What Are the Symptoms of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome?
The key symptoms encountered by people experiencing IBS are abdominal pain, bloating, and discomfort, although these can change from one person to another. Other IBS patients also suffer from constipation which is characterized by hard, dry, and irregular bowel movements. Often these people report straining and cramps when attempting to have a bowel movement and yet can’t eliminate any stool, or they are can eliminate no more than a small amount. If bowel movement does take place, mucus, a fluid that serves to keep the passages in the digestive system moist and protected, is often present. Alternatively, people who suffer from IBS may also suffer with diarrhea, where the person is affected with loose, watery stools, and too-frequent bowel movements, as opposed to constipation. People with diarrhea frequently feel an urgent and uncontrollable need to have a bowel movement. In some cases, patients with IBS find themselves going back and forth between constipation and diarrhea. Sometimes people find that their symptoms subside for a few months and then return, while others report a constant worsening of symptoms over time.
Because IBS is a problem with the colon, and the colon removes water from unprocessed food waste, it is common for people with the condition to be constipated or have diarrhea. Constipation takes place when the food waste stays in the body’s colon for longer than the usual time, absorbing a lot of water, and thereby hardening the stool and making it difficult to pass. In contrast, diarrhea occurs when the waste matter, aided by the colon muscles, moves along the colon too fast so that only very little of the fluid content is removed.
Unlike other illnesses where patients may only experience signs and symptoms for a time which then simply go away, IBS Symptoms are recurring, which simply means that people suffering from it will be constantly bothered by the symptoms. IBS patients have reported an increase in symptoms with certain triggers. For some people, it can be when they eat a large meal. For others, it could be when they are under a lot of pressure or stress. The regular menstrual cycle could also set off IBS symptoms for some women.
Abdominal pain or discomfort is the first and foremost symptom of IBS. Of course, if you get a stomach ache, gas, or bloating every now and then, it does not mean that you have irritable bowel syndrome. In general, individuals diagnosed with IBS exhibit two or more of the following symptoms:
>pain or discomfort that is relieved when a person goes to the bathroom and has a bowel movement
>pain or discomfort that is accompanied by changes in a person’s regular bowel movement patterns
>Abdominal ache or discomfort that comes with changes in a person’s stool appearance. For those who are constipated, stools become dry and harder to pass, while those experiencing diarrhea have loose, watery stool.
If a person exhibits just one of the above symptoms, it’s not very likely that he has ibs.
Also, the following symptoms are not normally indicative of irritable bowel syndrome:
Blood is passed together with stool or urine
Vomiting
Abdominal pain or diarrhea so severe that it disturbs a person’s sleep
Fever
Weight loss