[volatile]

How come IBS doctors get to call themselves experts, make 200,000 a year, but are so baffled and clueless with a major GI disorder?I don't get how they call themselves experts in GI but then tell us they just don't understand the problem in patients with IBS.LOL, what do they learn in medical school and what do they do for a living if they can't explain a non-life threatening condition?

 

[Kathleen M.]

Doctors for other things really aren't any better. Every body part has a hard to treat, inexplicable disease.

 

[feder]

The problem is that you need to understand the underlying mechanisms, or causes, of a disease in order to treat it adequately. For IBS there are often many factors mentioned which can contribute to IBS (stress, psychological, food intolerance, etc) but does that mean we have a deeper understanding of something? I think in regard to ibs (and probably also in regard to chronic diseases in general), "our" western medicine is at its limits (although it does great things in many other areas, and I would not want to do without it).

 

[Hester]

I laughed when I saw this post. . . I have the privilege of sitting in "fellows" conferences regularly and have worked with doctors for more than 11 years in some educational capacity. First, what do you call the student that got D's all through medical school? . . . . (LOL) You call him/her Doctor! Second, doctors only have so many hours in the day. Some are very good at clinical practice and technique and less interested in reading their lastest journals to stay abreast of the lastest topics. Since IBS is NON-LIFE THREATENING, many just write our disease off and don't bother even reading about it. They have no concept of the disabilty, pain, fear and misery our condition causes in our lives and the lives of those who love us. Third, being non-life threatening, many doctors focus on surgery techniques, cancer, and what they consider to be serious GI disorders. Sadly, many treatments for IBS fall outside of the clinical realm of study. Just look in the journal articles it is antidepressants or antispasmodics or pain relief with no real articles discussing root causes. No doctor wants to say, "I just don't know how to help you." But for our condition that is what it comes to. Thank GOD, for this forum and people like Jeffrey and Kathleen!!!! They are a blessing to us and have helped me to take charge of my own treatment plan, learn new things (more so than what my doctor even knows) and better control my health.

 

[volatile]

The problem is that you need to understand the underlying mechanisms, or causes, of a disease in order to treat it adequately. For IBS there are often many factors mentioned which can contribute to IBS (stress, psychological, food intolerance, etc) but does that mean we have a deeper understanding of something? I think in regard to ibs (and probably also in regard to chronic diseases in general), "our" western medicine is at its limits (although it does great things in many other areas, and I would not want to do without it).

HOW can they not understand?This is their JOB their field of expertise?HOW can they not know HOW the digestive system works?This is not some vague question of what happens after death...this is a question on a non-life threatening digetive disorder...HOW can a field that certifies people as experts NOT KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Is GI science=junk science?HOW CAN A GI DOCTOR WHO SPECIALIZES IN THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM NOT UNDERSTAND A SIMPLE QUESTION OF WHY I AM SO $$$$$$ING BLOATED ALL THE TIME?????I AM NOT ASKING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE...I AM ASKING A BASIC QUESTION GROUNDED IN SCIENCE!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kathleen M.]

Science is not over and done. We do not have all the answers.Even when we have answers, we don't always know by looking at you which of the answers is the one that is true for you because every symptom has several dozen reasons why you may have it. Sometimes we don't have clinical tests to figure it out.Some things are known but buried in some obscure article in the medical literature and no doctor (or researcher) on the planet can possibly read every single article and know every single thing. You want to see what all the answers we do have are Pubmed is on line and is open to the public and any library can get all the articles ever published on a topic for you (if the abstracts don't help and just a warning, most of science has several experiments that contradict other experiments.) and you think there are answers known but being hidden from you by your doctors.And things that kill people get the research money ahead of things that just annoy people so some answers take a lot of time to get.Sometimes bloating is gas, sometimes reducing gas (eating less bacteria food or changing the bacteria in there or a few people are always swallowing air even if they don't realize it) helps.Sometimes bloating and distension is just because the intestines are sensitive and painful and don't like having the abdominal wall pressed up against them hard so a feedback signal goes to the abdominal wall and it relaxes out as much as possible to take the pressure off.Sometimes bloating is from ovarian cysts or ovarian tumors and I don't think anyone really knows why as it isn't really based on just how big the tumor or cyst is. Even fairly small ones can cause pretty big bloating, but it might be that pressure relief thing.If you can't force the abdominal muscles to overcome the feedback to relax and you can tolerate it, and you don't care what is under your clothes get some spanx or other foundation garment to hold the abdominal wall in. Women do it all the time to appear better than they really are.

