Is IBS Really Normal? Understanding the Root Cause of Chronic Digestive Symptoms.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, is given it's name because it is a collection of symptoms and your provider does not have a definitive diagnosis for you. "Syndrome" is another term used for a collection of symptoms that occur together. It is usually given when you have already ruled out other digestive disorders such as Crohn's disease, Ulcerative Colitis, or Colon cancer. It typically involves digestive symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, constipation, gas, abdominal pain, cramping etc that occur on a regular basis for greater than six months. Most people brush this off as "normal" and unfortunately feel as if it is something that they just have to learn to live with. It can have a very big impact on someone's personal life and their ability to date or go out to eat. Even more concerning is this can lead to nutrient deficiencies and malnourishment, which can in turn lead to many more health concerns. As a Functional Gut Health Nurse, I am here to tell you that this is very common, but not normal. Let's break down what some of the root causes are and what you can do about it.

First and foremost, let's clear the air. IBS is not the problem or the root cause. There is a deeper root cause to this collection of symptoms and it's not the same for everyone. Unfortunately, this gets overlooked in many traditional healthcare settings and people are left feeling like it must be the food they are eating or that they are just broken and have to learn to live like this. But after battling my own digestive health problems, I can assure you that neither of these is true.

Many times we find that dysbiosis can cause the symptoms associated with IBS. Dysbiosis is an imbalance of our microbes of our gut. We have trillions of microbiota living in our gut that live and work together. But when these microbes become out of balance and more "bad" bugs than "good" bugs, (or vise versa) we have what is called dysbiosis. This impacts them from doing their job appropriately and therefore we develop symptoms. Again - this is our body's way of telling us something isn't quite right. Dysbiosis can be caused by a poor diet or chronic antibiotic or steroid use. We can determine if this is causing your IBS symptoms through functional stool testing.

Majority of cases of IBS are found to have SIBO, or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. Most of the bacteria in our gut live in the large intestines, but they can migrate upwards into the small intestines and wreak havoc on your gut with the gas that they produce. This can cause gas-like symptoms for you and give you the bloated appearance after barely eating anything. As I have stated before, usually there is more than one thing going on and I want to stress that again here because SIBO doesnt just appear on it's own. It also has its own unique root causes such as a bacterial infection, low stomach acid, and poor motility. Your practitioner can perform a hydrogen breath test to confirm SIBO, or a functional stool test to confirm this. Some find that time restricted eating can help with this as it allows rest for the digestive tract for an extended period of time (14-16 hours) and can help give your body time to do what it needs to do.

Another common root cause can include food sensitivities such as dairy, gluten, corn, citrus, chocolate, coffee, and tea. I wrote a blog post on using a food first approach for digestive complaints and recommend reading HERE if you would like more information on this topic.

We would also want to investigate if fungal overgrowth could be causing your IBS symptoms. This can be found through functional stool testing or organic acid testing and working with a practitioner that is skilled in reading these. As the name suggests, this is an abundance of fungus within the GI tract. Sometimes this can be from mold exposure, sometimes this is an excessive consumption of sugar, carbohydrates, or a poor diet in general. If you suffer from frequent vaginal yeast infections, scalp or skin injections, oral candida (white coating on the tongue) or nail fungus, there is a good chance that you have an overgrowth of fungus in your GI tract causing your IBS symptoms as well. The good news is it can be treated both naturally or conventionally.

Finally, we would want to consider chronic stress as a contributor of IBS. Stress causes imbalances within the body and increases likelihood of developing increased intestinal permeability, or leaky gut. I have another blog post on leaky gut that you can read HERE, but essentially it is when our semi-permeable gut lining has "holes" or loose junctions that allow items to pass through into the bloodstream that would not normally be passed through. Stress can cause imbalances with blood sugar, inflammation, poor healing, decreased stomach acid production, poor gut motility, and many more gut health concerns. Stress is a root cause for many disorders and needs to be addressed. We live in a stressed out society and it has a very big impact on our health. The first step of this is awareness and recognizing what is causing stress for each of us. We are all unique individuals and stress affects each of us in unique ways. We may not be able to remove those stressors in our lives but if we can recognize that it is affecting us, we can troubleshoot on some actionable items that can help us manage this stress in a more efficient way.

If you have been told you have IBS or you think maybe you are dealing with IBS, there is hope. There is an underlying cause and working with a Functional Gut Health Nurse can help you uncover your unique root causes of this collection of symptoms. It's not normal to feel this way and I would be happy to help you discover what is causing your digestive complaints so you can thrive! I offer free discovery calls if you are curious what it's like to work with a functional nurse and I work 1:1 with clients to help them optimize their gut health. Click HERE if you want to sign up! Until next time - rooting for your healing, one bite at a time!

--Stephanie

Food First Nurse