Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder that affects the large intestine. Signs and symptoms include cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea or constipation

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder that affects the large intestine. Signs and symptoms include cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea or constipation, or both. IBS is a chronic condition that you’ll need to manage long term

Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is a functional gastrointestinal disorder, which means that it affects the mobility of the gastrointestinal tract. We are not entirely sure what causes IBS, but we do know that the enteric nervous system is involved, and it does create the gut to be hypersensitive to certain food triggers and to stress.

Often seeing a local family physician for a referral to a Psychiatrist, psychologist or a councilor in conjunction with a registered dietitian  is a great option to take control of this condition. Smart Food Now and exercise is also optominal for overall health.    

If you think you have IBS, or you feel like you are exerting certain symptoms of it, you should visit your local medical doctor. If you want more help gaining control over your symptoms of IBS, visit your local registered dietitian.

Now Health Network Local Practitioners: Registered Dietitian

If you suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, there are solutions that you can do with your diet. What you want to do will depend on what phase of the disease you are in. There are actually two different phases because you will go through periods of flare-ups where your symptoms are exacerbated, and then you’ll go through periods where your symptoms are more under control, and this is completely normal, but you do want to have a longer period where your symptoms are under control obviously.

When you are experiencing flare-ups of IBD, you want to have a low fiber diet. If you have extremely severe symptoms, you might actually have to go to a completely elemental diet, which just means that you will have to have nutritional supplements that have predigested nutrients, and that is something you can get more help with from your local dietitian.

When your symptoms are more under control, you can tolerate fiber, so it’s a good idea to actually have a high fibre diet, so it’s completely opposite of when you are having worse symptoms.

Whether or not you’re experiencing flare-up or if your symptoms are under control, you do want to avoid common trigger foods for your symptoms, such as alcohol, such as caffeine, high-fat foods, fried foods, processed foods, as well as foods that contain high amounts of lactose like dairy products if you are lactose intolerant, which is actually quite common in individuals with IBD. Local Nutritionist  

Often seeing a local family physician for a referral to a Psychiatrist, psychologist or a councilor    in conjunction with a registered dietitian  is a great option to take control of this condition. Smart Food Now and exercise is also optominal for overall health.    

There are some alternatives if you’re having problems with certain foods. For example, instead of having milk you can have almond milk or soy milk. Instead of – if you’re not able to digest high fiber foods because you’re experiencing a flare-up and you need to have a more low fiber diet, you can have certain things like applesauce or canned vegetables and fruits to ease the digestion.

Key things to remember are that you do want to have high fiber foods when you’re not experiencing a flare-up because it is important to get that fiber intake in in periods that you can tolerate it. Local Registered Dietician 

It’s also important that you seek extra help from your doctor if you need to manage this through other options other than diet such as medications. Otherwise do visit your local registered dietitian for more information and for more help with dietary management of IBD.

Presenter: Ms. Ashley Charlebois, Registered Dietitian, Vancouver, BC

Now Health Network Local Practitioners:  local Rheumatologists