Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Diverticulitis
QUESTION – What exactly is Irritable Bowel Syndrome?
The bowel is the term used for both the large and the small intestine. The word syndrome is applied when there is more than one symptom involved. In the case of irritable bowel syndrome or IBS it is usually the large intestine, which is, involved, as this is where our stool is stored and is likely to cause the most problems.
QUESTION – What Sort Of Symptoms Are Involved?
These will vary from person to person. They will also vary in severity and timing. The most common symptoms are:
- Abdominal pain or cramping
- Bloated feeling after eating.
- Gas.
- Diarrhoea and or constipation
- Mucus in the stool
- Depression.
- Lower back pain
- Chronic fatigue
- Panic attacks and palpitations
- Heartburn,
- Light-headedness after eating.
In many cases I can link most of the conditions that we talk about back to Candida Albicans. If you look at the list of symptoms and compare them to the Candida notes you will see certain similarities.
QUESTION – What causes these symptoms?
The walls of the intestine are lined with layers of muscle that contract and relax as they move the food from your stomach, through the intestinal tract and the rectum. Normally this is co-ordinated and rhythmic, but if you suffer from IBS, the contractions are much stronger and last longer. This causes the food to be rushed through the system. It is not processed properly – because it is not digested – and it can cause diarrhoea in the first instance. This leads to dehydration – and that affects the balance of fluids and causes further undigested food to block the intestine and - leading to constipation and stomach bloating and cramps. It is a typical vicious circle.
QUESTION – What is the actual cause of IBS?
The medical profession can not come up with any overall explanation for the syndrome – there are certainly some educated guesses including poorly functioning central nervous system (remember when we talked about the B vitamins and how vital they were in this). As more women than men suffer from the problem there is undoubtedly a link to hormonal changes, particularly as many women suffer more at various times of the month. Stress plays a large part in the symptoms. Part of it is embarrassment; sufferers get to the stage where they do not want to go out. They are suffering from gas and diarrhoea and feel uncomfortable the whole time and it effects their stress levels. There is also the implication that it might be something more sinister and this adds to the stress because nobody can come up with a definitive explanation for the problem.
The temptation for sufferers is to starve themselves, or to go on such a restrictive diet that they deny their bodies the very nutrients that they need to repair and heal themselves.
This in turn leads to even more problems and stress on the body.
We also need to go back to Candida. Candida occurs when the bacterial balance in the intestines is badly disrupted. This can be because of severe gastro-intestinal upsets that destroy the good bacteria, leaving the Candida to take over the gut. It can follow causes of antibiotics, Hormone replacement or steroid treatments for inflammatory diseases. We have already established the similarity between the Candida symptoms and the IBS symptoms and in my mind this is the main cause of the condition and needs to be addressed first and foremost while following a Candida related diet.
The only other culprit could be dairy as some people are lactose intolerant – the only way that this can be checked is by eliminating all dairy for about two weeks to see if the symptoms improve. If they do then it is not IBS but lactose intolerance, which can be corrected by diet.
QUESTION – What are the medical treatments available for IBS?
Doctors will prescribe a number of drugs to someone suffering from IBS. Most commonly they are treatments for the symptoms such as over the counter fibres such as psyllium husks (Metamucil) to alleviate the constipation. They may recommend Imodium to control the diarrhoea. Some may give you an anti-depressant to help relax you and there are some prescribed medications that vary in strength according to the symptoms.
However, at the end of the day these are really only treating the symptoms not the root cause and those causes are not going to go away by themselves.
When I worked with IBS sufferers, I always took the stance that the problem was holistic. In other words there were physical and emotional reasons for the problem and they both had to be addressed if the recovery was to be successful. Starting from the premise that Candida was probably to blame for the problem in the first place, gave us a place to start when designing an eating plan that could be adjusted as we progressed over a number of weeks. Apart from some supplements that I recommended there were no laxatives or diarrhoea treatments involved. Continuous use of both of these can cause long term problems. Use of laxatives can cause the intestine to become lazy and the muscles become slack as in any unused part of our body. It is important that they are exercised regularly.
QUESTION – What is the difference between Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Diverticulitis?
There can be some confusion as to what intestinal problem we have. Many have similar symptoms but may have a different cause.
Diverticulitis shares some of the symptoms such as cramps, bloating and constipation but it has a different cause and is more likely to effect people over 60 and certainly over 80.
Our intestine is a bit like an inner tube and weak spots occur with age and bulge outward through the weakened muscle wall. Each of these pouches is called a diverticulum – the condition is called diverticulosis. Sometimes these pouches become inflamed or infected and then it becomes Diverticulitis.
The pouches are caused by low dietary fibre intake and as we get older our appetites decrease and we take in less quantity of food than before causing the process to be less efficient. Eating too many processed foods that have had their fibre removed is another reason. Constipation therefore becomes chronic and the straining of the muscles causes the weakness in the colon and bulges to appear.
Diverticulitis comes with some severe abdominal pain and usually tenderness on the left side of the lower abdomen. This is because one or more of the pouches has become infected as food has got trapped in there, fermented and caused an infection.
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