irritable bowel syndrome". Intern Med J 36 (11): 724-8.
(2) Fukudo S, Nomura T, Muranaka M, Taguchi F (1993). "Brain-gut response to stress and cholinergic stimulation in irritable bowel syndrome. A preliminary study". J. Clin. Gastroenterol. 17 (2): 133-41.
(3) Orr WC, Crowell MD, Lin B, Harnish MJ, Chen JD (1997). "Sleep and gastric function in irritable bowel syndrome: derailing the brain-gut axis". Gut 41 (3): 390-3.
(4) Thabane M, Kottachchi DT, Marshall JK (2007). "The incidence and prognosis of post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome.". Aliment Pharmacol Ther 26 (4): 535-44.
(5) Damianos AJ, McGarrity TJ (1997). "Treatment strategies for Helicobacter pylori infection". American family physician 55 (8): 2765-74, 2784-6.
(6) wordnetweb.princeton.edu
(7) Yawn BP, Lydick E, Locke GR, Wollan PC, Bertram SL, Kurland MJ (2001). "Do published guidelines for evaluation of irritable bowel syndrome reflect practice?". BMC gastroenterology 1: 11.
(8) Spiegel BM, DeRosa VP, Gralnek IM, Wang V, Dulai GS (2004). "Testing for celiac sprue in irritable bowel syndrome with predominant diarrhea: a cost-effectiveness analysis". Gastroenterology 126 (7): 1721-32.
(9) Stark D, van Hal S, Marriott D, Ellis J, Harkness J (2007). "Irritable bowel syndrome: a review on the role of intestinal protozoa and the importance of their detection and diagnosis". Int. J. Parasitol. 37 (1): 11-20.
(10) Drisko et al (2006). "Treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome with a Food Elimination Diet Followed by Food Challenge and Probiotics". Journal of the American College of Nutrition 25 (6): 514-22.
(11) Vernia P, Ricciardi MR, Frandina C, Bilotta T, Frieri G (1995). "Lactose malabsorption and irritable bowel syndrome. Effect of a long-term lactose-free diet". The Italian journal of gastroenterology 27 (3): 117-21.
