John Howard asked:


These days there are a plethora of IBS products available in the market. From traditional medicine to natural remedies, the entire market seems to be flooded with IBS products these days. This being the case, the entire process of choosing the right product may seem confusing. In fact the wide choice may result in the question, do IBS products work, in our mind.

If you are someone who is often wondering as to do IBS products work, you must first of all try talking to your doctor. For instance if you want to go in for any IBS product, you must make it a point to talk to your doctor first. They would know better about the ingredients present in a particular product and give you honest advice.

Another way out for someone who is constantly bothered with the question of do IBS products work would be incorporating certain dietary and lifestyle changes. Whatever may be the IBS product you use, you must remember that they only help in getting relief from the symptoms. There is no known cure for IBS. The use of proper medication along with certain lifestyle and dietary changes is the only way in which you can find long term relief from IBS symptoms.

The first thing that you need to do is to change your dietary habits. This will help immensely in eliminating IBP symptoms. Once you stick on to a strict dietary pattern then half of the doubts that are lingering in mind as to do IBS products work, would vanish. A diet that is rich in fiber along with drinking plenty of water is in fact considered the best way to get rid of many of the IBS symptoms. You must also try and avoid eating large meals and some other food items including, chocolate, processed food, caffeine and dairy products. You must also make it a point to eating meals at regular times and chew food properly.

Those who are wondering as to do IBS products would be surprised to find that some of the answers to the question lie in making small lifestyle changes. For instance you can take time out to access the stressful factors in your life and try and over come them. Taking up a hobby or going out together with friends or family would be a good way to unwind and get rid of stress. Stress management is in fact a very big part of IBS treatment. Scientifically it has been proven that the digestive system has got a direct relation with stress levels.

John Howard asked:


Thousands of people around the world are known to suffer from irritable bowel syndrome or IBS. Though there is no specific general cure that is available for IBS there are several IBS treatment options that are available, which can provide relief from the symptoms. A combination of different types of treatment is actually the best option for relief from IBS symptoms. The combination includes change in diet, proper medication and management of stress.

If someone suffering from IBS has the problem of constipation, doctors would usually suggest a diet that is rich in fiber. Similarly if someone is having the problem of diarrhea, they would suggest a diet that is somewhat lower in fiber content. Apart from the diet, doctors also prescribe proper medication to go along with the diet as part of IBS treatment.

Emotional stress and other mental symptoms are treated using different types of antidepressant drugs. In many cases IBS treatment also involves cognitive behavioral therapy. This type of treatment that involves different types of methods clubbed together , is in fact the best possible way to go about in order to get relief from the symptoms of IBS.

One also needs to make certain dietary changes as part of IBS treatment. This involves avoiding certain food items including, caffeine, fructose, spices, beans, wheat and alcohol. These are some of the food items that are known to trigger the symptoms of IBS. This is not a comprehensive list though and there are many other food items that may trigger the symptoms. It is up to you to identify the particular food items that trigger the symptoms in you.

Hypnotherapy is also being widely as part of IBS treatment. Some even claim that there are very high chances of complete cure from all the IBS symptoms with hypnotherapy. These days you can also find many natural remedies on offer for treating IBS symptoms. Artichoke is one such natural remedy which is being often heard of these days. This thistle like plant is part of the culinary dishes in many parts of the world. The plant is supposed to be full of natural ingredients that help in fighting IBS symptoms.

There are in fact many over the counter medicines that are available for IBS treatment. Although widely available, it is always preferable that you consult your doctor before using any of these remedies. You should also consult your dietician before making any changes in your dietary pattern. While there is no universally available cure for IBS symptoms, a combination of dietary changes along with medicine and stress management is known to work wonders.

terence oth asked:


Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is not a disease per se but a functional disorder. Until now, the medical community does not have a definite answer why and how it happens but I have my own theory, not from a qualified medical perspective but from a sufferer’s perspective. I think that the most important thing to know is that IBS is not terminal. The effects from IBS symptoms are what cause us (IBS sufferers) all the pain, discomfort and suffering.

On a bigger perspective, it is estimated that IBS affects about 30% of the world’s population. It can range from mild and infrequent attacks, to more severe hospital care. This percentage is expected to increase with all the processed foods and increasingly unhealthy lifestyle among humans.

At present, IBS is diagnosed via test elimination and symptom guideline called “Rome III Diagnostic Criteria” (some of these guidelines defer) but generally, if you have suffered

“Stomach discomfort or abdominal pain 3 days in a month for the last 3 to 4 months and this is relieved by having bowel movements. There is also noticeable change in stool form and frequency”

Before one can conclude one has IBS, it is best to get an endoscopy and colonscopy, and other tests done especially the H-Pylorii test. Once these are eliminated, and the symptoms persist, then it is likely to be IBS.

