More than half of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) sufferers appear to have an atypical Food Allergy.
A rare gastrointestinal disease, irritable bowel syndrome affects about one in ten people. You may have heard of the low fodmap diet, but it doesn’t seem to work any better than the general advice to avoid things like coffee or colored and fatty foods. In fact, you can’t tell which is which, as shown below and at 0:27 in my video Friday Favorites: Fasting for an unpleasant bowel disease.
Most IBS patients, however, seem to react to certain foods, such as eggs, wheat, milk, or soy sauce, but when tested with standard allergy skin tests, they may be negative. We want to know what happens inside their intestines when they eat those things, however, not what happens on their skin. Enter favorable laser endomicroscopy.
Can you slither down your throat, into your stomach, and watch in real time as the wall of art burns and oozes after a delicious meal? You can actually see the crack forming within minutes, as shown below and at 1:03 for mine video. This has not been tested in a large group of IBS patients, however, until now.
Using this new technology, researchers found that more than half of IBS sufferers have this type of response to various foods- “Spicy food allergies that fly under the radar of traditional testing. As you can see below and at 1:28 of mine videowhen you exclude those foods from the diet, there is a significant reduction in symptoms.
However, without proper research, there is no way to know which foods to trust without trying to eat out, and there is no greater food than taking it all out. A 25-year-old woman had complained of abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea for a year, and drugs did not help. But, after fasting for 10 days, his symptoms improved significantly and remained so for at least 18 months later. It wasn’t just an underdevelopment. Biopsies were taken showing his inflammation, his colon was measured directly, and balloons and electrodes were inserted into his rectum to measure changes in his sensitivity to pressure and electrical stimulation. Fasting seemed to reset his gut, but just because it worked for you doesn’t mean it works for others. Case reports are very useful in motivating researchers to conduct research.
“Despite research efforts to develop a cure for IBS, treatment for this condition is unsatisfactory.” We can try to suppress symptoms with drugs, but what do we do when even that doesn’t work? In a study of 84 IBS patients, 58 of them failed the basic treatment (including pharmacotherapy and 36 of psychotherapy), 36 of the 58 had ten days of fasting, and the other 22 adhered to the basic treatment. Findings? Those in the self-lubricating group experienced significant improvements in abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, loss of appetite, nausea, anxiety, and disturbances in general health. The investigators concluded that rapid treatment “may help in the treatment of moderate and severe patients with IBS.”
Unfortunately, the allocation of patients is not random or pre-entered into the study, so the comparison with the control group does not mean much. They were also given vitamins B1 and C by IV, which seems to be typical of fast Japanese experiments, although one would not expect vitamin-deficiencies syndromes-beriberi or scurvy-to present within ten days of fasting. The study participants were also divided; Could that have made psychotherapy more effective? It’s hard to just mock the effects of fasting.
Psychotherapy alone can provide lasting benefits. The investigators randomized 101 outpatients with irritable bowel syndrome to medical treatment or three months of psychotherapy. After three months, the Psychotherapy group did better, and the difference was more pronounced a year later, a year after the end of the psychotherapy. Preferably in three months, and even better in 15 months, as you can see here and at 3:58 for me video.
Psychological methods seem to work as well as antidepressant drugs for IBS, but the placebo response of IBS is in the 40% way, or psychological intervention, drugs, or another medical method. So, basically doing nothing – taking a sugar pill – improves symptoms 40% of the time. In that case, I find that a person may well choose a cheap, safe, easy, and free treatment, which is enhanced by fasting, not really. But, if all else fails, it may be worth trying fasting under close medical supervision.
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Check out the videos on the topic already on the site here.
For more on IBS, see the related posts below.
