i have a quick question about IBS. i have been reading up on it but i couldn’t find if it goes away with time or if you have it the rest of your life? could someone help me with this??
Stress is a major factor, as well as diet.
Hope that helps.
I hope it goes away, or that would be very crappy. ha ha
I used to have what they diagnosed to be IBS, but it turns out it was a really long case of Giardia. Apparently I picked up the parasite and it just stuck around in my body for many years. After poop analysis and ten days of treatment I had no more symptoms and haven’t had it for 10 years.
Doctors called it IBS because they didn’t make the right diagnosis. I think this could be the case for many IBS sufferers. Maybe not what I had, but something else. After all, not so long ago, it was thought that stomach ulcers were caused by stress alone.
IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion. That is, many other conditions have to be considered and rejected before calling the diagnosis IBS. Unfortunately, that often doesn’t happen, so things like ulcerative colitis, giardia, and crohn’s disease may get overlooked, along with dozens of others. At the least, an individual carrying the diagnosis of IBS should have undergone serial stool samples looking for blood, a sigmoidoscopy (at the least), possible upper GI study with small bowel follow-thru, and stool samples taken for culture, ova and enteric parasites.
I won’t discuss IBS at this time, I’m not really sure what it is. I believe it exists, but I don’t understand it. Kinda like fibromyalgia.
Qadgop, MD
Cheese is rumored to be culprit.
I have IBS can be a major pain in the ass. John Stewart is a celebrity sufferer, I remember him doing a whole sketch complaining that his ass was on fire for no apparent reason.
I meant to say heard…IBS can be a pain in the ass…
My dad has been diagnosed with IBS, and I assume he has it (as opposed to something else I mean). He’s had extensive abdominal surgery due to a perforated ulcer, hiatus hernia, adhesions from a previous surgery site, etc., etc., so I assume his case is going to have some different aspects, however, he has IBS and expects to have it for the rest of his life. He takes fiber twice daily, and is careful about what he eats - certain foods will trigger problems for him, although not cheese. Stress also does not seem to effect him one way or another, at least in regard to that. He has to stay away from peanuts, which are a HUGE problem.
For the record, his symptoms include nasty cramping, explosive diarrhea without warning (this sux in a huge way), pain in the lower abdomen (not cramping), GI reflux (sometimes), queasiness, abdominal swelling, among other things.
Apparently it has some hereditary components, so I have something to look forward too. 
I already have the peanut thing going on, along with a couple of other symptoms, so I’m pretty careful with my diet.
Al.
The health center at my university constantly hands out diagnoses of IBS. Half of the grad students in my department have been told they have it, including me. Whatever. They ought to just call it IDN, “I don’t know”. I call it grad school. I had tests done to eliminate other possibilities so I know what it isn’t, but not what it is (which is as Qagdop described earlier). In my case it was greatly influenced by the combination of stress and diet.
FWIW, once I changed my diet to cut out caffeine, alcohol, most fat, and limit the spicy or acidic foods, I was fine. For me, it basically comes down to choice between a bland bananas-and-oatmeal diet (OK, slight exaggeration 
) and pain/nausea/diarrhea.
So… it does go away, in a sense. But in times of stress or when I let the diet go it returns.
Sorry, that’s not much help, is it?
rivulus
Oops. Forgot to mention cutting way back on chocolate. The greatest sacrifice of all!! 
rivulus
IANAMD, and I’m sure Qadgop ther Mercotan will correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe your dad’s symptoms are due to his prior surgeries. He probably had at least a hemicolectomy. With a shortened bowel, he would get those symptoms, a WAG. So, technically he probably doesn’t have IBS, but it doesn’t matter what you call it, as there’s no cure for IBS (since they don’t know the cause) or for your dad’s symptoms.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by barbitu8 *
**
This would make perfect sense, except that he had all his symptoms BEFORE any of his surgeries.
Also, his surgeries certainly wouldn’t explain MY symptoms either, whereas, the hereditary component of IBS would.
As I said, he has been diagnosed with IBS, and there’s little reason to think that its anything else.
Al.
Another thing to look for is Lactose intolerance.
Milk is in many foods & if you are sensitive to lactose, it can be hard to track down, especially if you are only partially sensitive.
It won’t heal if you don’t stop picking at it.
I was diagnosed with IBS about a year ago. As a lot of people have said, it’s a diagnosis by elimination.
Without going into too much detail, let’s just say my symptoms started 3-4 years ago. I saw doctors, ended up stopping smoking, alcool, coffee, spices, acidic food & so on, with a prescription for ranitidine 300mg. Everything was okay for a while until the symptoms came back. More doctors, sticking cameras where they don’t belong, change of prescription to 20mg omeprazole magnesium, once a day. Everything was fine for another while. Symptoms came back yet again. Doctors filled me up with barium and took photos. The thing is, all along, no doctor was able to find anything physically wrong with me. But my symptoms kept coming back. 3 months ago I saw a specialist. He solved my problem, and it wasn’t IBS. Every doctor I had seen I had told the same thing: my symptoms, my diet, the fact that I did not drink alcool, or coffee and that I did not smoke cigarettes. They were also told I smoked Marijuana for my pain. (It made the nausea go away) Well, that last doctor had me stop smoking marijuana for 2 weeks and force myself to eat a diet that would be closer to “3 squares a day”. And you know what? It worked! I went back to talk to him and he explained that a lot of people think they have IBS but they only have bad dietary habits (*). Those habits include eating too much at a sitting, not eating enough in a day, skipping meals, etc… Basically, you have to put your digestive tract on a regimen and have regular meals at regular times. In my case, MJ made most of this worse, since it stimulates the appetite regardless of wheter or not you need to eat. What that doctor ended up telling me is that most people who come to him with IBS have something else, if anything. And in most of these cases, diet is the issue. Since I stopped smoking MJ during the week, my apetite has returned to something more “mormal” and I haven’t had an attack since. I still stay away from coffee,alcool and cigarettes (they give me reflux) but I can now eat things I would have never thought I could eat again (Tempura, really spicy Curries) with minimum discomfort.
I don’t think IBS is an actual disease per se. I do think that a lot of seemingly unrelated factors can cause symptoms that are called IBS, but I would be doubtful that someday they will look at someone (either his organs or blood tests or DNA testing or whatever) and say:“This person has IBS, you can see it from this…”
So if you have been diagnosed with IBS, don’t despair, but also don’t accept it as an answer. Experiment with your diet. Experiment with reducing insoluble fiber and increasing soluble fiber intake. Get rid of the excess fat/sugar/additives in your diet. And relax. A couple of months ago, I was sure that I was stuck with this for the rest of my life (That’s what they tell you, after all) and now I feel as if my life had just begun again. Born-Again Eater! So my answer to the OP would be that since I don’t believe there is such a thing as IBS, as long as you keep the habits that brought you to that state, the discomfort will remain. If you don’t change your habits “correctly” (for you) you will have “IBS” for the rest of your life. If you find and solve the issues with your diet, you will be rid of it in no time. Hope this Helps. Also, IANAMD, just someone who’s been through the whole shebang. Do not go against your doctor’s recommendations (if he had any) on account of me…
(*) cigarettes are also a major factor in digestive tract troubles. Smoking nicotine stimulates the bowels, which can cause attacks in a lot of people.