Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Questions regarding "IBS

Hi Lorna - Welcome to the board! I'm really glad you've liked the book - hope it helps you.

People can have both GERD or other upper GI problems and IBS as well. But IBS itself is defined pretty much as a lower abdominal problem, as it's a disorder of the nervous system controlling the colon. Often the same triggers (high fat foods, stress) can affect both upper GI problems and IBS, so you could well end up dealing with flares of both disorders at once. But something like acid reflux or heartburn is not considered a symptom of IBS. IBS is defined by what's called the Rome criteria - that's posted in another thread on the boards - you can search for it using the "search" function.

IBS is not progressive in the sense that it will not "turn into" any other disease, like colon cancer. It's also not progressive as inflammatory bowel diseases can be, wherein the symptoms are inflammation and that can actually cause scarring and permanent damage to the GI tract, leading to surgical intervention. IBS just stays as IBS - though there is some evidence that if it's uncontrolled over many years, and particularly if someone is eating a low fiber diet, IBS can put them at increased risk of diverticulosis. But if that happened you'd then have IBS and diverticulosis both - they're two different disorders.

You may well notice that your symptoms themselves (degree of pain, bowel dysfunction, etc.) seem to be progressing in severity. It's not uncommon for IBS to seem to wax and wane - a person can just live with the symptoms for many years, and consider them minor, but then they can increase in severity and become life-restricting. This can go the other way too - symptoms may well become less severe over time.

If you're noticing other symptoms that you never had before - things like a fever, joint pain, swelling, blood in your stool - that's a red flag that something other than IBS is going on, and would warrant a colonoscopy and seeing your doc.

Best,
Heather

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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!

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