In the IBS world, there are generally two classifications – IBS diarrhea (IBS-D) and IBS constipation (IBS-C). Sometimes one can suffer both, and it changes but predominantly a person will suffer on type.

Some other common symptoms are excessive burping, flatulence (usually with bad smell) and extensive bloating. This is common for both IBS-D or IBS-C.

I find that the most pressing issue with IBS sufferers is pain management. I use to control this without giving much thought to long term strategy. This can be defeating because we are just fixing a problem and attempting to learn to manage our IBS. We have to realize that IBS is not going to leave us anytime soon, so a long term perspective is needed.

Over the years, I started to look long term to manage IBS and here is what I have discovered. In order to do that one must look into these 6 strategies and develop plans, routines and knowledge:

• Relieve Pain. This has to be the first and most important. In the beginning, this must be the first thing to address. Knowing what to do and what to take which can provide immediate or near immediate pain relief is priority one.

• Promote Healing. Once pain is managed, we have to try to take care and promote the healing process. This can be in the form of foods we take and exercises we do.

• Remove Symptoms. Even with the best of us, IBS symptoms do flare up. It could be caused by the trigger food we have taken, which is usually the case or some routine that we did not follow. We must then know what to take or do to quickly to nip the symptoms before it becomes too much to handle.

• Stress Management. I think this is one of the main culprits for an IBS sufferer. In fact, stress is the major cause for most critical diseases. Anyway, we need to how to de-stress because having to deal with IBS is a very tiring and stressful period in itself. Thus, knowing how to calm down mentally and physically is very important to create a ‘clear head’ in dealing with IBS symptoms.

• Remove Toxins (detoxification) Toxins indirectly will aggravate IBS symptoms flare-ups. The more toxins we have in the body, the more severe the symptoms become. If we understand and know how to remove toxins through sweat, breath, urine and bowel movements, then we are in better position to reduce the effects of the symptoms.

• Habits. Finally, putting all the ‘best routine’ that works for you and then doing it everyday diligently requires the routine to become a daily habit. There will be several types of routines one have to develop for different circumstances.

To recap, the main idea I wanted to present here is the holistic strategy needed to finally manage IBS. Even though we recognize that IBS is incurable, we also know that with the right knowledge, one can manage the symptoms and its effects. By managing IBS, an IBS sufferer’s life can be as fulfilling as a non-IBS sufferer.

Sharon James asked:


One of the first things that you and your doctor will talk about in regards to your

IBS is that of stress. Stress if a factor that can do damage to many aspects of your health including irritable bowel syndrome.

First and foremost, do not make the mistake of thinking that stress in and of itself can cause IBS. This is not the case. Stress is generally brought into our lives by a troubled lifestyle. The more stresses that you put onto your body, the less healthy and capable of producing a healthy reaction it is.

Remember that we do not know what actually causes IBS. In effect, all we can do is to treat the symptoms that can come from it. But, we do know what makes it worse and stress is one of those factors.

Why Stress Hurts

The facts on why stress hurts your IBS are clear. For a healthy person in an ideal situation, stress is controlled by the body. Your body has a pain inhibition system that turns on when it is struggling with pain to help you to cope with it.

But, what has been found in patients with IBS is that this hypersensitivity does not go away. Your body doesn not turn on the right pain inhibition system and you feel the muscles of your gut hurting.

For example, it has been a long and stressful day; you are looking forward to a good meal and sleep. If you are experiencing prolonged or repeated episodes of stress, you will find it not so easy to relax. Instead, you go home and eat a meal. No matter if you eat during your stressful event or after, your will have that awful ache in your abdomen that comes with IBS.

This would be a normal feeling of being full for some, but for those with IBS it hurts. Your body does not turn off the pain function that a healthy body would which in turn allows you to feel more of the pain associated with eating during or after stress.

It Does not Have To Be Food

Do not think that the only reason that the IBS pain is brought on is that of food either. That is not correctt. In fact, there have been studies done to provide this. For example, your body experiences a normal emotional response to a situation. In people, the experience of emotional reactions is not something that is strictly emotional.

Your body reacts in many ways. If you are afraid, nervous or sad, your body reacts physically as well as emotionally. Your heart starts to race. Your hands are sweaty. You feel the need to use the restroom. You may even get the stomach of nerves feeling.

In IBS patients, those symptoms intensify for the stomach pain. We know that the body reacts to emotional feelings and stressful situations bring out pronounced pain in the walls of the stomach.

Your gut may hurt to the point where it is quite troublesome.

In these examples, you can see that no matter what the stressful situation is to your body, it plays a role in making your symptoms far from ordinary. In effect, your IBS is made worse by these conditions. For that reason, the avoiding of stressful situations can be quite helpful at reducing the number of painful episodes that you go through.

