• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Undoctored Blog

Undoctored Can Make You Smarter Than Your Doctor

  • Undoctored Home
  • About
  • Undoctored Inner Circle
  • Home
  • DIY Healthcare
  • Health Information
  • Latest News
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

IBS is not just IBS

August 29, 2018 By Dr. William Davis

Irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, is a common condition that has been diagnosed in 30-35 million Americans. Many more are undiagnosed and just silently suffer intermittent diarrhea at inconvenient moments, abdominal pain, and bloating. IBS is often painted by conventional physicians as a benign condition, one particularly ascribed to neurotic people who, in this line of thinking, are just anxious and overly-concerned with their health. For this reason, antidepressants and sedatives have been commonly prescribed for IBS over the years.

But IBS is not just IBS. IBS can be associated with numerous other conditions:

Osteoporosis—People with IBS have more than 4-fold increased likelihood of developing osteoporosis.

Psychiatric disorders—There may be a modest increase in bipolar disorder in people with IBS, as well as depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders.

Migraine headaches—Likelihood of IBS is approximately double that in people without migraines.

Asthma—People with asthma are more likely to have IBS.

Epilepsy—IBS is more common in people with seizure disorders. (Recall that some forms of seizures are due to a change in bowel flora composition, specifically reduction or lack of Akkermansia mucinophila.)

Parkinson’s disease is more likely in people with IBS. Parkinson’s is also increasingly looking like it is heavily influenced by bowel flora.

Dementia is somewhat more common in people with IBS. (Note that a recent clinical trial demonstrated improved cognition in people with dementia given probiotic supplements.)

The presence of fibromyalgia increases the likelihood of IBS. (This association should come as no surprise to Undoctored Blog readers, as both fibromyalgia and IBS are clearly associated with dysbiosis and may be synonymous with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, SIBO.)

Endometriosis–Women with endometriosis are nearly twice as likely to have IBS.

That is just a sampling (much of it brought to light by the efforts of a Chinese group’s analysis of a large group), as there are a number of other disorders associated with IBS, including a frightening percentage with fecal incontinence.

Of course, much of these data are observational and cannot establish a cause-effect relationship, but the associations are troubling. (I’ve recently discussed the problems with observational studies; while these studies suffer many of the same uncertainties, because the associations are being made between two established diagnoses and not a questionnaire and an event, the issues are a bit different.) IBS may be associated with these conditions due to the prevalence of grain consumption in each condition, dysbiosis or SIBO, or other factors, i.e., confounding factors.

Nonetheless, it is looking like IBS is not just IBS but may be a situation that is shared by numerous other conditions. What is NOT clear, of course, is whether correction of IBS via, say, antibiotics and cultivation of bowel flora to address SIBO, can reduce the likelihood of Parkinson’s disease, asthma, migraine headaches, or dementia. (A substantial proportion of people with IBS obtain relief with antibiotic treatment, as well as with probiotic supplementation.)

But, given the recurring themes in IBS—overlap with SIBO, response to antibiotics and probiotics, etc.—I’m going to bet that efforts to reverse IBS also result in substantial reductions in these other, apparently associated, conditions. You can be sure that we will be exploring these issues in our Undoctored Inner Circle.

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Filed Under: DIY Healthcare, Health Information Tagged With: bowel flora, diarrhea, diy health, diy healthcare, diyhealth, diyhealthcare, dysbiosis, grain-free, ibs, irritable bowel, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, undoctored, wellness

About Dr. William Davis

William Davis, MD, FACC is cardiologist and author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Wheat Belly series of books. He is also author of the new Undoctored: Why Health Care Has Failed You and How You Can Become Smarter Than Your Doctor.

Primary Sidebar

Sign Up For News and Events from Dr. Davis
Sign up now and get access to a special bonus video from Dr. Davis: “7 Things Your Doctor Doesn’t Want You To Know.”

7 Things Video


Get The Book

Undoctored Book

Amazon Barnes & Noble Books a Million

Undoctored Inner Circle AD

Grain-Free Low-Carb Foods

Wheat Free Market

Follow Undoctored On Facebook

Follow Dr. Davis On Twitter

Follow @WilliamDavis Tweets by William Davis

Copyright © 2022 ยท Undoctored

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.