In fact, this is a very common functional gastrointestinal disease – irritable bowel syndrome. Currently, 7% to 15% of the population suffers from this disease, and it is especially common in female white-collar workers. This disease is also related to genetics and human sensitivity.
The gastrointestinal tract is the most sensitive organ in the body. External food stimulation or internal mood swings can cause gastrointestinal irritation, followed by a series of symptoms such as abdominal pain or abdominal discomfort with changes in bowel habits. In Run Run Shaw Hospital, patients with irritable bowel syndrome have accounted for nearly 30% of gastroenterology outpatients. However, since the diagnosis is based on the exclusion of organic diseases, most patients gradually establish the diagnosis only after repeated visits to the doctor for several examinations.
Intestinal allergy, intestinal spasm, intestinal dysfunction, these and irritable bowel syndrome are actually the same thing. It is one of the functional disorders with a high prevalence and is a chronic disease that can exist for years, decades, or even longer. Its onset can be continuous or intermittent. According to its main symptoms, it can be clinically classified into three types.
Diarrhea type: Patients mainly show symptoms of abdominal pain and diarrhea, often triggered by factors such as meals, cold, increased psychological stress, mental tension, etc. During the attack, abdominal pain and diarrhea, the urgency is unbearable, the stool is loose and unshaped, and mucus can appear when there are many times, and abdominal pain can be relieved by itself after defecation.
Constipation type: Patients mainly manifest as defecation once every few days or daily defecation but difficult to defecate, and may be accompanied by abdominal pain, bloating or abdominal discomfort and other symptoms.
Alternating constipation and diarrhea: The symptoms of both constipation and diarrhea alternate in the same patient, with one phase being mainly diarrhea and the other phase being mainly constipation.
Diarrhea is the most common form of irritable bowel syndrome in clinical practice. These patients can often be accompanied by systemic symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, depression, dizziness, and headache. Thus, irritable bowel syndrome is a group of syndromes with abdominal pain (or discomfort), change in bowel frequency (diarrhea versus constipation), and abnormal stool characteristics (mucus stool, thin watery stool, or hard stool) as the main symptoms. If a patient has abdominal discomfort or pain, as well as two of the three symptoms of relief after defecation, change in the frequency of defecation, and change in stool hardness, the possibility of irritable bowel syndrome needs to be considered.
Of course, functional gastrointestinal disease is a diagnosis made after excluding organic lesions such as inflammation, infection or tumor. As a patient, we should pay attention to the alarm signals of gastrointestinal diseases, such as blood in stool, anemia, significant weight loss, abdominal pain, diarrhea with fever and black stool, etc., we should exclude organic diseases in time.
The cause of irritable bowel syndrome is still unclear, it is an incurable disease, and there is no specific treatment method so far. However, it is a benign disease and should never be treated with panic. It does not evolve into cancer and does not shorten a person’s life span.
Although the disease is not life-threatening, the long-term and recurrent symptoms of abdominal pain, bowel dysfunction and abdominal distension can affect a person’s quality of life. It can be adjusted through diet, behavior and psychology; find and record foods that may cause symptoms and avoid them, try to avoid cheese, chocolate, French fries and drinking coffee, carbonated drinks, etc., avoid cold drinks; eat a rationed diet, not too hungry, not too full, diarrhea patients should eat less slag, easy to digest, low-fat food, constipated people should eat more fiber vegetables, coarse grains, etc.; take drugs to regulate intestinal flora, add if necessary If necessary, antispasmodics and antidepressants should be added.
At present, many patients with irritable bowel syndrome often have “psychological fear”, such as patients afraid to eat because of fear that certain foods will cause diarrhea, or avoid some social functions, or worry about frequent diarrhea and give up long-distance travel, etc., and many people take antibiotics before the social meal.
Blind application or abuse of antibiotics can lead to dysbiosis of intestinal flora, because diarrhea in patients with irritable bowel syndrome is generally not caused by infection, so long-term repeated application of antibiotic therapy tends to kill the beneficial intestinal bacteria, leading to dysbiosis. This can not only aggravate diarrhea, but also easily combine with intestinal pathogenic bacterial infections. In addition, patients with constipation should also avoid the abuse of laxatives, such as senna, rhubarb, etc., which can lead to colon melanosis over time. Colonic melanosis is a non-inflammatory bowel disease characterized by pigmentation of the colonic mucosa and is associated with the development of intestinal tumors.