Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic disorder characterized by recurrent abdominal pain and intermittent diarrhea, which often alternates with constipation. IBS most commonly affects people between the ages of 20 and 30 and is twice as common in women as in men. IBS is known by a variety of other terms: spastic colon, spastic colitis, mucous colitis, nervous diarrhea, nervous colon and nervous or functional bowel.
Causes and natural treatments of irritable bowel syndrome. Irritable Bowel syndrome is a gastrointestinal motility disorder for which there is no organic or structural cause. Since the symptoms of IBS can mimic other disorders such as hypothyroidism, IBS is diagnosed when all other local and systemic conditions have been ruled out.
Characteristic symptoms of IBS include recurrent abdominal pain, abdominal pain relieved by defecation, disordered bowel habit, including constipation, diarrhea, or an alternation between the two, and abdominal distension and bloating.
IBS is also associated with non-gastrointestinal conditions such as headache, low back pain, arthritis, non-cardiac chest pain, difficult urination and fibromyalgia.
Learn the latest in alternative medicine diagnosis and treatment methods for IBS using herbs, diet, and other natural remedies.
