Dietary management of irritable bowel syndrome – diarrhea type

  Irritable bowel syndrome – diarrhea type has many complex symptoms, including not only frequent stools and diarrhea symptoms, but also abdominal pain and bloating. The goal of treatment is to relieve this range of symptoms. There are many treatment options for irritable bowel syndrome-diarrhea, but it is not easy to find an effective one. The treatment includes dietary modification, medication, stress relief, behavioral therapy and some complementary therapies. Dietary modification also plays an important role in the treatment.  Dietary changes can help relieve diarrhea symptoms. Avoid chocolate, soft drinks, alcohol, caffeinated beverages, foods containing the artificial sweetener sorbitol (often found in sugar-free gum and mints) and fructose (found in honey and many fruits). These foods can make diarrhea symptoms worse. Discover those factors that exacerbate symptoms based on the patient’s diet.  Fried foods and foods with too much fiber can also exacerbate symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome-diarrhea type, but this is not to avoid dietary fiber. Dietary fiber is effective in preventing the development of colon cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. At the same time, dietary fiber can prevent the conversion of irritable bowel syndrome-diarrhea to constipation. However, dietary fiber can sometimes cause bloating, so it is better to eat water-soluble dietary fiber rather than insoluble dietary fiber in the diarrhea type, which allows the food to stay in the digestive tract for a longer period of time. Foods high in soluble dietary fiber include oat bran, barley, fresh fruit (excluding fruit peels) and various legumes.  Drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day can also help improve symptoms and is best consumed one hour before or after a meal. Drinking water with meals may cause food to pass through the gastrointestinal tract more quickly. Some patients need to be tested for lactose tolerance (patients who cannot tolerate lactose cannot digest dairy products) or checked for stomatitis diarrhea (patients who eat gluten-containing foods that damage the intestinal tract), which can cause diarrhea, bloating, and colic.  The treatment of irritable bowel syndrome-diarrhea type would also benefit if patients could keep a record of the foods they eat each day and how they react differently to them. Because different foods react differently to different people, it would be beneficial to guide the use of different foods to relieve symptoms.