More insight into an irritable or spastic bowel
Many people experience an irritable or spastic bowel. If you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), symptoms may include abdominal pain, a bloated abdomen or other intestinal complaints. IBS does not usually require hospital treatment. Changes to your lifestyle and diet may be enough, although sometimes you may need to see your GP. Would you like to know where your symptoms come from, rule out possible causes and shorten the duration of your symptoms? Take a self-test through Darmklachten.nl and look for the cause of your complaints.
What is an irritable or spastic bowel?
About one in five people has an irritable or spastic bowel. If you have chronic intestinal inflammation, you have a greater chance of also having irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). IBS usually begins in adulthood, but it can also occur in children. Men experience it twice as often as women. IBS can be hereditary, but it can also develop after gastroenteritis, prolonged antibiotic use or surgery. Stress and certain foods can worsen the symptoms. If you have IBS, you do not have an increased risk of other bowel diseases, and IBS symptoms themselves cannot damage the intestine.
Symptoms of an irritable or spastic bowel
If you have an irritable or spastic bowel, you may experience the following symptoms:
- Abdominal pain. Some people experience a dull ache, while others feel sharp stabbing pains. This may worsen after eating and before, during or after a bowel movement.
- A bloated abdomen. This symptom usually develops during the course of the day and appears to be related to a reaction of the abdominal muscles.
- Changes in bowel movements, alternating between diarrhoea and constipation, sometimes even within the same day. The bowels often still feel as though they have not emptied completely after a bowel movement.
- Other symptoms, such as fatigue, back or stomach discomfort, nausea, bloating or even joint pain.
Symptoms associated with an irritable or spastic bowel
You may have an irritable or spastic bowel if you have had symptoms for more than six months, have experienced abdominal pain one day a week during the past three months, and have at least two of the following three features: pain related to bowel movements, a change in your stools since the symptoms began (harder or softer), and diarrhoea or constipation. In addition, you have no warning signs that could indicate another problem, such as blood in the stool, weight loss or diarrhoea only.
Tests for an irritable or spastic bowel
If you suspect that you have an irritable or spastic bowel, you can take a self-test to obtain more information. This may help rule out causes, identify where your symptoms come from and shorten the duration of your complaints. Darmklachten.nl offers various self-tests. For chronic gastrointestinal complaints, we recommend ordering the complete package. This includes a gut flora analysis and testing for the parasites D. fragilis and B. hominis. The self-test is easy to perform. You place a small amount of stool in a container and send it to our laboratory.
About Darmklachten.nl
Darmklachten.nl is an initiative of MGlab&Advies, a laboratory specialising in stool testing. …read more
