Image: Tashasuvango/Shutterstock
If you have fibromyalgia, there’s actually a pretty good chance that you have irritable bowel syndrome as well. In fact, a very large majority of people with fibromyalgia report having some degree of IBS symptoms. That suggests there’s a definite link between both conditions. And that makes finding an effective IBS treatment an important part of reducing the overall suffering of people with fibromyalgia.
So what exactly causes IBS? What’s the link between IBS and fibromyalgia? And is there an effective IBS treatment out there?
What Causes IBS?
IBS is a surprisingly complicated condition. In fact, it’s actually less of a single disease than a combination of symptoms. And while the list of symptoms associated with IBS is quite varied they tend to revolve around the bowels, as the name suggests.
The basic symptoms are painful cramping in the lower abdomen, frequent or loose bowel movements, or alternatively, constipation. And while IBS is the sort of thing that people frequently like to make jokes about, there’s really nothing funny about having to live with it. It can be extremely painful and require making significant changes to your lifestyle to adjust to it.
We aren’t entirely sure what causes IBS at the moment, but people have speculated that the key may lie in the interaction between the bowels and the nervous system. The nerves control everything in your body, even the things you normally don’t need to think about like the beating of your heart.
Some researchers have suggested that the key to understanding IBS might be understanding how the nervous system controls the bowels. There’s evidence to suggest that the reason people with IBS experience the symptoms they do is that their nervous system is becoming overactive and failing to regulate the rhythm of their bowels correctly.
And this fact might be why IBS and fibromyalgia seem to go together much of the time.
IBS And Fibromyalgia
Research has also suggested that fibromyalgia might be explainable as the result of an over-active nervous system. While nerves generally send information about when cells are damaged to the brain, which then interprets this as pain, in fibromyalgia, it’s possible they become hyper-sensitized. The pain of fibromyalgia doesn’t come from actually damaged cells, but instead from the brain sensing pain that isn’t there.
And it’s possible that the link between fibromyalgia and IBS is based on the same mechanism that leads to overactive nerves. The same issue that leads to fibromyalgia pain may also be causing IBS. Unfortunately, until we know more about what causes each condition, we won’t know for sure either way.
Is There An Effective IBS Treatment?
If you have IBS, you’re probably most concerned with finding a good form of IBS treatment. And while there’s really no cure for IBS, there are a number of things you can do to manage the condition effectively. The most common forms of IBS treatment range from simple lifestyle adjustments to a number of different medications.
And the first thing your doctor will recommend if you have IBS is to change your diet. Unsurprisingly, what you eat can play a major role in how severe your IBS symptoms are. Making sure that you eat a diet high in soluble fiber can help relieve constipation. And insoluble fiber can help with frequent diarrhea. And as far as other lifestyle changes go, there’s evidence that daily exercise is effective for managing the symptoms of your IBS.
But if those holistic approaches aren’t cutting it as an IBS treatment, there’s also medication. The most common forms used to treat fibromyalgia are antispasmodic and laxatives and antimotility drugs. Antispasmodic drugs help keep your bowels from spasming, which leads to the painful cramps you might experience if you have IBS. Laxatives, meanwhile help make bowel movements easier and relieve constipation. Finally, antimotility drugs help to prevent attacks of diarrhea.
Now, as to the question of whether there’s a truly effective IBS treatment, the answer is complicated. Everyone is different, and what might be an effective IBS treatment for one person may not be effective for others.
But together, all of these different IBS treatment options can make it possible for most people to manage the condition fairly well. That’s good news because finding a cure doesn’t seem likely in the next few years at least. So there is, generally speaking, an effective way to treat your IBS through a combination of lifestyle changes and medications.
But let us know, do you have IBS? Is it linked to fibromyalgia? What do you do to treat it?
Comments