BATON ROUGE, LA (WGMB) – “Irritable Bowel falls into the category called Functional GI Disorder, which means, and see anything on scope or a blood work or on a CAT Scan, but we know that there’s really a problem there,” said Dr. Stephanie Cauble, a gastroenterologist at the Baton Rouge Clinic.
Dr. Cauble and I are talking about Irritable Bowl Syndrome or IBS for short, which affects more than 200,000 people every year.
“It can affect men and women, but it has been shown that women more often present to the doctor for Irritable Bowel,” said Dr. Cauble. “There is some data now that Irritable Bowel is related to your gut bacteria. We know now that people who are born by c-section are colonized with different bacteria than by people born by vaginal delivery, and based on that colonization, patients who were born by c-section are more likely to have Irritable Bowel.”
Dr. Cauble said one of the main symptoms is abdominal pain, and even though IBS may not be preventable, it is treatable.
“Irritable Bowel can be treated in a variety of ways. It can be treated with different things like diet therapy. Sometimes, by cutting out things like lactose and dairy products. Sometimes it’s treated with medication, and those medications can be used either on a daily basis or an as needed basis. The type of medication you use depends on whether you are diarrhea predominant patient or a constipation predominant patient, and how frequently you’re having the symptoms,” explained Dr. Cauble.
What are some misconceptions?
“Patients tell me ‘Someone told me it’s all in your head or I’m crazy,’ and although we do think Irritable Bowel is mediated by nerves, that doesn’t necessarily imply that there’s some type of psychological component. There are lots of nerves that go to your gut, and it’s those that we think are affected when you have Irritable Bowl,” concluded Dr. Cauble.