Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

If you have abnormal gut signs or symptoms you should see your doctor, this website assumes you have already been diagnosed with IBS by a competent physician.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a gastrointestinal condition causing abdominal discomfort and altered gut habit, it affects over 10% of the population with an enormous direct and indirect cost burden running into tens of billions of dollars:

Estimates of the cost in terms of patient suffering, medication, loss of work and effects on social life vary considerably:

The impact of IBS is massive in terms of suffering and physician support.

IBS is associated with other disorders, primarily fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. It is imperative that we achieve a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that underlie these disorders.

There is extensive advice available on treatments and interventions to help patients live with IBS. We need to understand the aetiology of IBS so that underlying organic conditions can be found and treated. Central to this aetiology is the role of magnesium deficiency in IBS. This is explained in the following webpages and in more formal style in the pdf document at the end of this section.

The first step towards understanding the aetiology of IBS is to take A Fundamental View of IBS.