IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a digestive disorder of unknown cause that is diagnosed when other illnesses such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) including Crohn’s and Colitis and cancer have been ruled out through testing. There is no specific test for IBS.
Symptoms can include diarrhoea, gas, bloating, heartburn, constipation, stomach cramps, food intolerances and pain. Since it is not life threatening it is often trivialised by medical professionals and non sufferers, but it can be devastating in terms of quality of life, impacting day to day activities including work and social life.
It has an embarrassing set of symptoms with an embarrassing name, meaning IBS patients often suffer in silence, don’t discuss their condition with friends, family or work colleagues and sometimes can expect jibes or trivialisation of their symptoms if they do. Non sufferers can have such symptoms from time to time, for example, through something they have eaten, but they recover. Consequently, people think that IBS sufferers can ‘get over’ IBS, like they do when they have eaten something bad, without comprehending that it is a lifelong condition. This means that IBS patients often feel misunderstood and even a sense of shame about something that they have no control over. This gives IBS sufferers more to concern themselves with, on top of their debilitating symptoms and they can feel alone in managing the condition. This adds stress to an already stressful condition and stress can be the worst thing for IBS.
Having said all of this, there is much that can be done in terms of managing symptoms. That is why this website was created – to arm the IBS patient with as much information as possible so that they can work towards taking charge of their own IBS including improving their quality of life.
IBS Researcher 