IBS can be reduced by balanced diet and stress management
Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Are you anxious, depressed or stressed out lately? Are you also experiencing an altered bowel movement to either diarrhea or constipation or both alternately?
Such bowel irregularities, popularly known as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), may be exacerbated by your current psychological state.
Studies show that an altered bowel movement can also be triggered by various causes, including food and other dietary substances, drugs, hormones (menstrual cycle) and seasonal changes, but stress and other psychosocial problems are the most common causes.
And apart from altered bowel movement, IBS sufferers also complain about feeling bloated, abdominal pain and discomfort.
In Indonesia, there is no data available on the prevalence of the syndrome, classified as a functional gastrointestinal disorder. But in the U.S., IBS affects about 20 percent of its population.
Although the illness attacks people of all ages and races, gastroenterologist from Bandung-based Padjadjaran University Aminah Abdurrahman, citing previous studies, said the syndrome mainly affected females, who account for about 70 percent of IBS cases.
The syndrome, she said, was a treatable functional disorder not considered fatal, but it would tend to affect the sufferer's productivity as it would hampers them in their daily activities.
Data also shows that IBS is on the list of health problems causing the highest rate of absence from schools or offices, leading to loss of earnings (due to work absence) and increased medical care costs.
Aminah explained the syndrome could be categorized as three types: IBS with diarrhea (an increase in defecation to more than three times per day, with watery stools), IBS with constipation (a decrease in bowel movement to less than three times per week, with hard stools) and alternating IBS, where sufferers complain of either diarrhea or constipation from time to time.
According to a paper by C. Beglinger from University Hospital, Switzerland, published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice, IBS with constipation is highly prevalent, with as many as 80 percent of patients referred to specialist centers reporting constipation as their main bowel dysfunction.
Aminah added that IBS sufferers might need to communicate better with their physician or gastroenterologist.
"That way, when a doctor detects possible psychological problems behind their bowel problems, the former can refer them to a psychologist or psychiatrist," she said during the launching of Zelmac, a drug to treat IBS with constipation, by PT Novartis Biochemie Indonesia.
No available therapy has yet been proven effective to treat various IBS symptoms but the newly launched drug can ease sufferers' feelings of being bloated, abdominal pain or discomfort and constipation problems. In some cases, signs of improvement can occur a day after taking the drug, said U.S.- based Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.'s director of scientific affairs and gastroenterology David L. Earnest.
Earnest explained the drug worked by stimulating normal peristaltic movement, suppressing some of the nerves that transmit pain, and causes water to move through the intestine to improve the stool's consistency, thus reducing the patient's need to strain when defecating
Besides taking medication, Aminah suggested IBS sufferers modify their lifestyle by having a balanced diet and managing their stress in order to ease the syndrome.