56: Your 6-Step IBS Relief Plan (Masterclass Recap & Q/A)

Now let's get into the episode.

So do you really know what's driving the IBS symptoms that you experience? So as I chatted about in the masterclass, instead of just taking more medications or cutting out more foods, addressing the actual drivers of IBS is really the key to long-term IBS relief.

So whenever I ask audience community members, what drives your IBS? What do you think is at the root of your symptoms? People most often respond with stress, high FODMAP foods, and actually dairy as the most common responses.

We do get some people that go a little bit deeper, but those are the most common ones.

So currently IBS is defined as a chronic functional gut disorder characterized by abdominal pain or discomfort along with a range of other symptoms.

including bloating, diarrhea, constipation, or alternating episodes of both.

So it has been long referred to as a functional gastrointestinal disorder and a disorder of the gut-brain axis because the digestive system appears normal on routine tests.

So if you do a colonoscopy, which is basically like a tiny camera that moves through your large bowel, everything will show up as normal, no inflammation, no signs of disease.

And you may have some other things ruled out, such as celiac disease, depending on your symptoms, or Crohn's disease, you know, through a stool test.

So if they find that there's nothing, you know, physiologically, pathophysiologically going on, then based on the criteria, you may meet the criteria for IBS diagnosis.

That said, there has been a lot of research in even in the last five years in terms of what is actually at the root of IBS.

And we've seen that there are these kind of common symptom drivers.

So there's an aspect of dysbiosis, so imbalance in the gut microbiome.

We've seen that those with IBS most commonly have a reduced diversity and less richness of different variety of species in their gut microbiome.

And this can actually result in sort of this low-grade intestinal inflammation.

So maybe chronic low-grade inflammation in the gut, which can be a result of sort of the immune system being a bit overactive.

And we see, too, that those with IBS tend to have more density of mast cells in their gut, and mast cells are like our immune system invader cells.

So we see this is very common in IBS.

And over time, it can also lead to what's known as intestinal hyperpermeability, where there's sort of some loss in the structure and the strength of the layer of the intestinal tract.

And when all of these occur or, you know, combination of them, they have actually been used to explain what can drive the IBS symptoms that you experience.

So things like abnormal motility, experiencing bloating, constipation, sluggish bowels, or diarrhea.

Those weird food intolerances, right? Those random food reactions, the intolerance to FODMAPs, your sensitivity to that meal that's rich in garlic.

So this could actually be driven by those mast cells in the gut, which have been linked with visceral sensitivity over sensitivity of nerve endings in your gut, causing abnormal levels of pain.

And then also that gut brain dysfunction.

So we see anxiety, depression is common in IBS and other GI disorders and sort of mood changes.