Bad bowels

I’ve been focused on bowels lately (see last week's post on the brain in your gut). It’s not something one brings up in polite conversation, but I think plenty of people suffer in silence—or maybe not. Irritable bowel syndrome, for one, accounts for about three and a half million visits to doctors every year, and doctors may not always be sympathetic. In fact, some doctors think their patients are mentally unbalanced. I read about a doctor-in-training who said he “hated” people who were suffering from functional bowel disease because they were so fixated on their intestines.

But I am sympathetic. Of the bowel diseases I’ve researched, the causes are not known and there is no cure for them, although they can go into remission. As a rule, their symptoms all include diarrhea and pain, but can also include bleeding, bloating, and constipation. Here are the four I have studied:

• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): The digestive system looks normal and there is no diagnostic test for it, which is why it’s called a “functional” bowel disease. It does not cause inflammation, ulcers, or other damage to the bowel. At any given time, about 20 percent of Americans are made miserable by IBS.
• Microscopic colitis: Includes collagenous colitis and lymphocytic colitis, both of which cause inflammation of the colon. Both are characterized by abnormalities in the cells that line the intestine—but each in its own way. It does not increase a person's risk of getting colon cancer and is not related to ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.
• Ulcerative colitis: Causes long-lasting inflammation and ulcers in the colon, affecting the innermost lining. In severe cases, doctors remove the colon.
• Crohn’s disease: Is different from the other gut diseases in that it can appear anywhere in the intestinal tract, from the mouth to the anus, although it most commonly appears at the end of the small intestine where it joins the large intestines.

It's hard not to be fixated on your intestines when they're not working right!

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