[batmell]

Does anyone know if IBS can be heriditary? My mother suffers with it and I am showing signs of it as well! I have now seen this topic posted so I was wondering if I was more prone to it because my mother has it?

 

[tee08]

I talked to my GI doctor about this and he said it seems like it could be genetic or hereditary.Personally I think it is. My grandmother had IBS, my father had it and my sister, myself and now my son has it. Sure seems to run in families to me. Also my GI doctor has it and both his sons have it as well. Interesting to say the least.

 

[genny]

i think so. my mom has it and two of my three sisters have it (so that's 3 out of 4 of us). all just have varying degrees. one's explosive diahhrea, one is pain/diahhrea, me pain/d and c.

 

[gr8girl]

I think it is. My mother had it as well as my aunt. I've also noticed a correlation between IBS and allergies and diabetes. I think a lot of people with IBS have people in their family who have allergies (food and the regular culprits pollen, dander, dust, etc) and family members with diabetes.

 

[Kathleen M.]

It is partly geneticIt is partly environmental.Twin studies indicate that like many diseases (heart disease, cancer, many mental illnesses) your genes AND your environment play a role in whether you develop IBS or not.K.

 

[HEIDIELLEN]

Hi i have been trying to find out if it runs in familys , but what i want to know is my mum has chrons and has had it most of her life (sinces childhood) i have IBS , so does my sister and now my brother. I have been told that it is just a fluke that we all have IBS and my mum has chronsBUT i wonder if it is some sort of minor (and i say this lightly) of shoot to chrons, has she passed or not passed some gene to us when we were born and now we have IBS. i would resally love to hear from you as i have children as do my sister and brother and at least tow out of six children are showing signs of IBS.. thanks HEIDI

 

[Mike NoLomotil]

KM:Could you do Heidi a favor if you have time as I am plum-outta time....take a peek at this other thread an see if you can fill in gap I cannot quickly fill in off hand. Perhaps you have a reference handy on the specific question: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=1;t=028224 ThanksMNLPSJust got back from another week on road again and a notebeook of some interest is ready to be sent finally.

 

[Kathleen M.]

Crohns and IBS occur by two very different mechanisms so I don't really see how genetically having a parent with Crohn's sets you up for IBS.HOWEVER, people with Crohn's often have functional bowel problems as well. It is reasonably common for people with Inflamatory Bowel Diseases to have symptoms during times when all indicators show that they Inflamation is under control. Some think this may be from functional problems that are caused as a fall out of having the nerves in the gut damaged by inflamation. And how much this damage effects you seems to be part of the genetic stuff with IBS. At least it is a good working theory (the more suseptible the Enteric Nervous System is to being disrupted the more likely your environment will trigger IBS)It is also possible that something psychosocial is going on in the family that adds to all the kids having more of a chance of getting IBS (like stressors from your Mom being sick, how that altered the family dynamics, etc). Or other environmental risk factors that you all had in common (like food poisoning, what particular colonic flora you all got, and sometimes IBD patients have different flora from normals because of all the inflamation and your main exposure during the time you get colonized is when you are a baby and from Mom).So there could be any number of environmental factors you have in common in addition to some genetic predisposition.K.