Irritable Bowel Syndrome
How to cope with IBS
The very fact about irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is — in most of the cases when we fail to settle the diagnoses with the complaints and sign-symptoms related to abdomen, we just end up with this IBS. How irritable is this IBS or how bowel can be irritable? To understand that we need to understand the normal range of diversity of our bowel habit. It may vary from person to person in great extent. Some may have a normal bowel habit like passing once a day, some twice and some may even do it thrice without any problem, whereas others may have it once in two days. No wonder if somebody really says it to be once in three days. Again some may just like or feel like passing it very early in the morning, some later after taking breakfast or any other meal; some may even relate it after taking tea, coffee or cigarette smoking. No wonder if somebody says to associate it with reading newspaper during toilet. These are examples of some of the diversifications in people's bowel habit. Irritability will be termed only when the normal diversifications fail to satisfy the person to adopt it. Let it be clear in its description — we will only define it to be IBS when all the diversifications in respect of normal bowel habit fails to accommodate with the bizarre pattern disturbing the person concerned. Abdominal symptoms like mild to moderate degree of abdominal pain which is unexplained (meaning when there is no other cause can be related with), belching, flatulence, bloating, discomfort after taking meals (in occasional cases) or before passing stool, repeated urge for passing stool in small quantity of frothy, undigested matter, sometimes stool containing oily (undigested fatty) particles or mucoid and many other symptoms which make the person feel very much uncomfortable particularly in the first half of the day. Foods like milk and milk products, wheat, spicy, oily substances may precipitate the symptoms. Usually middle aged people and particularly females are mostly the sufferers of this condition. Irregularity in the life style is an important factor contributing. Tension, anxiety, mental instability, familial disharmony — all these are also considered to be related. Associated other abdominal conditions like Peptic Ulcer Disease, Gall Bladder Stone, Pancreatitis, Colitis, Procto Colitis, Anal Fissure, Hemorrhoid (piles) may also be co-existing with this IBS. The exact cause of IBS is not yet well defined but few hypotheses say that it is more or less an abnormal behaviour of the gut particularly the large gut causing all those symptoms. Careful history taking is in most of the cases diagnostic for IBS except the necessity of excluding other possible associated diseases by some investigations like colonoscopy, upper gastro-intestinal tract endoscopy, ultrasound scan, and routine stool tests and culture. Careful and laborious advice to the patients regarding the discipline of life in terms of taking meals timely, adopting plain type of food habit, avoiding those foods precipitating the symptoms, doing some exercises regularly, avoiding tension, anxiety as much as possible, will keep the patients get relief from the symptoms. There are few drugs so far known to us which are not really specific for IBS. But proper selection of drugs definitely gives relief. Patients should be followed up timely for the sustainable benefit. IBS is a condition where patient needs assurance, understanding the type of the disease and its course (part explainable to the patients), dietary advice and if needed drug treatment. The writer is a consultant physician of Japan Bangladesh Friendship Hospital
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments