Hi Amanda,
I am male, 30, and also saw the advertisement about Habba Syndrome on the Discovery channel. I have been struggling with what I thought was diarrhea-prone IBS (IBS-D) for about 18 months now. I've had the same gamut of tests that other folks on the boards have talked about - blood, stool, endoscopy, and colonoscopy - and all tests came back clean. As a 30 year-old, I cannot describe the frustration I felt when four different doctors came back with "We don't know - it must be IBS." I was in despair at the time I happened to catch the episode about Dr. Habba while on a business trip. Since I'm based in NYC, I figured it was worth the drive over to Summit, NJ to see him. I'm very glad I did because I ended up testing positive for his syndrome.
All of the tests I had done prior to seeing Dr. Habba were not wasted effort, as Dr. Habba would have ordered them anyway to rule out other afflictions of the digestive tract. Because I had completed all of these tests already, we were able to proceed directly to the biliary (gall bladder and liver) tests that isolate Habba Syndrome. To test for Habba Syndrome, I had to undergo two tests at Overlook Hospital near his office. The first is a biliary ultrasound, which takes about 30 minutes. The ultrasound examines the gall bladder, liver, spleen, and pancreas for any irregularities, masses, or growths that might be interferring with the production and/or release of bile into the digestive tract. My ultrasound was clear, so don't lose heart if the tech tells you the test doesn't reveal anything unusual.
The second test was the kicker for me. This test is called a DISIDA scan w/ CCK. This test takes about 90 minutes and involves taking x-ray-type pictures of your gall bladder and liver. First, they give you a shot of radioactive tracer fluid, and then they take a sequence of pictures over about 30 minutes that shows the fluid bonding to the bile in your gall bladder. These shots are the "baseline" pictures that show how the gall bladder is storing bile. After a few of those pictures, they then give you another injection of a hormone called Cholecystokinin (CCK) which your body produces naturally. Your body produces this hormone during digestion and it basically signals your gall bladder to regulate how much bile is released into the digestive tract. If your gall bladder is not properly regulating how much bile goes into the system, you may experience diarrhea (bile is a digestive stimulant). The tech injected me with the hormone and took another series of pictures over 60 minutes. When a normal gall bladder is triggered by CCK, it should dump bile into the system. Over the course of the hour, my gall bladder barely moved. They measure how much your gall bladder shrinks in size and if it's below a certain percentage, something is wrong. Normal gall bladder "shrinkage" is anywhere between 35-95%. Mine was 6.3%. Obviously, there's a problem. Think about your gall bladder like a reservoir, or "thermostat" for bile. In my case, my gall bladder was not catching and releasing bile at the right rate, so inappropriate amounts of bile were being dumped into my system by my liver, causing the diarrhea.
Just today Dr. Habba called in the scrip for the cholesterol-lowering medication that has the added effect of bonding with and neutralizing bile acids. Although my gall bladder may continue to function improperly, at least the medication will bond with any excess bile in my digestive tract and make my bowel movements more regular. I have a follow-up appt with him in 3 weeks. Hopefully by then I will no longer fear eating before every social engagement, I can stop fixating on the location of the nearest bathroom at every moment of the day, and I won't have to take Immodium constantly. Of course, I'm not sure if you have Habba Syndrome, but I would highly recommend that you at least call Dr. Habba about your case. He told me that the tests above can be performed at any equipped hospital, so you can have them done locally and send the results to him for his review. It may turn out to be something else entirely, but at least then you'll know the cause. Since he's worked with IBS patients extensively, you definitely won't get the useless and defeatist diagnosis I got from other doctors.
Best of luck to you and anyone else suffering from IBS-D.
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