This article is about irritable bowel syndrome and how to control it. Doctors who are not up to date often misdiagnose irritable bowel syndrome because the cause is so evasive. This not only makes it difficult to learn about IBS, but it often takes sufferers over a year to find out they have it.

If you don't know about irritable bowel syndrome, how can you learn to control it?

So let's get to first things first.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome - The "Functional Disease!"

Irritable bowel syndrome is not a disease that doctors can readily see. What I mean is that they cannot discover that you have IBS by taking blood tests or looking at x-rays. Being that they can't see it, many doctors used to believe that it was "all in your head."

Today, more and more doctors recognize that there is no way to physically see this disease, so they have dubbed it a "functional disease." That is a disease that messes up the functioning of your bowels and digestive system, but with no visible physical cause.

The Most Likely Causes Of IBS

When talking about irritable bowel syndrome, doctors have many ideas of what causes it, but there is only one that most agree on. Most believe that it all started with some kind of bowel infection.

These bowel infections start in one of these two ways:

* By parasites. Parasites is how mine started. I was fortunate enough to get a knowledgeable doctor who checked for parasites on my first visit. (This was not the first doctor I went to for my illness).
* By bad bacteria. This usually happens by eating contaminated food or drinking infected water. Many people who travel south of the boarder end up getting "Montezuma's Revenge" because of these bad bacteria.

These bad bacteria damage the digestive nervous system and leave it in disarray after the bacteria have been killed. This accounts for the continued sporadic activity of the bowels.

How To Control Your IBS

Learning about irritable bowel syndrome is the first step toward controlling it. Now that you know a bit about this "irritable disease," here are a few things you can do to control it:

* Stay as far away from stress as possible. Stress does not cause IBS, but it sure can agitate the symptoms of diarrhea, nausea, and pain.
* Stay away from irritating foods, such as milk products, beans, spicy foods, and greasy or fatty foods.
* Eat right and exercise regularly. Exercise will help to keep your whole system in good order.

Of course this article cannot cover everything about irritable bowel syndrome, but it does give you a good primer. I have had IBS for many years, and have learned how to control it and stay symptom free. So be encouraged, you do not have to continue to suffer because of your IBS.



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