What are IBS Symptoms?
Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a disease that is estimated to affect 15% of the population in the United States today. There are many IBS symptoms that can help to diagnose the disease, but there currently is no cure.
The disease is one that can easily be misdiagnosed and often is mistaken for other diseases it shares its myriad of symptoms with. IBS is often accompanied with several other painful or dehibilitating medical conditions. IBS symptoms can be treated in a number of ways and although IBS and IBS symptoms can be painful and inconvenient the disease is not thought to be deadly.
IBS symptoms are many and are often accompanied with or include abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, or a feeling of incomplete bowel movement. There are four different classifications of IBS, which have slightly different symptoms. IBS-D has diarrhea as its predominant symptom. IBS-C is characterized by constipation as its primary symptom. Lastly IBS-PI is named for the fact that the onset of IBS symptoms closely follows an infectious disease the patient has had. Fever, vomiting, diarrhea, or a positive stool culture often characterizes this last form of the disease.
IBS is a disease that can easily be misdiagnosed because there currently is no laboratory test or imaging test that doctors can use to help diagnose it. IBS symptoms are the main driver for diagnosis and this makes a doctor’s task more difficult since the disease shares so many characteristics with other illnesses. IBS is often mistaken for a number of other diseases including infectious diseases, parasites, food allergies, or lactose intolerance. IBS symptoms also closely mimic the symptoms of a patient with celiac disease.
Chronic headaches, although not normally thought to be a symptom of IBS, also seem to occur in greater frequency in patients with IBS. Fibromyalgia, a very misunderstood disease that is difficult to treat, is also clinically shown to be more prevalent in patients showing IBS symptoms. A third disease considered to be quite dehibilitating all on its own and seems to go hand in hand with IBS is depression. It is generally considered that these other related diseases are not symptoms of IBS, but instead are in addition to, or driving factors for, the onset of IBS.
IBS is not generally considered to be a life threatening disease and is one that can be treated quite successfully when properly diagnosed. It has been shown when treatments are specifically tailored to the specific form of IBS the IBS symptoms can normally be resolved. A specific diagnosis of the disease, therefore, is the most important factor in helping a patient cope with IBS and its symptoms.
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