The term Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, gets tossed around so frequently that I find many who think it means something profound about their condition.
I hate to break it to you, but a diagnosis of IBS doesn’t mean much in the medical world.
For starters, anything that is called a “syndrome” is by definition “a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality”. If the signs and symptoms don’t appear to be related to a clear cause, a condition is called a “syndrome” rather than a “disease”. The signs and symptoms of IBS could include cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, diarrhea and constipation.
So, when you receive a diagnosis of IBS from a doctor, what he or she is really telling you is that they simply don’t know what is causing you to experience these signs and symptoms, but they’re going to group them together and call them “IBS”.
In my humble opinion, IBS is a cop-out diagnosis that does not identify the cause of the IBS symptoms in the first place. If you don’t know the cause of the distress, then how can you heal the body so that the symptoms disappear?
A few common causes of IBS symptoms:
Food and chemical sensitivities. We accept that there are people who are lactose intolerant or allergic to wheat, but did you know that you yourself may be sensitive to such seemingly harmless foods such as broccoli, chicken, rice, or honey? IBS symptoms may appear up to four days after you’ve eaten a food, which can make identifying the culprits difficult to impossible. MRT food sensitivity testing and following a LEAP diet is a fast and easy method of finding relief from IBS symptoms.
Parasites. You can be infected by parasites during foreign travel, camping, swimming in lakes or rivers, or simply from eating sushi or drinking water. At one point the city of Milwaukee was infected with cryptosporidium through the municipal water supply. Luckily, a good herbal parasite cleanse can get rid of most of these buggers and then your bowels will be happy again.
Bacterial imbalance. A course of antibiotics can destroy your natural gut biome and replenishing the good bacteria will help your digestion. The trick can be finding the right pro-biotic supplement for your body.
Digestive enzyme deficiencies. Chronic inflammation can lead to a desensitization of the villi whose job it is to analyze the contents of your stomach and call for the correct formula of digestive enzymes to break it down. The intestinal lining cannot absorb nutrients from food that is not broken down enough by the stomach. An enzyme urinalysis can pinpoint exactly what’s being digested or not in your bowels, and then you can supplement accordingly with the right plant-based digestive enzymes.
