Debunking the IBS Myth: What You Must Know Today
Receiving an IBS diagnosis is a catch-all phrase that gives you no answers, only questions, and unfortunately most women continue suffering debilitating digestive symptoms like bloating, distention, constipation or diarrhea even when they avoid more and more food.
What if I told you that IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) isn't a real diagnosis, but rather a symptom of something much deeper?
What Does IBS Actually Mean?
To pull back the curtain, let's first understand what IBS is—or, more accurately, what it is not. Irritable Bowel Syndrome is what healthcare professionals call a "functional disorder," which means there's no identifiable structural problem in your digestive tract. The criteria are often based on symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, and inconsistent bowel movements—sometimes diarrhea, sometimes constipation, sometimes both(1). There’s no single test to diagnose IBS; it's a process of elimination ,a diagnosis of exclusion, excluding other disorders and diseases. In short, when you hear you've got IBS, it's like being handed a "mystery box" with no guide on how to unlock it. You're left in a medical no-man's-land, clutching a label that doesn’t really tell you anything at all. It is like your medical provider saying: “we have not been able to find a specific cause for your symptoms, sorry”.
IBS is a complex condition with many subtypes, including diarrhea-predominant IBS (IBS-D), constipation-predominant IBS (IBS-C), mixed diarrhea and constipation IBS (IBS-M), and unspecified IBS (IBS-U). Unfortunately, if left untreated, secondary issues and conditions such as nutrient deficiencies, thyroid issues, autoimmunity, colorectal cancer and mental health conditions can increase.
The Functional Medicine Approach to IBS
This is where functional medicine comes in. Rather than slapping on a superficial label like IBS, functional medicine digs deep to identify the underlying issues. These could range from food sensitivities and gut microbiome imbalance to emotional stress and hormone imbalances (2). IBS is not a real cause, it is only a description of your symptoms.
You see, the "IBS symptoms" are not standalone issues but can be symptomatic of deeper imbalances in your body. For instance, an imbalance in your gut microbiome—what we call dysbiosis—can lead to poor nutrient absorption, triggering IBS-like symptoms(3). Or perhaps your digestive system is a battleground because your immune system is overactive due to chronic stress. Research suggests that up to 60% to 80% of those diagnosed with IBS actually have SIBO as an underlying cause (4). That’s right; your "IBS" might actually be a masquerading SIBO, disguising itself with identical symptoms while the root cause remains unaddressed. SIBO or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, is a condition where excessive bacteria populate the small intestine, disrupting nutrient absorption and causing a variety of symptoms that mimic IBS (5). The point is, there’s usually an interconnected web of factors at play, and that's what we need to address.
When you realize that IBS is not a true diagnosis, you understand that a one-size-fits-all approach can’t work for women with a complex health history and underlying causes
Root Cause Resolution
So what is the solution?
No more band-aids. No more symptomatic quick-fixes. The one solution that matters is going straight to the root cause—SIBO in a majority of cases—and treating it with a personalized, functional medicine and nutrition approach. This is beyond merely silencing symptoms; it’s about restoring your body's natural equilibrium and tailoring functional lab testing, nutrition, lifestyle and supplementation to your unique test results and needs.
If you don’t want to spend the rest of your life managing the symptoms of IBS, you have to dig a little bit deeper until you find the cause(s). When clients come to see me with an IBS diagnosis, I am yet to have a client that doesn’t walk away with one or many different and completely treatable condition/s. Getting to the root cause of your symptoms will allow you to not be tied to a strict diet the rest of your life to control symptoms - it can free up your body's resources to actually heal.
Healing your gut is a worthwhile journey to embark on. If you are ready to take control of your (gut) health, please head to the NOURISHED GUT page to learn more about how I work online with clients in different countries to test for and treat the various root causes of IBS symptoms and other GI conditions.
References
Manning AP, Thompson WG, Heaton KW, Morris AF. "Towards positive diagnosis of the irritable bowel." Br Med J. 1978;2(6138):653-654. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.6138.653
Institute for Functional Medicine. "Functional Medicine Approach to Irritable Bowel Syndrome." https://www.ifm.org/
Thursby, E., & Juge, N. (2018). "Introduction to the human gut microbiota." Biochemical Journal, 474(11), 1823–1836. https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20160510
Ford AC, Spiegel BM, Talley NJ, Moayyedi P. "Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in irritable bowel syndrome: systematic review and meta-analysis." Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2009;7(12):1279-1286. doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2009.06.031
Lin HC. "Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth: a framework for understanding irritable bowel syndrome." JAMA. 2004;292(7):852-858. doi:10.1001/jama.292.7.852