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IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME
When you complain of belly cramps and alternating constipation and diarrhea, your doctor does a lot of tests. When they are normal, he tells you that you have irritable bowel syndrome (1) and that you eat too much starch.
Most food that you eat is absorbed in your upper intestinal tract, but some non-absorbable starch passes to your colon which is loaded with bacteria that ferment it to release large amounts of gas (2). If the gas can pass outside, it causes no symptoms. However, if anything obstructs the flow of gas, it accumulates behind the obstruction and blows up the tube-shaped colon like a balloon, stretching the colon to its limits and causing pain. Eating food that is low in fiber and high in starch causes hard stool that blocks gas, causing the colon to balloon and form outpouchings called diverticula that hurt. When enough gas accumulates, it blows out the hard stool which is followed by diarrhea. Then the process repeats itself to cause alternating constipation and diarrhea.
Whole grains, seeds, beans and vegetables keeps everything soft by filling with water and letting gas pass on its way. Most people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome do not have a serious disease. Fewer than one in 20 suffers from ulcers, cancers or pancreatitis up to 30 years later (3). The treatment for irritable bowel syndrome is to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans and avoid high-starch, low-fiber foods such as most bakery products and pastas. If that doesn't work, 5HT inhibitors such as Alosetron, Granisetron and Ondansetron may help (4). See report #G133.
1) SF Phillips.Irritable bowel syndrome: making sense of it all. Best Practice & Research in Clinical Gastroenterology, 1999, Vol 13, Iss 3, pp 489-503.
2) Lancet October 10, 1998.
3) DM Owens er al. Arthritis and Rheumatism 1995(Jan);122:107.
4) MJG Farthing. Irritable bowel syndrome: new pharmaceutical approaches to treatment.Best Practice & Research in
Clinical Gastroenterology, 1999, Vol 13, Iss 3, pp 461-471. 4)
Checked 8/9/05