h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Further to reading the entry on IBS: It is correct that the pathology of IBS is poorly understood, which it is why it is what is commonly referred to as a Dustbin diagnosis. There are no tests which can diagnose IBS; it is a diagnosis of exclusion.
It is likely that the syndrome encompasses some people with poorly understood organic pathology. It is definite however that it encompasses a large number of the western population who quite simply are stressed, unable to cope with life and consequently obsessed with their bowels.
Refering to some of the previous articles. You do not need to have your entire body imaged to diagnose IBS (unless you really want to). Due to the high incidence of people labelled with having IBS some of these people will turn out to have cancer. This may be due to the inadequacy of the doctor but is also likely just coincidence. Information on the net which includes stomach and ovarian cancer at the top of the differential diagnosis for IBS is misinformative and dangerous. Unfortunately ovarian cancer presents late with vague symptoms prior to this and there is no effective screening test it is not usual to present with a change in bowel habit.
As for the man whose wife has stopped taking Gluten for her IBS this is a popular remedy for people who really want their life to be taken over by THEIR ILLNESS. It is infact the treatment for Coeliac disease which is due to a specific allergy to a specific protein in gluten.
A useful screening test to see whether you should be worried about your bowels is this: has your bowel habit changed ? If you have shat 4 times a day for the last 10 years then if it was cancer you would be dead now.
However if you really can't cope with life, feel a little bloated, shit twice a day and want some attention I suggest you request the following investigations:
FBC
U&E
LFT
CRP
CEA
AFP
antiendomyseal antibodies
CA19
USS abdomen and pelvis
AXR
Barium enema
Spiral CT abdomen
Colonoscopy and biopsy
Defacating proctogram
upper GI endoscopy and d2 biopsy
small bowel follow through
and if in doubt a diagnostic laparotomy

If all these are negative then tou don"t have cancer. However after all that radiation you soon will have
lots of love Dimitri Poophoopen

Hmm! I'm thinking you might be one of those unsympathetic dismissive people I was referring to in the article! I never suggested people should get obsessed with it and that the Doctor is wrong if he says you have IBS but I do think that people should be aware that Doctors sometimes dismiss the symptoms of more serious diseases as IBS. And you made a common mistake. IBS isn't about having the S**t's, twice a day or more, it is also about the nausea that follows every time you eat, the acid that burns your gut constantly, and the fact that you can change from being constipated to having diarrhoea in a matter of minutes. I wasn't obsessed with my bowel habits as you suggest. I didn't even notice the IBS creeping up on me after all it's not as if you wake up one day and you suddenly have it.

I agree. Views like those of "Dimitri" are not exactly conducive to encouraging people to seek help if they think there's something wrong with them. Let's hope he's not a GP (although he does appear to have a modicum of medical training, or at least a medical dictionary). I lived with what turned out to be IBS for 6 months before I admitted there was a problem, mainly because I was scared of what it might be (having never heard of IBS). Finding out that it was stress and diet related, there was something I could do to alleviate the symptoms and I wasn't the only one with the problem lifted a great weight from my shoulders.

Dimitri's statement that people with IBS are unable to cope with life is a typical neanderthal view that if you can't take horrendous levels of stress without experiencing problems then you are somehow inferior. As for being obsessed with our bowels - it's something everyone on the planet tends to do at least once a day, so what's wrong with knowing what's normal for you and when things could be indicating a problem?

CS

Hi, you seem to know such a lot about this for a non-believer, can you tell me how constant flying as a stewardess effects IBS? And thanks for the list of things to take to my doctor, any chance of having them in Dutch?

Bye

Dragon

Dehydration is likely to be a big problem for you and also irregular eating habits. Sounds daft but solving those two things halved the discomfort and suffering I had.

I'm afraid I don't speak Dutch? Does anyone have a dutch/English dictionary to hand?

You mistake me for a non-believer. I am an agnostic. The list of investigations was a joke by the way, if you really were to have all of them you would glow in the dark. As to the probelms with being an air stewardess ginger is right about the dehydration, it also may be worse because you work shifts and if you do long haul flights this is exacerbated by the fact that your body is unable to maintain a standard circadian rhythm ( I'm sorry I don't know the dutch for that. Or anything else come to think of it). My IBS is usually worse after crossing time zones.
BFN

the last remark sounded a bit better, Dimitri - first I thought "oh god, this is one who says bulemia and migraine is nothing real"...
But I just wanted to sy that I hope to see more fascinating articles like that one, I have to admit that I never even heard about that syndrome! I'll keep it in mind from now on, thanks!
k*

ps: as for dutch - I try to find one for you, I have to find that thread again

Hmmmm. Perhaps you would like to explain how my sister was first diagnosed with this aged 13, before she could even spell stress?

You don't have to spell it to suffer from it and I'm sure children suffer from stress too. IBS tends to be the name they give the symptoms when they can't be bothered to look for a proper explaination any more. It also has a link to allergies.

You don't need to tell me, I have it too.

We recently found that ice cream and dairy set mine off a treat - which is a real shame because I love ice cream!!!!!!

A _resounding_ bummer!

There you go again ginger. Who are THEY exactly, I sense a certain sense of paranoia in your writing.
But have you tried drinking bitter ?
It causes me to have terrible diarrhoea as does red wine but I find that at least if I have had a good time the night before then I don't mind it so much.
I would be cautious about a diagnosis of IBS in a 13 year old until other things had been excluded, but as for a child not having stress; did you never go to a state school ? I was once hung upside down from a second floor balcony during lunchbreak, I'm not sure that my body has ever fully recovered from that.
love
Dimitri

A rather unfair criticism. Just because the medical world hasn't got round to working out what causes this collection of symptoms, and why it results in some case fomr allergic-type reactions (a physical stress on the system) and in others form mental stress, is no reason to beat people up about their own diagnoses.