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Diagnosed With Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Experiencing Stress, Sleeplessness, And Poor Eating Habits. Advice?
Question: Hello. I was recently diagnosed with IBS and my doctor told me to keep a food diary over the next 2 weeks and recommended foods to absolutely avoid. My life has changed drastically over the last 6 months and its triggered periods of stress, sleeplessness, and poor eating habits. Could the IBS have developed because of the current set of circumstances, and is this a condition that can resolve itself as I follow a proper diet and seek out stress reducing activities?
Hello!
Thank you for the query.
First of all some information for you. IBS is a group of symptoms which reason can not be found. Very often it is misdiagnosed. Its because to diagnose IBS we have to rule out ALL known reasons of symptoms. To do that it is necessary to perform blood work, liver tests, amylase, bilirubin, urine amylase, urine analysis, stool test, stool culture test, gastroscopy, colonoscopy and abdominal CT with oral contrast. If all mentioned tests are negative, IBS can be diagnosed.
You havent mentioned what kind of symptoms you have so its hard to give more accurate answer.
IBS symptoms can get better with diet change indeed. But it does not have to help.
Not every doctor knows that some part of what we call IBS is a chronic bacterial infection. And Rifaximine treatment helps with it and can permanently cure it.
Other medicine which can help is Mebeverine.
Stress is not a good factor in IBS treatment. So in some cases anti anxiety medicines (like Sertaline) can give some relief as well.
Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.
Thank you for the query.
First of all some information for you. IBS is a group of symptoms which reason can not be found. Very often it is misdiagnosed. Its because to diagnose IBS we have to rule out ALL known reasons of symptoms. To do that it is necessary to perform blood work, liver tests, amylase, bilirubin, urine amylase, urine analysis, stool test, stool culture test, gastroscopy, colonoscopy and abdominal CT with oral contrast. If all mentioned tests are negative, IBS can be diagnosed.
You havent mentioned what kind of symptoms you have so its hard to give more accurate answer.
IBS symptoms can get better with diet change indeed. But it does not have to help.
Not every doctor knows that some part of what we call IBS is a chronic bacterial infection. And Rifaximine treatment helps with it and can permanently cure it.
Other medicine which can help is Mebeverine.
Stress is not a good factor in IBS treatment. So in some cases anti anxiety medicines (like Sertaline) can give some relief as well.
Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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