{"id":80,"date":"2019-02-26T09:30:22","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T09:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ibshypo.com\/?page_id=80"},"modified":"2019-04-10T17:51:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T17:51:47","slug":"a-fundamental-view-of-ibs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ibshypo.com\/index.php\/a-fundamental-view-of-ibs\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fundamental View of IBS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The traditional approach to IBS is to observe symptoms and seek an explanation for each symptom.\u00a0 Treatment is targeted at symptomatic relief, e.g. loperamide for diarrhoea, mebeverine hydrochloride to reduce spasm.\u00a0 More recently reducing FODMAPs<\/a> in our diet has been found to be helpful:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While treatments that help cope with IBS symptoms are welcome, we need to find the underlying causes and addressed them. Instead of trying to understand IBS from individual characteristics, we can take an abstract approach, akin to mathematical abstraction. Although each patient is different, they have signs and symptoms in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our ambition is to find the fundamental characteristics that are necessary and sufficient to describe IBS. ‘Necessary and sufficient<\/em>‘ is sometimes expressed as ‘if and only if<\/em>‘. If causes are present an effect will follow and<\/strong> this effect will only follow if these causes are present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the field of medicine, we are unlikely to achieve this\nlevel of mathematical precision but we can attempt to find ‘necessary and sufficient<\/em>‘\nconditions that best fit most cases of IBS. This will facilitate two\nobjectives: –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. We will be able to identify the essential characteristics of IBS enabling better diagnosis and be able to recognise IBS, even if IBS is a subset of other disorders.<\/li>
  2. We can isolate signs and symptoms that are not due to IBS and use these to aid diagnosis of the underlying conditions that lead to IBS.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    We hypothesize IBS shares fundamental characteristics with organic disorders. These disorders have signs and symptoms, some common to IBS and some not. These non-IBS signs and symptoms give a clue to the underlying organic disorder.<\/strong>
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    IBS signs and symptoms include: –<\/p>\n\n\n\n