If you have been searching this website for information about your condition you have probably noticed a theme.
“The question you need to ask is not what you have but why you have it.”
And having been given a diagnosis of IBS is no different, especially because IBS is actually a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning not only have you not been given a label of what you have, you’ve been told by the medical community they don’t know why you have it. An IBS diagnosis means all of the standard tests have been run, you have been poked and prodded but you still have a range of symptoms that may include abdominal pain, abnormal stools, constipation, bloating, uncontrollable, unpredictable diarrhea, and frequent bouts of gas, all without a treatment plan.
Taking a Functional Medicine/Functional Neurology approach as I do is frankly a much more successful approach. Why? Because a functional approach will look at your symptoms and their relationship to your entire body not just your digestive tract. Functional Medicine understands that your symptoms can be the cause of other system dysfunctions OR the effect of other system dysfunctions. IBS is often intimately tied to thyroid dysfunction. IBS can be tied to high or low blood sugar levels, dysbiosis, leaky gut, increased stress hormone (cortisol), and food sensitivities. Perhaps most concerning is the intimate connection between your brain and your digestive system. A disruption in that connection can be the precursor to serious, life altering neurologic disorders.