# It's Not All In Your Head: Understanding Irritable Bowel Syndrome



## eric (Jul 8, 1999)

excellent presentation on IBS.It's Not All In Your Head: Understanding Irritable Bowel Syndrome On the left you have to select windows media or quicktime.http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=26275&fID=1698everyone should watch this.


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## Heated_Heavy (Feb 2, 2006)

eric said:


> excellent presentation on IBS.It's Not All In Your Head: Understanding Irritable Bowel Syndrome On the left you have to select windows media or quicktime.http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=26275&fID=1698everyone should watch this.


Thank you for posting this Eric. Heres another article I found today that you might find interesting.Proof That a Gut-Wrenching Complaint -- Irritable Bowel Syndrome -- Is Not in Your HeadScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2010) - Irritable bowel syndrome makes life miserable for those affected -- an estimated ten percent or more of the population. And what irritates many of them even more is that they often are labeled as hypochondriacs, since physical causes for irritable bowel syndrome have never been identified.Now, biologists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have shed new light on the matter: They have discovered mini-inflammations in the mucosa of the gut, which upset the sensitive balance of the bowel and are accompanied by sensitization of the enteric nervous system.Flatulence, constipation and diarrhea, nausea and stomach cramps: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can turn digestion into a nightmare. Frequent visits to the bathroom are often accompanied by sleep disturbances, headaches, and backaches. In Germany alone, some seven million people are affected by the disorder -- and by the fact that their irritable bowel syndrome is often deemed psychosomatic. This is because the organic trigger of the disease has never been discovered, and consequently the various therapeutic interventions are disappointing for both the patients and their doctors. That may soon change, however, because now, for the first time, biologists in Munich have nailed down hidden physical causes of this bowel disorder.Professor Michael Schemann's research team at the TUM Department for Human Biology has managed to demonstrate that micro-inflammations of the mucosa cause sensitization of the enteric nervous system, thereby causing irritable bowel syndrome. Using ultrafast optical measuring methods, the researchers were able to demonstrate that mediators from mast cells and enterochromaffin cells directly activate the nerve cells in the bowel. This hypersensitivity of the enteric nervous system upsets communication between the gut's mucosa and its nervous system, as project leader Prof. Schemann explains: "The irritated mucosa releases increased amounts of neuroactive substances such as serotonin, histamine and protease. This cocktail produced by the body could be the real cause of the unpleasant IBS complaints."The TUM researchers in human biology are blazing a trail as they follow this lead. Their current focus is to what extent nerve sensitization correlates with the severity of symptoms. Working with colleagues from Amsterdam, they have already substantiated the clinical relevance of their results: Irritable bowel symptoms improved after treatment with an antihistamine known for its immune-stabilizing effect in the treatment of allergic reactions such as hay fever. Thanks to funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the scientists are now investigating whether the improved symptoms are accompanied by a normalization of nerve activity.Successful identification of the active components could enable the development of effective drugs to treat irritable bowel syndrome. Even now, though, the TUM team have made life easier for many IBS patients, in that they have shown that the chronic disorder does have physical causes and is not merely "in their heads."http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100819141950.htm


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## peaches41 (Nov 26, 2008)

So I wonder if taking anti-histamine tablets would help?


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## Heated_Heavy (Feb 2, 2006)

It would have been nice If they would have mentioned exactly what brand of antihistamine they gave to relieve the symptoms.


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## eric (Jul 8, 1999)

Heated, I saw that article. Its actually nothing new, because for about 5 years or more they have known about EC cells and mast cells and IBS, especially from post infectious IBS studies, so this is more of another research group finding the same problems.The HPA axis also which is the bodies stress responce amoung other things can also trigger this without a person being conciously aware of it. It triggers the release of histimine and some serotonin, although the majority of the serotonin is in the ec cells.IBS is still a brain gut axis disorder. They don't seperate the two so much for treatments, just for research. Both are operational to cause the symptoms.They are working on a drug called a CRF antagonist for this purpose.The histimne release is a PART of IBS issues, but no the whole picture, although it could gives some relief.I am not sure what specific antihistimine they used either that would be interesting.This maybe why some people get more or less symptoms when they have a cold. EC and mast cells have been an important part of the picture in IBS for quite a while now. If you do a search on this on the enire bb here you'll find a lot of information on it all.


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## klaird (Sep 17, 2010)

Heated_Heavy said:


> It would have been nice If they would have mentioned exactly what brand of antihistamine they gave to relieve the symptoms.


ketotifen started with 2 mg twice daily for 2 weeks, after which the dose was increased to 4 mg twice daily for another 2 weeks to reach a final dose of 6 mg twice daily during the last 4 weeks of the study.


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