If you feel ill with fever, flu-like symptoms or respiratory illness, please call us to reschedule your appointment. Please Do Not Bring Children Under age 16 to Appointments.
If you feel ill with fever, flu-like symptoms or respiratory illness, please call us to reschedule your appointment. Please Do Not Bring Children Under age 16 to Appointments.
Gastroenterology Condition
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) describes a broad variety of conditions that alter intestinal motility and sensitivity. While common in the US, irritable bowel syndrome treatment will vary depending upon what symptoms are present and how adversely the condition is impacting the patient’s life. Fortunately, IBS is not a life-threatening condition, but it can be a frustrating, inconvenient, and an embarrassing condition to suffer.
The causes of irritable bowel syndrome are not well understood.
Some factors may include GI tract motility problems, altered brain-gut signals, altered bacterial concentrations in the gut, food sensitivity, or genetics. Recent illness or infection can also cause IBS symptoms to develop and linger.
Severity of symptoms from IBS can vary from mild and occasionally troublesome to severe and life-altering. The main goal of treatment for IBS is to manage symptoms to achieve the least disruption possible to lifestyle and mental well-being, while helping patients maintain a healthy, symptom-reducing diet.
The Granite Peaks GI specialists can discuss new developments in treatments for IBS symptoms, helping patients achieve a more normal lifestyle with less worrying about painful, embarrassing symptoms.
Some patients experience increased emotional stress due to the unpredictability of symptoms and their causes, and the urgent need to use the restroom. Not knowing whether you’ll feel well or unwell based on what you may have eaten makes planning normal activities challenging.
Common IBS Symptoms
Each patient living with irritable bowel syndrome experiences different symptoms and levels of severity. Symptoms can be crampy abdominal pain, often associated with either diarrhea or constipation. Symptoms often worsen after a meal. Many people with irritable bowel syndrome find relief from avoiding certain foods or increasing exercise. However, every IBS patient suffers differently, and treatment may not be as simple as avoiding their favorite food.
To schedule an appointment with Granite Peaks’ Utah Gastroenterologists, click here.
A physical exam and complete medical history may be enough for a physician to suggest Irritable Bowel Syndrome. However, its symptoms, if severe enough, mimic signs of more serious illnesses that, left untreated, can damage the intestines. Testing to rule out more serious illnesses is an important part of the diagnosis process.
Additional testing can be done through either an imaging test like sigmoidoscopy (an endoscopic procedure), colonoscopy, x-rays, or CT scans. Lab tests such as blood, breath and stool tests will be performed. Lactose intolerance testing may also be performed.
Once more serious illness is ruled out, a treatment plan can be worked out to address the patient’s symptoms.
Start an elimination diet such as a low FODMAP diet.
Once diagnostic tests eliminate other causes for symptoms, a treatment plan must be developed. Treatment plans for IBS can be as varied as the number of people having symptoms. Determining whether food, stress, mental health, medications or other factors are causing the symptoms is key to choosing the right treatment plan.
For most people, avoiding certain foods can be helpful. Your gastroenterology specialist will work with you to start an elimination diet, such as a low FODMAP diet. This diet will give your gut a break from certain types of foods for a few weeks, then you will start slowly reintroducing foods to pinpoint those that may be causing symptoms.
Having IBS can be stressful, embarrassing and put undue pressure on people to remain close to a bathroom, preventing them from fully, freely living their life. In this way, stress becomes its own cause and symptom. Mental health and managing stress are critical parts of IBS treatment. Developing new habits to focus on relaxation and stress relief, such as meditation and physical exercise, or working with a mental health professional to address stressors, are invaluable tools in IBS therapy.
Stop letting IBS control your life. Learn more about your IBS treatment options with a visit to one of the gastroenterology specialists at Granite Peaks’ Utah Gastroenterologists, click here.
Granite Peaks Gastroenterology serves the communities along the Wasatch Front. Our Board Certified Doctors and Certified PA GI Specialists include:
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