WHAT DO EXPERTS SAY ABOUT INFLAMMATION AND IBS?

Research has revealed your IBS Symptoms are caused by a hard-to-see type of inflammation.

Our IBS symptoms are the result of a hard-to-see type of inflammatory response. This occurs in the small intestines first, and in the lymphatic system and circulatory systems of your body,. THEN it affects the colon in the end. It involves a number of different types of your white blood cells that are designed to prevent disease causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites from attacking the body. In other words, the mechanism for fighting infection is turned-on when there is no infection. Because it happens both in the intestines, the first line of defense against infection, and in the bloodstream, the last line of defense, you get symptoms not only in your digestive tract but also throughout your body. Many of them are symptoms that if you think about it feel like some of the symptoms we get when an infection is coming on. Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a real inflammatory condition. Luckily, it is not so severe and destructive as some autoimmune diseases which attack the body, like classic inflammatory bowel diseases. But it is conclusive based on the definition of “functional disease” that It is not a “functional disease”.

Even some of the experts will basically admit that the concept of “functional diseases” like Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Functional Diarrhea are nothing more than WE HAVE NOT FOUND THE THING WHICH SHOWS THE CAUSE YET. THAT’S ALL. When it is FOUND then it is a “real disease”. Think about this. This is true of many medical conditions both old and new. It legitimizes medicine’s inability to find the cause and treat it.

For example, below I quote the physicians on MedicineNet.com from their IBS Information site. These physicians include:

Dr Jay Marks (Author) is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine and gastroenterology at UCLA/Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. For twenty years, he was the Associate Director of the Division of Gastroenterology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine, In Residence, at UCLA.

Dr Leslie J. Schoenfeld (Editor): Dr. Schoenfield served as associate professor of medicine and consultant in gastroenterology on the faculty of the Mayo Clinic for seven years. He became a professor of medicine in residence at UCLA from 1972 to 1999 (now emeritus). He was the director of gastroenterology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for 25 years, where he received the chief resident's teaching award, the president's award, and the pioneer of medicine award.

Dr. Dennis Lee (Editor): He graduated with chemistry departmental honors from Harvey Mudd College. He was appointed president of AOA society at UCLA School of Medicine. He underwent internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship training at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Dr. Lee is currently a member of the Mission Internal Medical Group, a multi-specialty medical group serving south Orange County.

“The distinction between functional disease and non-functional disease may, in fact, be blurry. Thus, even functional diseases probably have associated biochemical or molecular abnormalities that ultimately will be able to be measured. For example, functional diseases of the stomach and intestines may be shown ultimately to be caused by reduced levels of normal chemicals within the gastrointestinal organs, the spinal cord, or the brain. Should a disease that is demonstrated to be due to a reduced chemical still be considered a functional disease? I think not. In this theoretical situation, we can’t see the abnormality with the naked eye or the microscope, but we can measure it. If we can measure an associated or causative abnormality, the disease probably should no longer be considered functional.”

If this is true, and it is a fact not disputed by any respectable physician or researcher, then the first thing we can tell you is that the matter is settled. Your symptoms are not caused by a mystical, imaginary, unidentifiable problem. You have a very specific condition which was simply not seen until the last (5) years. Not only have the biochemical substances in your body which cause your symptoms been identified numerous times and presented at medical conferences and in the literature, but the specific type of hidden INFLAMMATION or INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE in the intestines themselves, the nerves in the intestines, and in the bloodstream been found, described, verified, quantified and DE MYSTIFIED.

The trouble with medicine and medical advancements is word travels slowly. Research in one country may not reach another country for some time. Immunologists publish research in their journals. Gastroenterologists don’t read those journals, and vice versa. Discoveries presented at a specialized medical conference may not reach the scientific journals anywhere for a very long time. Primary care doctors especially have to wait for information from specialty journals to filter through the system to their journals. Not to mention, how many journals can one doctor read? Even in his own area? So CHANGE happens even more slowly. Worse, when something like medical beliefs about IBS have become dogma, change is “glacial”. That does not mean the facts are not present, nor that new help cannot be gotten to people more quickly and directly than in the old days. It sometimes has to get to people directly, through the groups who develop something that helps, and then the people it helped telling others, or through the internet via “e-health” portals like this.

IBS is a low level inflammatory disease focused mostly in the SMALL INTESTINE with some large intestine involvement in some people and a SYSTEMIC elevated inflammatory response (white blood cells).

“Recent studies have overthrown the dogma that Irritable Bowel Syndrome is characterized by no abnormality of structure by demonstrating low-grade lymphocytic infiltration in the gut mucosa, increased permeability and increases in other inflammatory components including enterochromaffin and mast cells. Furthermore, increased inflammatory cytokines in both mucosa and blood have been demonstrated in Irritable Bowel Syndrome…”