PrintInformation About The Causes To Join An IBS Support Group
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most difficult medical conditions to have. This is because it makes using the bathroom incredibly painful, can result in alternating bouts with diarrhea and constipation, and because it can lead to some embarrassing situations in regards to the explosive gas that often accompanies IBS. Often, people who have this condition feel anxious when they are social situations and often avoid public places because they do not want to be in an awkward position. However, with medical treatment, self help, and an IBS support group, it is possible to overcome this condition and lead a full life. A person should join an IBS support group due to following reasons.
Open Ears To IBS Support Group
Though IBS can certainly be painful, most people have an even more difficult time dealing with the emotional side of the condition. After all, having explosive gas or diarrhea can really lead to one of many embarrassing situations. Everyone will ignore sitting with a person suffering with IBS in a train due to bad smell of the gas? If you join an IBS support group, you will have people to talk to about such situations. You may feel more open to talking about embarrassing things if you know the other people in the room have been in your shoes.
Talking to other IBS sufferers helps because it shows you that you are not alone. Often, when people have this condition, they feel isolated and depressed. Joining an IBS support group shows you that there are other people out there who have to deal with the same symptoms and effects of the condition.
Share Tips
A great feature of an IBS support groupis that you are talking to other people who have struggled or fought the condition. These individuals may have some really great tips for how to treat the condition. A doctor can tell you a lot, but having a room full of fellow IBS sufferers can really make the advice all the more specific to your symptoms and condition. People can get ideas to deal with the embarrassing conditions of IBS in an IBS support group. For example, they may know about sprays that can mask or cover up odors in a public place or tips about which colognes or perfumes to use on a particularly gassy day. This kind of advice can really help you live a more full and enjoyable life.
Tags: ibs, IBS sufferers, ibs support group, irritable bowel syndrome
Irritable Bowel Syndrome: What is it?
At least 58 million Americans have suffered IBS at some stage in their lives. They have cramp like abdominal pains, diarrhoea and/ constipation. These symptoms vary in individual IBS patients and also from day to day. President of the IBS Self Help and Support Group, Jeffrey Roberts, says, “IBS is an illness which seems to strike people down.”
IBS is a collection of symptoms that are present for 12 weeks in twelve month period. It is characterised by abdominal pain and must include at least two of the following three facts. The pain is relieved with bowel movement, and associated with a change in the frequency of bowel movement and appearance of the stools.
Certain foods and stress can trigger symptoms or cause a flare up of IBS. No one is certain what exactly IBS is or what causes it. What we knowat present is the Large Gut in IBS sufferers are more sensitive and, hormonal changes may be a trigger because 80% of IBS patients are women. It can develop after a severe episode of gastroenteritis and there is a higher incident in individuals who were physically and sexually abused as children.
Although Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a distressing condition with abdominal pains, diarrhoea, constipation, bloating and rectal pain, there is no abnormality of the gut. In fact it is not IBS if anything was found during investigation.
If you have symptoms of IBS, see your doctor for a diagnosis. Your doctor is likely to do tests to exclude serious diseases before a diagnosis of IBS is made. With the Rome Criteria, a diagnosis can be made with minimal diagnostic test. However, if you have bleeding from the rectum, loss of appetite, weight loss, anaemia or symptoms developing after fifty years of age, you should see your doctor very soon because you will need addition investigation.
Some IBS sufferers are made to feel that their illness is “All in the head.” This is far from the truth but the brain and symptom development are linked and experts think that Brain-Gut connection is very important. Serotonin is linked to IBS. High blood levels are present in Diarrhoea predominant IBS and low levels are found in Constipation predominant IBS.
In Irritable Bowel Syndrome, there is no abnormality in the large gut, it is not a cancer and will not lead to cancer or other gastrointestinal disease and it is very common. It is estimated that at some time in their lives as much as 20% of the global population has or had IBS.
To come to terms with IBS is difficult for patients especially when they are told no one knows the true cause, no one treatment works for everyone and that there is no cure. Depending on the type of IBS you have, dietary changes, stress management, behavioural therapy and an increasing range of alternative treatments options are available.
Some IBS patients have severe abdominal pains soon after eating certain foods. This may be because it is a large meal and in a sensitive gut triggers strong Gastro-colic reflex. This a powerful peristaltic contraction in response to stretching of the stomach. This can be very painful for a patient with IBS. You can reduce this by having smaller meals and eat frequently. You need nutrients from food to remain healthy, so it is important that you do not avoid foods.
Stress is a trigger for IBS symptoms. Relieve stress and your IBS will improve.
Tags: ibs, IBS symptoms, irritable bowel syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, symptoms of ibs, symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome
