Irritable
Bowel Syndrome
Women's
Health C2002 Dr. Alva Irish
95%
of all Women and the same percentage of men are complaining about Irritable
Bowel Syndrome. WHY?
Well,
that is why I am writing this article.
First
let's see what it is:
Many
people have irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS. IBS is called a functional
disorder. That means doctors cannot see anything wrong with the colon during an
exam. The exam cannot explain why a person is having symptoms, such as pain,
bloating, and diarrhea. People who have IBS get symptoms over and over again for
a long time. No one knows what causes it, but there are ways to treat it.
If
you can say the following statements, you have IBS.
Over
Ten Different Symptoms
- every time I eat food my stomach doubles in size
Severe
stomach cramps/abdominal pain
- I have constant aches and pains after eating
Constipation
- I notice I suffer from this after eating processed foods
Lower
back pain
- I have constant aches in the lower part of my back
Diarrhea
- this alternates with constipation
Groin
pain
- a constant ache around my groin area
Shooting
pains in my legs
- sometimes severe, and sometimes in the lower back
Chronic
fatigue
- I constantly feel like I had no energy
Panic
attacks and heart palpitations
- the most scariest of all symptoms
Light
headiness after eating
- a strange feeling after eating?
Heartburn
and acid stomach
- I've suffered from these for over 10 years
"I
had frequent urination, pain and general discomfort [diarrhea, abdominal pain].
Eventually, ...my digestive system suffered complete collapse and so began my
IBS. I underwent blood tests and my GP eventually confirmed IBS as nothing else
could be found. The whole experience was very traumatic for me as my family has
a history of cancer and I obviously assumed the worst." Maureen
"Over
a period of several years, my symptoms got worse and worse. I think the final
straw was taking several courses of antibiotics for a suspected urine infection.
After taking the antibiotics, all my symptoms got worse - the diarrhea became
chronic, the stomach and back pain increased dramatically, the groin pain
was nearly constant, and I had shooting pains in my arms and lower back
now!" Pauline
"At
this stage I seriously thought I had something very serious - possibly cancer.
So I had to do something about it. Eventually I saw four doctors, had numerous
blood tests and physical examinations, and was even admitted to the local
hospital. After more tests I was eventually diagnosed with irritable bowel
syndrome and depression. " Janice
Most
of the books and articles you read repeat the same old stuff: "IBS
is a dysfunctional bowel, with no known cause or cure".
Irritable
bowel syndrome is a disorder; it's
not a disease like Crohn's Disease where the small intestine is
inflamed. IBS sufferers do not suffer from
inflamed intestines, although the symptoms of IBS and Crohn's
(and other digestive disorders) can be very similar.
IBS
can only be described by its symptoms: persistent
abdominal pain, diarrhea and/or constipation, bloating, and possibly
other symptoms but these are the main ones. A person is usually diagnosed with
IBS if they have the above symptoms and no disease or other reason has been
found for the disorder.
It's
important to realize that irritable bowel syndrome is only diagnosed after
other disorders and diseases have been eliminated. So put simply, IBS
is recurrent symptoms of diarrhea/constipation, abdominal pain, bloating where
no 'real disease' has been found. Thus, IBS is a
catch-all term for a number of possible digestive disorders.
What
are the Typical Symptoms of IBS Sufferers?
Typical
symptoms of IBS sufferers can be divided into two groups - primary and
secondary.
Primary
symptoms include:
- Stomach/abdominal
pain
- Diarrhea
and/or Constipation
- Bloating
- Excessive
gas
Secondary
symptoms include:
- Fatigue
- Lower
back pain
- Shooting
pains
- Heartburn
- Acid
stomach
- HeadachesNausea
- Groin
pain
Stomach/abdominal
pain:
I've found via research and personal experience that there are two
main sources of stomach/abdominal pain. The two sources are bowel
spasm and increased digestive
tract sensitivity or hypersensitivity.
Diarrhea:
The diarrhea is caused by uncontrolled bowel
spasm. When the bowel goes into spasm, stools are not properly formed
and excess fluid is not absorbed leading to watery stools - diarrhea.
