Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a diagnosis given to people who have chronic problems with their bowel but when examined by their doctor or gastroenterologist, no abnormalities were found.
Symptoms of IBS commonly include: Gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, and is often triggered by food or stress.
IBS is a problem with the functioning of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and traditional medicine is good at finding obvious disease, but isn’t effective in dealing with disorders of function.
Functional Medicine by its very definition works by evaluating how different organ systems in the body are functioning, identifying the imbalances that are causing the problems, and then targeting treatment to bring the body, in this case the bowel, back into balance.
The most common cause of Impaired Bowel Function (IBF) is what we call dysbiosis, which is an imbalance in the microbiology of the small and/or large intestine.
Normally we have over 70 trillion bacteria that live in our digestive tract, and they help us process and absorb our food and vitamins; help protect us from bad bacteria or germs; and form a protective barrier along the length of our digestive tract. This is a huge job when you realize that the surface area of the entire intestines is the size of a tennis court!
This normal flora and fauna is made up of bacteria you are probably familiar with, like lactobacillus acidophilus, and bifidobacteria strains.
There are many predisposing causes such as: antibiotics, acute stress, exposure to parasites or a stomach flu that never went away. Also, the use of antacids and acid blockers can cause a change in pH which allows the wrong kinds of bugs to grow.
Dysbiosis can cause digestive and bowel symptoms, but can also cause the bowel to become leaky, increasing the likelihood of reactions to foods that you might not have had a problem with before. This is called leaky gut syndrome.
Treatment of dysbiosis and Impaired Bowel Function is relatively simple. And in a few weeks you will feel so much better.