IBS-C

People with IBS-C actually have two conditions. They suffer from both constipation and diarrhea. Well, not at the same time. They swing back and forth often in the same day.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation is quite common. The most common is the version featuring diarrhea. The bowel’s response to inflammation is to draw a lot of water into the colon to dilute the stomach acid and to push everything out to try to limit the damage to the tissue. That is called diarrhea. We need this to happen otherwise we will have rapid tissue erosion and will be on our way to Colitis or Crohn’s.

The difference with those of you who have the constipation version is genetics. Constipation is not manmade, it is who you are. The issue with constipation is that you don’t pull water into your bowel adequately hence you have dry and hard stools and when your body is trying to protect you it cannot pull enough water in to create the desired diarrhea. People with IBS-C stand a greater risk of increased damage to their colon because of this.

Treatment for IBS-C can be trickier to treat than the diarrhea version as you need to implement two strategies at once. Ultimately you need to repair the inside of your colon fixing the “irritable” part of the problem and you will also need to learn how to manage the constipation part. Diarrhea can be cured. Constipation must be managed.

Inflammatory Bowel Confusion

There are a lot of questions concerning inflammatory bowel conditions. I don’t blame you if you are scared to death after leaving your doctor’s office. Lot’s of mumbo-jumbo. It is often true that if you go to 2-3 doctors that you will get 2-3 different opinions. It should not be so complicated!

Modern medical science wants to fragment everything out. They can’t see the forest for the trees. There are not an infinite number of inflammatory bowel conditions. There is only one and the rest of what we think are different are just a variation of it. They are all IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. In every case the colon is irritated. There can be a little or a lot of irritation. We don’t have to give it different names. A small amount of irritation brings about small symptoms. Big creates big. All of these are the same manmade conditions with just different amounts of damage to the bowel tissue. This is just like 1st-2nd-3rd degree burns.

It does not matter what part of the GI tract muscle is injured. It’s all the same. It’s one long muscle from your mouth to your rectum. What counts are the symptoms, our ‘body language.’ We need to become fluent in body language. It is speaking to us telling us there is something wrong. It is screaming-diarrhea, gas, bloating, blood, mucus - help! All of these symptoms are just different ways for your GI tract to say ‘ouch.’

Don’t get hung up on whatever name they give you, whether it’s Colitis or Crohn’s. Remember they are all the same. A big boo-boo or small boo-boo. It is the same muscle tissue, the same cause and the same cure. Listen to your body.

Diverticulitis Causes

These are the same as any other inflammatory bowel condition. Essentially it is a man made injury. Diverticulitis does not just occur naturally, as does diverticulosis, which is a breakdown of the internal bowel tissue – this comes about mainly from aging. Diverticulitis occurs when there has been damage to the mucosal lining that protects the intestinal tissue from digestive acids and food passing by. These then erode the GI wall until there is a “pot hole” deep enough to hit nerve tissue, at which point you feel pain. This can also bring about acute, urgent diarrhea. The only difference between this and IBS, Colitis, and Crohn’s is that with Diverticulitis you will have one or two “pin holes” that go very deep. With the other conditions you will have multiple locations, more like gashes and not necessarily as deep, impacting nerve tissue and blood vessels and occurs in acute episodes not chronically.

What DOES happen in relation to diverticulosis is the “pocket” becomes perforated, essentially an ulcer (ulcerated colitis?) and you will then see blood in the stool. When you see mucus in the stool that is your body’s desperate attempt to block the hole and stop the bleeding. If that is not taken care of properly and you are on some drug thinking you are doing good, the mucus thing will finally give out and now you're at Crohn’s Disease.

The cause of Diverticulitis is the same as any other IBD, because they ARE same thing. The difference is, how long did you wait to get proper care and therefore how much damage was done.