Constipation: There are number of possible causes of constipation including: altered digestive
chemistry and intestinal flora, low fluid and fiber intake, loss of body salts,
etc.
Bloating:
Bloating can be caused by trapped gas in the
stomach or bowels. The gas is caused by undigested or partly digested
food being fermented by bacteria or fungal overgrowth. Another cause of bloating
is bowel distention. If the bowel
goes into spasm, it can 'stick out' giving the appearance or feeling of
bloating.
Excessive gas: Excessive gas is
caused by undigested or partly digested food being fermented in the large
intestines.
NOW
Let's find the CAUSE!
GM
crop DNA found in human gut bugs
ANDY COGHLAN / New Scientist 18jul02
For the first time, it has been proved that bacteria in the human gut can take
up DNA from genetically modified food.
Opponents of GM foods say the results vindicate their warnings that this might
happen, and that the risk of gut bacteria scavenging antibiotic resistance genes
from GM food is no longer theoretical.
"This is a first," says Adrian Bebb of the Friends of the Earth.
"We've said time and time again there's a risk of this happening. Now,
they've looked just once and they've found it."
Burger and shake
Harry Gilbert and colleagues at the University
of Newcastle
upon Tyne
made the discovery, after feeding volunteers with a burger and a milk shake
containing GM Soya products.
To see how the GM food was dealt with by different parts of the digestive
system, he gave the food to 12 healthy volunteers and to seven volunteers who
had previously had their colons surgically removed.
When he examined stools from the healthy volunteers, he found traces of DNA from
the GM food. He also found evidence that gut bacteria had taken up the DNA.
When he examined waste products collected from the seven ileostomy bags, he
found that up to 3.7 per cent of the GM DNA survived.
Crucially, in three of the seven, he found that bacteria had taken up GM DNA
from the Soya.
He
concludes that the DNA must have been taken up only by large proportions of gut
bacteria.
Destructive
enzyme
To account for the differences between the "ileostomists" and
volunteers with intact digestive systems, Gilbert's team speculates that DNA
survives the small bowel but gets completely destroyed in the large bowel. They
say in a draft manuscript that people with ileostomies might produce less of the
enzyme that degrades DNA.
In a separate experiment on colonies of intestinal cells, Gilbert's team showed
that raw loops of GM DNA called plasmids can be taken up directly.
Bacteria containing the same plasmids proved totally capable of transferring
their genetic cargo into the gut cells. "These data support the view that
GM Soya represents a significant risk to human health through gene
transfer," says the Gilbert team.
Frightening?
You BET!
So
what can we do about this problem?
First
of all, you have to clean out your bowels. It may be too late to keep Genetic
damage from being done, as we cannot go back in retrospect and undo all that.
BUT,
cells in the intestine have
an average life span of 120 days.
New
cells then replace the ones that have reached the end of their lifespan.
SO...
If these cells have genetic damage, and you have changed things around to
correct the problem that caused your IBS in the first place, it theoretically
will only take 120 days to do it!
Let's
Get Crackin!
Here
are the steps to permanently remove IBS from your life:
- Do
the Bowel Cleanse
- Eat
ONLY Organically grown foods
- Eat
plenty of intestine active rich foods such as Acidophilus capsules, of course, Yoghurt, Acidophilus
milk, kefir,
koumiss, beverages
based on bulgaricus or bifidus
strains, labneh, and sour cream. The
best way to get these products is to make your own!
- Drink
Cultured buttermilk every day, at least 3 glasses, one at each meal
- Do
food combining to eat, at every meal.
- Tanalbit
taken on a daily basis for a period of at least 6 weeks. Tanalbit® is
an effective, non-prescription plant tannin formula for the treatment of Candidiasis
and similar gastrointestinal problems caused by bacterial and/or fungal
infestations of the gastrointestinal tract. Tanalbit
® is also extremely helpful in the following problems: toxicity buildup,
IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), "Leaky Gut" syndrome, Colitis,
Intestinal Dysbiosis, food allergies. Tanalbit
® is also a chronic fatigue fighter, as Candidiasis
is often implicated as the cause or contributing to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
as well as FMS (fibromyalgia syndrome).
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