How to Recognize the Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

TS
Irritable bowel syndrome is relatively common in the U.S., estimated to affect approximately twenty percent of the adult population. Everyone experiences digestive problems now and then to some degree. How can you tell if it's something a little more serious than just a temporary result of overeating? Following are some clues that you may be suffering from irritable bowel syndrome.

1. There are lots of times when you feel like you have to go, but you can't. This is generally accompanied by lower back pain and pressure on the bladder, causing frequent urination. Once you have a bowel movement, the pain and pressure subside temporarily.

2. Bowel movements have become lengthy and abnormally uncomfortable.

3. You experience erratic bouts of cramps, bloating, abdominal pain and gas on a regular basis, but can't seem to trace the episodes to anything specific that you may have eaten. It seems to happen no matter what you eat, with no rhyme or reason whatsoever.

4. You go through periods of time when your system alternates back and forth between diarrhea and constipation, loose bowels and hard painful ones, from one day to the next without forewarning.

5. Bowel discomfort makes it difficult to take part in normal activities, and the fear of needing a bathroom for an extensive period of time is starting to discourage you from leaving the house.

6. Even after a bowel movement, you experience the sensation of not having emptied your bowels completely, but you can't force yourself to expel anything more.

7. You're no longer sure what to eat and what not to eat, since everything seems to affect your digestive tract unfavorably.

8. Lower back pain, bowel spasms, and pressure on the bladder, kidneys and rectum make it impossible to get comfortable enough to fall asleep.

9. Sometimes the pressure on your bladder is so extreme that it stops you from urinating even when you very much have to go. Often you're unable to urinate until the pressure and swelling go down, releasing the bladder to function normally.

10. Lately, you're spending more time in the bathroom than you are doing anything else.

11. These symptoms have been troubling you off and on for months, maybe years.

Is any of this at all familiar to you? If so, chances are that you are one of the many individuals suffering from irritable bowel syndrome.



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