What Is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)?

Hi and welcome to another Health Bunker Blog

Today I am looking into Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). It is another modern phenomenon, in the UK 1 in 5 people will suffer from IBS.

But what causes it and how bad is it.

When I stared with Lyme disease symptoms around 2006, looking back now one of the first things that started causing me trouble was IBS.

My digestive system was going haywire. Bloating, burping, trapped wind, farting like an old motorbike, acid indigestion, constipation, and diarrhoea.

These went on to cause other issues or make existing ones worse like, anxiety, ME, and sinusitis.

In fact, all my normal digestive functions basically stopped working.

Diet as always is key, our digestive system cannot handle the amount of junk we are piling into it.

Along with the medications that destroy our gut flora and the chemical intoxication that interferes with just about every single bodily function. It is a recipe for disaster.

Then we have the lovely parasites.

These are the points we will cover;

What is the cause of your IBS?

What are the IBS symptoms?

Is there a specific diet required to treat IBS?

What drugs are given to sufferers of IBS and are their any side effects?

Are there any studies on IBS?

Are there any long term issues caused by IBS?

What is the cause of your IBS?

IBS is a syndrome that affects the digestive system. It is another mass modern day health problem, cause by modern day diets and toxic ingestion of chemicals.

I’m sure most of these conditions existed in years gone by the difference now is the numbers of people suffering is at higher percentage levels of the population.

As I said above in the introduction, about 20% of the population suffer in varying degrees of discomfort from IBS in the UK. That’s around 13m people.

In the US it could be as high as 45 million people suffer from IBS. IBS affects all ages from young to old. Most are under the age of 50, but many older adults suffer.

It is thought that IBS affects up to 15% of the global population or around 1bn people worldwide.

Now that is a lot of people!

But what is causing this condition, and can it lead to other illnesses?

As usual according to ‘modern science‘ the exact cause is not known.

My money’s on diet quality, stress, gut flora imbalances, infections, chemicals from pharmaceutical drugs and toxic environmental factors like daily chemical exposure.

There may also be other conditions causing the same or similar symptoms simultaneously.

These are what we will investigate next. (1) (2)

Quality of Diet

The western diet is literally making people ill it is probably one of the leading causes of death and illness. So why should IBS be any different.

Over the past 15 years what we have learnt about diet has really shocked the both of us. We were definitely not perfect; our own diet was bad.

But I also realise that Lyme disease caused a lot of the issues as the infections lived in the gut primarily.

Reactions from foods that contain naturally occurring chemicals like histamines, tyramines, latex, salicylates, casein, and lactose can also create IBS symptoms. (3)

Nightshade vegetables can also cause issues, tomatoes, chillies, onions, and aubergines are examples. (4)

Here are a few foods and additives that can cause an issue for IBS with a brief explanation.

Gluten (5), is a group of proteins found in grains. Rye, wheat, and barley all contain gluten, which do cause problems for people with IBS.

There are other digestive conditions that the impact gluten may be causing. Celiac Disease is an obvious one, as well as gluten intolerance, Chron’s, and SIBO will all need to steer clear of gluten. (6)

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) (7), will certainly cause digestive problems. Modern science and Drs seem reluctant to say it can cause IBS. Probably because it is used is so many food and drug products.

But the facts are it does cause digestive issues, that are remarkably like IBS symptoms. Who hasn’t had Chinese food and felt bloated afterwards, that’s because MSG is used heavily in oriental cuisines.

Please read my article on this very food additive. (8)

Dairy, even most lactose free products contain lactose. The manufacturers have just added lactase enzymes and then call the product ‘lactose free’.

Lactose has similar symptoms in fact they are identical. Lactose is a sugar which will feed bad gut bacteria and ferment in the gut. (9)

Casein will also trigger IBS, as a food casein supplies protein (amino acids), carbohydrates, calcium, and phosphorus  (10)

Dairy will also contain veterinary pharmaceutical drug residues, in fact there can be up to 20 different types from, antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids, anti-inflammatory, wormers, and others.

These can also cause gut disturbances.

Images below are from Researchgate.com showing the types of different drugs found in dairy products (11)

Stress is a word used a lot in our lives. Most of us think that stress is just a mental thing. But there is digestive stress, too.

Inflammation from food and drinks, chemicals etc all cause some form of inflammation. What we ingest eventually influences our mental abilities, in a positive or negative way.

Stressful lives create tension in the gut, which produces acidic responses. (12)

‘According to an article published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology, having IBS results in disturbances in the balance between your brain and gut. The result is that stress and anxiety sometimes trigger overactivity of your gut. This causes the diarrhoea and stomach churning that those with IBS know well’

Gut Flora Imbalances can be caused by antibiotics. As I have shown in previous articles antibiotics are basically mould spores.