The question is, then, how can you avoid all of the stressful events in your life?

What you need to remember here is that it is not just a matter of avoiding stressful events to stop IBS, but to lower the reactions of your body to them. To make it less severe of a reaction, you need to avoid stress and you need to do things that help to relieve stress that you are already facing.

Taking pure aloe vera supplements will help you managing the discomforts of IBS and will give you an overall sense of well being as well. When you do those two things, you can find relief from some of your worst IBS situations.

John Howard asked:


Irritable Bowel Syndrome or simply IBS is something that inflicts discomforts with symptoms such as changes in bowel function, abdominal pain and bloating. Millions of people around the world are known to suffer form these symptoms of IBS. Fortunately though, these days there are many options available when it comes to IBS treatment. Among them, natural treatment of IBS is perhaps the most preferred by people.

One of the reasons why natural treatment of IBS is preferred by many is because it is not known to cause any major negative side effect. This may not be the case with other methods of treatment. Natural treatment procedures are also known to be effective in the long run, which is another reason which makes them the preferred mode of treatment.

Perhaps the most natural treatment of IBS lies in taking a healthy and balanced diet. The diet should be rich in fiber content. You should also take many servings of fruits and vegetable as part of your diet. Drinking plenty of water is another aspect that needs to be reiterated here.



Whole grains along with fruits and vegetables are known to be high in fiber and can therefore offer you relief from symptoms of constipation. They also help in preventing spasms of the colon region. Drinking water similarly helps in preventing dehydration as well as IBS related diarrhea. Drinking lots of water not only helps with IBS symptoms but also with improving your overall health.

Natural treatment of IBS with aloe vera is something that is finding a large number of takers these days. This plant is known to contain certain ingredients which can help in giving relief from IBS symptoms. Peppermint is another such natural product which helps in giving relief from IBS symptoms. Peppermint is in fact also known to be effective in many other digestive complaints too.

The key to beating IBS symptoms is to balancing the gut by introducing what are known as friendly bacteria. This can come in the form of various natural products. You can also find many natural IBS treatment coming in the form of capsules which can be purchased as over the counter medicine these days.

As part of natural treatment for IBS you should also know the foods items that you need to avoid eating too. Some of the food items that you need to avoid if you have any of the IBS symptoms are wheat, alcohol, diary products, caffeine, beans and fructose. Small changes in your dietary habits would in itself count among the many natural treatments available for IBS symptoms.

Darrell F asked:


As such, there is not really a practical way to treat IBS itself, there is not per-se a medication that is used for the treatment of IBS directly. Medications doctors prescribe for IBS are actually being used in the treatment of the causes of IBS not to treat IBS itself. The multitude of causes produces and multitude of treatments with very different drugs that have very different effects on the body that ultimately are intended to lead to relieve from the effects of IBS. Perhaps the most common medication for IBS are simple fibre supplements, including Psyllium, Methylcellulose and Calcium Polycarbophil These can be purchased over-the-counter and used to help to increase the amount of fibre in the bowel in order to assist in normalising bowl movements. These can produce socially unpleasant side-effects such as flatulence as well as quite severe bloating. Another medication of the news as exactly the opposite effect, laxatives such as Amitiza are used to ease constipation which can be another prominent effect often found in IBS sufferers. In addition antispasmodic medications such as Hyoscyamine Bentyl, Benytol and Dicyclomine are used to help control muscle spasms the in the colon in order to relieve pain and also reduce the effects of diarrhoea. Other anti-diarrhoea medications may also be prescribed to directly relieve the effects of dehydration and discomfort caused by diarrhoea these may include Loperamide Yet another diverse set of drugs used in the treatment of IBS are antidepressants such as fluoxetine and paroxetine and Amitriptyline which is known to be an anticholinergic which reduces activity within the gut and also secretions. Tranquillisers are used to help reduce the effects of such mental disorders as depression, anxiety and stress. All of these elements can contribute considerably to the level of IBS that a patient may suffer. Because of the highly diverse nature of the causes of IBS it is very unwise to sell ascribe medications for the treatment of this varied condition. Just because your friend has taken fibre supplements which completely removed her symptoms it does not follow at all that fibre supplements will be any help for another patient in fact they may make the condition deteriorate. There are also treatments that involves the introduction of “good” bacteria into the digestive system these would include align a basic probiotic. Other drugs are intended to equalise the fluid levels within interesting is to alleviate the effects of diarrheal these include Equalactin. One drug that has been specifically developed for the treatment of IBS intestinal problems and pain associated with the disorder is Dicetel. As well as Ibsacol used to deal with fatty acids related to IBS symptoms.