Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

From Fat and IBS

"Fat is quite simply the single greatest digestive tract stimulant. When food enters your stomach, it triggers the gastrocolic reflex, which cues your colon to start contracting. (Have you ever had an IBS attack within minutes after eating the wrong thing, even though common sense tells you that the food was nowhere near your colon at that time? The gastrocolic reflex is why.)

Fat will trigger this reflex more powerfully than any other category of food. While this is normally something that would simply result in a a bowel movement, it is paradoxically likely to cause problems for people with IBS constipation OR diarrhea. This is because people with IBS do not have a normal gastrocolic reflex response, and their colons tend to spasm irregularly and often violently. In people prone to constipation, if those spasms are too strong they'll actually "seize up" the colon in a type of charley horse, and motility can halt altogether. This will cause severe pain from the ongoing cramping of the colon, and it wll also result in or worsen constipation, because motility has shut down and fecal matter is not moving through. Only when the muscles finally relax will you begin to feel a little better, but it can take quite a while after suffering such violent spasms for normal colonic motility to return. "

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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS

The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS

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