If we take this drug for long periods of time it will kill off our microbiome making it difficult for us to digest food correctly.

This has a knock-on effect because we will not get the right amounts of nutrients from our food because of this. The dominoes then keep on falling and cause other illnesses, from these nutrient deficiencies because our immune function will deteriorate. (13)

Gut Infections, SIBO is a prime example of a gut infection that causes similar symptoms to IBS . When we started our recovery from Lyme, I had IBS and Nic had SIBO.

SIBO stands for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth, basically the bad stuff has taken over the gut. SIBO will be covered in a standalone article.

Parasites are another thing that can cause many gut issues. From our experiences with Lyme eliminating these critters from the intestine is paramount. I have written previous articles about parasites please follow link here. (15)

Like a lot of NHS testing, parasite testing is inaccurate patients who have a negative result are then treated for something else. We found that parasites only show up when treatment is started. (16)

A study found a prevalence of parasites including Blastocystis, Cryptosporidium and Giardia in IBS patients concluding that these parasites are likely to have a role in the pathogenesis of IBS. When patients do get tested for parasites on the NHS, they often have negative results. (17)

IBS Symptom List (18)

• Abdominal Pain and Cramping
• Diarrhoea, Constipation
• Alternating Constipation
• Changes in Bowel Movements
• Gas and Bloating, Food Intolerance
• Fatigue and Difficulty Sleeping
• Anxiety and Depression

Video below is called ‘YOUR MILK ON DRUGS’

Candida and IBS

IBS is a common in people with Candida Albicans. Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by yeast (fungus).

There are about 200 candida species, and eight are most frequent in humans, the most frequent being Candida Albicans. (20)

Candida is not life-threatening normally. But if left untreated, it can spread and reach the bloodstream.

Once the fungus is circulating throughout the body, it can affect vital organs like the brain and heart and cause more serious complications, including death.

According to the CDC. (19)

‘Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by a yeast (a type of fungus) called Candida. Some species of Candida can cause infection in people; the most common is Candida albicans. Candida normally lives on the skin and inside the body, in places such as the mouth, throat, gut, and vagina, without causing any problems’

Back in 2007 I paid for my first ‘food intolerance test’. At that point I was inexperienced, but it came back with a positive result for candida.

I took it to my doctor who said these prophetic words to me.

‘The NHS doesn’t recognise Candida as an illness’

Health Bunker

Same old same old, modern life causing modern illnesses. No known cause, no cure. The treatments only make it worse.

WHO writes these scripts?

I thought we were at the pinnacle of modern medical science. Yet we cannot treat digestive issues or recognise the reason why they are happening.

This is my personal view. Everything we do in our lives seems to have health consequences. Every product we buy comes with a health warning or should do.

How did we get here? Greed? Corruption? Or by design?

Whatever the reason this is damaging us more than anything else.

ANYTHING.

Eat Well. Be Well.

Dom & Nic
Health Bunker

It’s your life. Own it.

*Disclaimer – Please note, we are not Doctors or trained medical professionals. We are not giving medical advice. Check with your Doctor or health practitioner before trying anything.

References and Sources of Information;

1. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/irritable-bowel-syndrome-ibs/
2. https://www.aboutibs.org/what-is-ibs/facts-about-ibs-2.html
3. https://www.healthline.com/health/histamine-intolerance
4. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/nightshade-vegetables
5. https://tinyurl.com/y6e43asn
6. https://www.ibsdiets.org/ibs/gluten-free-food-list/
7. https://www.medicinenet.com/ibs_msg_lactosse_and_food_intolerances/views.htm
8. https://healthbunker.co.uk/what-is-monosodium-glutamate/
9. https://www.webmd.com/ibs/guide/ibs-or-lactose-intolerance#1
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casein
11. https://tinyurl.com/y6c8ycop
12. https://tinyurl.com/y2w78en2
13. https://www.thegutmicrobiome.com/microbial-imbalance-ibs-symptoms
14. https://www.ibs-solutions.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/ibs?opendocument&part=5
15. https://healthbunker.co.uk/parasites-in-humans-types-symptoms-treatments/
16. https://www.ibs-solutions.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/ibs?opendocument&part=5
17. https://tinyurl.com/yyy55eak
18. https://tinyurl.com/y4zyegjg
19. https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/candidiasis/index.html
20. https://www.mdlab.com/forms/TechBulletin/Candida.pdf