What is IBS?
IBS is defined as a functional bowel disorder; a disturbance of the colon where patients present with long standing symptoms of any of the following:- crampy abdominal pain, bloating, excessive flatulence, diarrhoea, constipation or alternating diarrhoea and constipation. IBS accounts for about half of all the visits to gastroenterologists. It is classed as a functional disorder by the medical profession which means it is not an illness or disease, the digestive system is not functioning as it should be for whatever reason, whether it be diet, lifestyle, stress or emotional reasons. Upper gastroenterology. symptoms are also quite common such as acid reflux, nausea and vomiting. Some people experience fatigue, back ache, head ache and gynaecological symptoms. It is not a life threatening condition, however it can severely impact on the quality of your life and has serious cost implications to the health service.
The Digestive System
The digestive system consists of the alimentary canal - a continuous tube from the mouth to the anus, and the accessory organs - teeth, tongue, salivary glands, pancreas, liver and gall bladder.
The process of digestion is the turning of solid food into a substance which can be easily absorbed into the blood stream, thereby nourishing all the tissues of the body by means of conversion and absorption.
Food is placed in the mouth and is masticated by the teeth. It is moistened by the salivary glands and formed into a ball (bolus) by the tongue. As this bolus slips beyond the tongue, the trachea (wind pipe) is automatically closed by the epiglottis to prevent any food passing into it. We all know the unpleasant experience of food ‘going down the wrong way’ and causing a paroxysm of coughing. When the food is safely swallowed, it is gripped by the pharynx and pressed on into the oesophagus (or gullet) by peristalsis action. This is a squeezing movement caused by the contraction of the muscles in the tract. Symptoms of IBS appear to be caused by a spasm resulting in the peristalsis action taking place too quickly or too slowly. The oesophagus is about ten inches long and descends in front of the vertebrae, through the diaphragm to the upper end of the stomach.
The stomach is a muscular sac shaped like the letter ‘J’ and it holds an average of one and half pints. It lies above the umbilicus (navel) and to the left of the xyphold cartilage, just below the diaphragm, and partly under the left lobe of the liver. At the lower end of the stomach is a valve, called the pylorus, the orifice of the small intestine, the first twelve inches of which is the duodenum, which is shaped like a horse shoe. This now continues into the portion consisting of the upper two fifths of the remaining small intestine, - the jejunum. The last part is the ileum. The small intestine is about twenty five feet long in the adult, and is coiled around in numerous directions until it reaches the ileocaecal valve, the entrance to the large intestine.
From the caecum, the large colon ascends on the right side of the abdomen as far as the liver, when it turns at the hepatic flexure into the transverse colon as far as the spleen, and now turns downwards at the splenic flexure into the descending colon as far as the sigmoid flexure, which leads to the rectum.
Our next blog will explain how you digest food and how the medical profession diagnose IBS
