IBS and other tales

From: Igor Gudymenko (igudym@eos.comint.net)
Thu Oct 14 03:14:09 1999


Dear Tina,

I heard such tales you had been told many times from many specialists. :)

Don't you see the vicious cycle in such strategy?

With Love, Igor Gudymenko

you wrote: > Hi Chris,

> I too had been diagnosed with IBS and went through the high fiber
> suppliments and like you - I found that the high fiber increased my symptoms
> instead of helping them. In simple IBS - not associated with adhesions - it
> is true that high fiber will help control symptoms.

> I saw Dr. Willam Richards at Vanderbilt in Nashville TN - he taught me some
> very interesting things about the bowel and adhesions. First thing he said
> was that the bowel does not interpret pain signals the way the rest of the
> body does. Once he enters the abdominal cavity - he can manipulate the
> bowel, cut it ect. . and the body does not intrepret that as pain. What
> triggers pain in the bowel - is distention. Adhesions across the bowel can
> interfere with the passage of gastric contents - causing distention - and
> therefore the perception of pain. When the bowel is "full" with fiber - and
> the fiber reaches a place in the bowel that adhesions have attached -
> preventing "normal" bowel contractions trying to move the fiber through -
> things get backed up - distention occurs - and pain.

> The complicating factor is the IBS. A person with IBS has a much lower
> tolerance to bowel distention. Research done on patients with IBS and
> patients without IBS showed that when a ballon was placed in the person's
> rectum and inflated - the ones without IBS tolerated bowel distention levels
> at nearly 10 times greater than those with IBS. So those with IBS
> experienced high levels of pain with the same level of balloon distention
> that caused no pain in those without IBS. So those of us with IBS and
> adhesions - the least bit of distention can trigger major pain levels. Which
> also explains why we have symptoms of a partial bowel obstruction (elevate
> white count, vomiting, diarrhea, and a high levels of pain) that won't
> necessarily be picked up with x-ray.

> Dr. Richards told me that I was more than likely nearly obstructing during
> these episodes and he could go in and take out the part of the bowel that is
> causing the problem - but until it actually shows up on x-ray - there isn't
> much he can do. He also told me that there has been no reasearch done to
> try and establish what is a "normal" level of bowel contractility and what
> is abnormal. He is actually in the process of trying to develop an
> instrument that can measure bowel contractility so that some range of normal
> can be established. He told me to stay in touch with him as he hope in about
> 1 years time the instrument will have been developed.

> Back to your origional question about diet - a low residue diet does not
> usually cause the bowel to be distended like a high fiber diet/suppliments
> can. In a person dealing with IBS and adhesions - preventing even the least
> amounts of bowel distention will help to prevent major pain level.

> I hope this has answered your question and I haven't confused you - forgive
> me if I have as the hour is late. If something I have said isn't clear or is
> confusing - please let me know and I will try and do a better job of
> explaining it.

> Tina


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