Irritable bowel syndrome is a common disease, but due to a variety of symptoms, lack of specific performance, and many recurrent episodes, coupled with the lack of specific drugs, treatment difficulties, resulting in many patients repeatedly go to the doctor, do a variety of tests, wasting a lot of human and financial resources, mainly because the public, including many doctors on the disease of irritable bowel syndrome is not enough knowledge, the following Lao Liu on the selection of some clinical The following old Liu will choose some clinical issues of concern to answer one by one, hoping to help you understand the disease of irritable bowel syndrome more comprehensively.
A. What kind of disease is irritable bowel syndrome?
Irritable bowel syndrome is a group of intestinal dysfunctional diseases with continuous or intermittent episodes of abdominal pain, abdominal distension, change in bowel habits and/or stool characteristics, and lack of structural and biochemical abnormalities in the gastrointestinal tract. According to the main symptoms, they are divided into: diarrhea, constipation, mixed type and indefinite type. Mental, dietary, and cold factors can induce recurrence or aggravation of symptoms. Patients are predominantly young and middle-aged, with the onset of the disease occurring between the ages of twenty and fifty, usually more often in women than in men. The incidence of the disease is high, accounting for approximately 30% of gastroenterology outpatient visits. Although the disease is recurrent and difficult to treat, it is essentially a functional lesion, which means that the structure is normal, only the operation is faulty.
2. Is the incidence of irritable bowel syndrome high?
The prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome is very high all over the world, with a prevalence of 10% to 15% in Europe and North America, 11% to 17% in Oceania, about 10% in African countries, and about 5% in most Asian countries. In the United States, the prevalence is 15% to 20%, in the United Kingdom, 16% to 22%, according to the results of an epidemiological survey at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the prevalence of the disease in China’s cities is about 10.5%, is the second most common disease after the flu.
III. What are the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome?
The most important symptom of irritable bowel syndrome is abdominal pain, and abdominal pain mostly appears after eating and relieves after defecation. Another symptom is abdominal distension, which is usually felt strongly after meals and gradually relieved at night when sleeping. Diarrhea, stools containing mucus, constipation, which is especially obvious after eating, feeling of not being clean even after a bowel movement, and urgency are also the main symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. These symptoms may be aggravated by travel, change of daily routine, improper diet and women’s menstrual period. In addition, some patients still have different degrees of psycho-psychiatric abnormalities, such as anxiety, depression and tension.
What are the causes of irritable bowel syndrome?
The causes and pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome are not completely clear. It may be related to the following factors.
1, dietary factors: it is possible that the gastrointestinal intolerance of food, such as cold, spicy food, fruit, beans, dairy products, drinking alcohol, etc.
2, mental factors: such as anxiety, depression, agitation, insomnia, etc. may induce the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.
3, drug stimulation: such as the abuse of antibiotics, anti-diarrheal drugs cause intestinal flora imbalance, etc.
4, intestinal infection: some patients with irritable bowel syndrome have a history of intestinal infection before the onset of the disease. According to statistics, some patients with gastroenteritis caused by various pathogens (including bacteria, viruses, parasites) have intestinal dysfunction, and 10% can develop irritable bowel syndrome after infection.
V. How to diagnose irritable bowel syndrome
First of all, the patient must have abdominal pain, and this abdominal pain is related to the stool. Secondly, there must be a change in the stool pattern or frequency of stool. If these two conditions are met, the most important thing is to exclude organic diseases. The easiest way is to do a colonoscopy to rule out diseases such as enteritis and intestinal cancer, which are more common in clinical practice and can cause abdominal pain. The diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome can be made only after organic diseases are ruled out. The duration of irritable bowel syndrome generally needs to be more than six months, and the frequency of abdominal pain episodes should be more than at least once a week in the last three months.
What are the treatments for irritable bowel syndrome?
The onset of irritable bowel syndrome is often related to psychological factors, dietary habits and lifestyle, so the treatment focuses on improving symptoms, improving quality of life and eliminating concerns.
1. Life and diet regulation. Avoid triggering factors, choose a diet that is easy to digest and less fatty, and forbid irritating and sensitive foods. Do not eat foods that are suspected to be intolerant, such as shrimp, crab, milk, peanuts, etc. Spicy, frozen, greasy and cold foods, tobacco and alcohol should be avoided. Appropriately participate in sports and cultural activities, and actively exercise to enhance physical fitness and prevent disease.
2.Spiritual and psychological conditioning. Mental psychological factors and gastrointestinal function is closely related, good mood gastrointestinal function is good, so to lift the mind concerns, establish and restore confidence in overcoming the disease, the symptoms do not heal can apply sedative, antidepressant drugs.
3, drug-assisted treatment. Although it can reduce the symptoms, but can not prevent recurrence, so should be reasonable use of drugs, and avoid the abuse of drugs, preferably under the guidance of a doctor.
7. Does irritable bowel syndrome affect life expectancy?
Irritable bowel syndrome is only a functional disease of the intestine, so it can be cured and will not cause cancer, nor will it cause much harm to human body. Although the disease usually starts insidiously, the symptoms may recur or be chronic, and the course of the disease can reach several years to decades, but the general health condition is not affected, so it does not affect the life expectancy of patients. We must have confidence in the treatment, adjust our lifestyle and diet, and take some symptomatic measures to deal with some symptoms.
Eight, irritable bowel syndrome is hereditary?
Irritable bowel syndrome has a clear tendency of family clustering, 33% of patients abroad have a family history, close to this in China, and the clinical manifestations of irritable bowel syndrome patients in each family are similar. It has been found that diarrhea and constipation type irritable bowel syndrome are more common in women with O blood type, and abdominal pain type irritable bowel syndrome is more common in women with B blood type. The family history of irritable bowel syndrome is found in 65% of women with irritable bowel syndrome, and the mother is more likely to have both parents suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. Among the siblings of irritable bowel syndrome patients, the number of those who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome is more than the same gender.
Why irritable bowel syndrome is often accompanied by other diseases
Patients with irritable bowel syndrome are often accompanied by gastroesophageal reflux disease, functional dyspepsia, primary affective disorder, depression and anxiety, headache, fibromyalgia syndrome, low back pain, chronic fatigue syndrome and other diseases. This is due to the fact that irritable bowel syndrome is a functional gastrointestinal disorder, and symptom overlap in functional gastrointestinal disorders is very common. The pathogenesis of symptom overlap may be the presence of similar pathophysiological bases, such as abnormal dynamics, visceral hypersensitivity, altered gastrointestinal secretion with impaired brain-gut axis regulation, and psychosomatic disorders.
In conclusion, irritable bowel syndrome is a functional disease, which usually does not cause organic lesions and is not related to cancer and will not become cancerous. Learn to relax yourself and control yourself. Once you realize that it is you who are in control of your life, your quality of life will be significantly improved.