Diarrhea IBS or IBD, Whats the diffence? Options

[comguay]

I had normal CBC and normal VIRTUAL Colonoscopy and rectoscopy, but still with bouts of diarrhea?? also lots of gas and stomach runbling when I get the bouts if there is pain is just before BM, relieved after. NO blood sometimes a bid marron diahrrea but more towards stools color dosent look like blood, and negative FOBT.

Is there any difference, times amount I usually get the bouts after a normal BM ??

Thanks

[Kathleen M.]

Other than IBD has bloody diarrhea and IBS can cause non-bloody diarrhea there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two.

I mean there isn't a particular consistency or frequency that only exists in one and not the other, they overlap a lot.

Now on average you are more likely to find IBSers having 3-4 or fewer BM's a day (no matter what consistency) and it is a bit more likely to find IBDers with 5-20 BM's a day but it isn't a hard line where one is always on one side and one is always on the other. Just you overall find the average IBDer during a flare up will have more diarrhea episodes a day than the average IBSer.

So at 10-20 BM's a day it might be just a few IBSers (like 1 out of 100) but with IBDers it might be more like 10 out of a hundred. But you find both from 1 episode of diarrhea a day to 20 episodes of diarrhea today. They do distribute differently but the range is the same.

The big difference is do you have an ulcerated lining of the colon that bleeds or not. If you don't, and you never do, it is IBS. If that flares up with bloody episodes and you have abnormalities on your tests when the bleeding happens, that is IBD. And, a few not so lucky people have BOTH. So even when the IBD is in remission they still have diarrhea or pain or other IBS symptoms when everything looks all healthy and normal inside.

Starting out with a normal BM and then having a loose stool follow it up is pretty darn normal for IBS. Often your "move it along" signals give the colon a bit too much get up and go so even when the normal stool that should end it comes out it keeps going and the next batch of stool hasn't had all the water removed yet so is from soft to watery.

[MrBumwe]

yeah i too wasn't sure what IBD was refering to,, i didn't know it could get worse then ibs

[Kathleen M.]

IBD is inflammatory bowel disease. This is an autoimmune disease where the intestines are attacked by the immune system.

That causes additional symptoms that you do not see in IBS. Abnormalities on blood tests like the CBC you do not see in IBS and can have some long term complications that are life threatening which you do not see in IBS.

Even though it is more severe in some ways, the amount of BM's a day or the quality of the stools overlaps significantly with IBS, and some people with IBS have more problems with diarrhea than some people with Ulcerative colitis or crohn's disase (the main things under the designation IBD)

[comguay]

When there is bloody diarrhea, how can you tell the difference in stool color?? I have never seen stools and blood mixed (besides small streaks on stools ocassionaly but I have been diagnosed with internal hemorrhoids) but sometimes the diarrhea is in a clayish borderline marron color but it dosent seem 100% blood??

[Kathleen M.]

Since the tests are normal I wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to see something they did not see so you can worry and up anxiety.

I know it is tempting to assume all the hard evidence is wrong. But it is usually more trustworthy as stool normally varies in color with consistency and diet. It just isn't a more sensitive clue than normal blood work and all the other tests you had.

[IBD/IBS Author]

Comquay,

In clinical terms, IBS is a functional bowel disorder of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The GI tract includes your mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, gallbladder, and anus. So, the problems associated with IBS could be caused by any or all of the parts of the GI tract.

Common symptoms associated with IBS include: diarrhea, constipation, or alternating between diarrhea and constipation; abdominal pain; bloating or distention of the abdomen; gas; and, whitish mucus in stool can be common. Symptoms that are not indicative of IBS include abdominal pain that interferes with sleep, blood in stool, weight loss, fever, or diarrhea that wakes you from sleep.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning that IBS is diagnosed when all other possible diseases of the GI tract - like IBD, diverticulitis, and gall bladder disease - have been ruled out. Many of the symptoms that I have listed as being common to people with IBS can also be symptoms of other GI disorders and it isn't until all other potential diseases are ruled out that an IBS diagnosis is made. While frustrating for the patient, a proper IBS diagnosis can take months or years.

You say you had a normal virtual colonoscopy. That's good, but doesn't necessarily rule out IBD. For a true reading of the intestine biopsies (tissue samples) need to be taken from various sections of the colon that are then studied in a lab under a microscope - this cannot be done with the pill, or virtual, scope. While IBD typically is made up of Ulcerative coltiis or Crohn's disease, there is also a subcategoy of IBD known as microscopic colitis and this is diagnosed when the biopsied tissues show inflammation when looked at through a miscroscope.

The symptoms that you have described here, however, do sound indicative of IBD to me.

Elizabeth