 

[feder]

I had ibs throughout my 20's and 30's, I think I can relate to the things you are going through. Some experiences seem very familiar to me (although in terms of physical symptoms, I did not have bloating, but felt very fatigued, wasted most of the time, and did not have much energy left after an exhausting work day. But hey..who has that even as a healthy person?). I could try and tell you that drinking alcohol is not everything (I also could not do that), etc, and that you can still go out socialize even with this disorder (either your friends understand, or look for new friends).Who would say that physiological processes are simple? I can relate to your frustration towards the medical/science profession, but they can only perceive what they can see with their way of looking at it. Every way has its limits (sorry for sounding philosophical). In my view the best advice I can give you from my personal experience is to find somebody who really understands your problems. For me this was ayurveda (as I posted in one of your other recent threads.) I know that this is not for everyone (it took me 3 years from receiving the advice to actually do it. I waited so long until my symptoms grew so bad that i just HAD to submit to something new) and it is a science, too, if 'alternative medicine' in general is problem for you. The other thing I tried recently was traditional chinese medicine using acupuncture and a specific herbal preparation. It did not help me, but there is also a good TCM website in regard to GI problems which I found recently.I have only been on this forum for a short time, but from what I have seen people are genuinely helpful and have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. Do not be mad at people trying to help, instead use that anger-energy to try something else, socially as well as in regards to ibs-therapy. There is always a way although it may be tough.

 

[Hester]

Doctors are just human beings who went to medical school. They are not perfect. Some are so damn focused, they are not even smart. Their area of study is called "Medical Arts" for a very good reason. Medicine is often more "art" than "science". Studies do not always yield results that define treatment in the real world. IBS is so all-over-the-place, it is hard to have an experiemental arm with any consistency.V- I think it is time you became your own best advocate for YOUR health. I can promise you with absolutely NO DOUBT (100 percent certainty) that the people on this forum who found a "cure" or "relief" did it by passionately, systematically, methodically and with great discipline studying their own condition and working to find their own "best" treatment plan. It was NO ONE doctor or thing that did it. I doubt I would be working today if I did not figure most of it out myself and then BRING it to my doctor's attention as my partner in health. If you are counting on some doctor to step in and save the day, you are going to wait a very, very long time and continually be disappointed. This is a chronic and often severe dietary/health/disorder and, for some, it just goes away one day. For others, it gets worse or has periods of remission. I have been fortunate enough to have my GI doctors simply say, "I do not know what else to do; I can refer you to someone else for a second or third opinion." I go. I will tell you that aside from reading all the GI journals and being very methodical about what I have tried until I found some relief, I have discovered meditation and visualization to be very helpful. I spend ten minutes a day listening to a medication tape/chant (on YouTube there are some nice Tibetan hymns), clearing my mind and heart of all thought, depression, anger, doubt and fear and simply focusing on forgiveness, peace and healing . . . seeing myself whole. If you can go to the gym at all and even have ANY alcohol, you are better off than a lot of us. If you are drinking those bodybuilding drinks, even "normal" people have that stuff shoot threw them like a bullet. . . all that aside, do you live in a MJ medical usage state? If so, maybe that might workout for you. I took THC pills for quite sometime to overcome my horrible loss in appetite and weight and nerves. They also perked me up s bit. The drug is called Marinol.

 

[volatile]

No...I don't drink bodybuilding drinks.IBS has ruined my social life and my recreational life. I cannot achieve my fitness goals because I cannot eat properly for the gym due to IBS.Worse yet, because of the bloating and distension, IBS destroys all of my work at the gym.Instead of showing off a ripped stomach and cut, toned muscles, because of IBS I have a fat, inflated gut and weak, scrawny muscles.You see, when my IBS is bad, it pretty much sucks/traps all of the weight/water/matter in my body in the stomach.Thus the stomach is super inflated, while the rest of my body, my muscles are extremely empty.Think of a hose...when you squeeze the middle of the hose...the middle gets really big, and the rest of the hose gets flimsy.This is what happens with me and IBS. It is a double whammy...not only do I have a fat stomach, but I have "drained" empty muscles.I resent the statement that I am looking for a dr. to cure.No, I am looking for a dr. to help.I HAVE DIETED MY ASS OFF FOR YEARS.I do not eat dairy, redmeat, whole grains, alcohol, or anything with more than 25% calories from fat.YET I STILL SUFFER.I exercise, have gone into therapy, taken psy drugs, NOTHING HAS HELPED and I am livid!