# About.com- IBS Advocacy



## VSsupport (Feb 12, 2008)

An encouraging discussion has recently been started on the IBS Discussion Forum regarding IBS advocacy. _Stepjrn_ writes "In my opinion, silence and anonymity are our enemies in this case. IBS is a legitimate medical condition and the way we get more health care professionals and the general public to see that legitimacy and the importance of our needs is to come out of the closet and speak out loudly and en masse. We cannot expect others to fund or support our needs if we are not collectively willing to get behind our own cause and the organizations and other entities that are supposed to represent us."

_Ed12_ makes a good point as well: "If every IBS sufferer in the 3 countries I have already stated joined together and donated only one DOLLAR a month, just one DOLLAR a month, more than 100 millions dollars would be raised for funding of the disease each month, and that is only in three major countries around the world, not to mention other countries. Imagine how far we would go towards better relief in a year. In a year we would be able to raise more than 1.2 billion dollars. I'm sure that much hasn't ever been raised for any disease, but we can do that by only donating a dollar each, and it will be to get better relief in the future. I swear if this happens, there will definitely be a cure for IBS within 5 years."

These two readers bring up such a good point. The number of people who suffer from IBS is as Will Ferrell would say "ginourmous". Why doesn't IBS get the press and the funding that other health conditions get? Why do IBS patients stay locked in shame and silence? You might say that the symptoms are embarrassing, but as _Stepjren_ so nicely points out in one of her posts, patients with Crohn's and colitis are not so silent, and they also deal with "bathroom issues".

Please think about what you can do to bring IBS into the forefront so that it gets the research dollars that are so desperately needed. The following articles might give you some ideas:


IBS Advocacy
Donating Opportunities for IBS</A>


For other ideas, or if you have any ideas of your own as to how to increase IBS advocacy, please join in on the discussion on the [url="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&zu=http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-ibs&tid=192"]IBS forum.


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IBS Advocacy originally appeared on About.com Irritable Bowel Syndrome on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 09:54:11.

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