Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

The rest of this page is interesting also. It describes Amitiza as "increasing intestinal fluid secretion" which is in keeping with the discussion of Amitiza on the Diet Board:

Diet Board Post

It sounds like you're saying Amitiza is a beta blocker. If so, could you post where you found that? From what I'm seeing, Amitiza is a calcium channel activator. I'm in way over my head here - PoliSci major by education, applications programmer by trade - but I think I'm finding that calcium channel blockers act sort of like beta blockers, so I would think a calcium channel activator would act in an opposite fashion. Thanks.

You might also do some Searches on Zelnorm. There have been some earlier discussions on whether Zelnorm is safe for people with IBS-D and on the differences between chronic idiopathic constipation and IBS.

It is possible you have IBS-C resolved by diarhhea or even that you are IBS-A. There is, however, just plain IBS-D - those of us who just have diarhhea.
I'm one of those IBS-Ds and I would avoid a drug for constipation, especially one that produces diarrhea in 13% of people with constipation. If Amitiza was an anti-spasmodic (a drug that smoothes out bowel function), I'd think it would have been tested on people with both constipation and diarhhea. It really shouldn't take any longer for the drug to come to market with dual testing, since the trials for people with diarhhea could run concurrently with those for people with constipation. And without testing, there is no way to be sure that if the drug was given to people with diarhhea the results would be positive.

Despite my extensive reservations, if you decide to go ahead with this, I truly do hope it helps. Please let us know.

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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]

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