Treatment of Irritable bowel syndrome

Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List

| A |

| B |

| C |

| D |

| E |

| F |

| G |

| H |

| I |

| J |

| K |

| L |

| M |

| N |

| O |

| P |

| Q |

| R |

| S |

| T |

| U |

| V |

| W |

| X |

| Y |

Diet:

Making changes to the diet can help to control the symptoms of IBS. Keep a note of what you eat over a couple of weeks to help you to identify the foods that seem to trigger your symptoms. Try avoiding these foods for a while to see if thereâ€™s any improvement.

Take the 5-a-day fruit and veg test

It can be helpful to cut out spicy and fatty foods from the diet, as well as gas producing vegetables such as beans. Try to drink less alcohol and swap tea and coffee that both contain caffeine for herbal teas such as peppermint and chamomile. Cutting out products that contain an artificial sweetener called sorbitol can help some people.

Try to eat more fruit and vegetables to increase the amount of dietary fibre (roughage) in your diet â€“ this helps to prevent constipation. Itâ€™s also important to drink plenty of water to flush waste products out of your body.

Special diets (e.g. one that contains no wheat or cows milk products) may help some people, but these should be undertaken only with the supervision of a medical professional.

Drug treatments:

Several drugs are effective in quieting down the excessive bowel activity and relieving the pain. Antispasmodic drugs can slow contractions in the bowel, which helps with diarrhoea and pain.

Effective antidiarrhoeal drugs such as loperamide and diphenoxylate can be used when necessary. For constipation, an osmotic laxative is preferred over stimulant laxatives. For patients with severe pain, it is common to take antidepressants, which are used to block the transmission of pain from the gut to the brain.

Complementary therapies:

There is some evidence that acupuncture, peppermint oil capsule or Chinese herbal medicine may be helpful.

Surveys of the available scientific research suggests that being taught a self-hypnosis technique can also help to relieve the symptoms in some people.