IBS Solution

IBS has been elevated to a major problem in America, because it is now used as an umbrella term for a diverse range of digestive complaints. According to medical circles and Sirius doctor’s radio, IBS affects approximately 60 million people. That’s incredible!

Misconceptions about irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) continue because this common disorder that affects mostly women is often misunderstood by doctors as well as patients. It is not a stress disorder or an emotional disorder, although those factors may increase symptoms. Today, its symptoms lead to nearly as many missed work days as the common cold.

So what is IBS?

IBS is marked by continuous abdominal and intestinal pain, both diarrhea and constipation. It affects the quality of life for the patient and should be taken seriously. Medical doctors have not isolated the cause of IBS, but current research is investigating food allergies as a possible source.  Some physicians think that lactose intolerance is related to IBS.  From my clinical experience, I have found that reacting to food, consciously or unknowingly, does cause IBS. Food reactions often occur in a delayed manner, so these may be difficult to identify. The foods that I have found most directly linked to IBS are wheat, yeast, salicylates, and spices.

Once the colon is irritated, it may also react to spicy food, alcohol, and dairy products. When a patient keeps a diary for ten days, it is usually possible to connect the dots between food and symptoms. In my practice, I also utilize sophisticated blood testing for delayed-onset food reactions, in combination with sensitive muscle testing (kinesiology) to isolate the food items people might be reacting to.

IBS pain and its related symptoms are not life threatening, and are often not taken seriously. People, women in particular, think they have to live with the agonizing pain, and many physicians attribute the patient’s pain to stress or claim it is psychosomatic. They also do not look for a parasite as the primary culprit. I found that stool tests often miss microscopic parasites. Kinesiology testing can verify if a patient has a parasite. 
 
I want everyone to realize that symptoms are warnings and should be heeded, not written off.  Reaching for “over the counter pain medication” is a short-term strategy, but doing so in the long run could be detrimental. Those medications create side-effects, in addition to a nutritional imbalance.

Just because a symptom cannot be identified by a standard blood test, an X-ray or MRI, doesn't mean that the problem is in the patient's head. Sometimes the problem is a “delayed-onset” food allergy, or sometimes it is a subclinical “hidden” infection. Oftentimes, the traditional medical testing just isn't sensitive enough to isolate the cause.  

The latest medical treatment for IBS is fecal transplant. This procedure claims that transplanted fecal matter can provide relief for those who test positive for clostridium difficile bacteria. I personally do not like the idea of walking around with someone else’s poop inside me. I would rather take probiotics to restore a bacterial imbalance or overgrowth in my gut.

At Millennium Healthcare we offer the Alcat blood test for food sensitivities that can isolate delayed food reactions. Recently, a study showed that 41% of the people taking antibiotics obtained temporary relief from symptoms. Yet, It must be noted that 30% of people taking a placebo, also experience relief when taking medication.

According to some medical sources, the yearly economic cost of IBS is approximately 30 billion dollars a year. This is unacceptable! It has been my experience that with common sense IBS can be solved naturally at a reasonable cost.