Have you or someone you know been told that they have irritable bowel syndrome? You may have been too embarrassed to ask your healthcare provider what it’s all about. Although I always recommend that you seek medical attention if you have any G.I. symptoms, it may help to break it all down and define a few terms.
Inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome are actually 2 separate conditions. Inflammatory bowel disease normally covers 2 common diseases where the symptoms are pretty similar. They are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. A pretty descriptive article about these 2 diseases can be found here.

Irritable bowel syndrome is the diagnosis that doctors usually land on when other diseases (Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease) have been ruled out. It is generally speaking, not as severe as those diseases, but people suffering from IBS can be pretty measurable. The dietary treatments usually center around trying to relieve the symptoms. This is usually done with a diet low in fermentable carbohydrates. More information can be found here. Once the symptoms subside, a high fiber diet with as many organics as possible is the usual dietary recommendation.

Whether you have inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome, alcohol can make matters worse. Here is an interesting NIH article that gets into the details about what alcohol can do to the lining of your gut.

If you have any questions about this episode or would like to make suggestions for future episodes, I would love to hear from you! You can email me on my website contact page, which is Healing Outside the Box.