Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a problem that affects the large intestine. It can cause abdominal cramping, bloating and a change in bowel habits. Some people with the disorder have constipation. Some have diarrhea. Some go back and forth between constipation and diarrhea. Although IBS can cause a great deal of discomfort, it does not harm the intestines.

IBS is a common disorder and happens more often in women than men. No one knows the exact cause of IBS. There is no specific test for IBS. However, your doctor may run tests to be sure you don't have other diseases. These tests may include stool sampling tests, blood tests and x-rays. Your doctor may also do a test called a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy. Most people diagnosed with IBS can control their symptoms with diet, stress management and medicine.

IBS, An abnormally increased motility of the small and large intestines, often with emotional stress. Mostly young adults are affected. They complain of diarrhea and, sometimes, pain in the lower abdomen. The pain is often stopped by moving the bowels. In diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome, other more serious conditions, as dysentery, lactose intolerance, and the inflammatory bowel diseases, must be ruled out. Because there is no organic disease in irritable bowel syndrome, no specific treatment is needed. Many persons benefit from the use of bulk-producing agents in the diet.

The diarrhea associated with IBS is not true diarrhea in that there is no increase in stool volume. Patients sometimes pass mucus with the stools and have a sensation of incomplete evacuation of the bowels following defecation.

Recurring IBS has been associated with stress, although abdominal distress is a common reaction to anxiety in many people who do not suffer from IBS.

Physicians diagnose IBS only after conducting a series of tests that rule out other gastrointestinal disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal parasites, and polyps. These tests include a barium enema, stool parasite culture, and sigmoidoscopy, examination of the lower intestines with a hollow, tube like instrument passed through the anus.

There is no cure for IBS and treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms. High fiber diets or antispasmodic drugs may relieve constipation. Although there is no scientific evidence linking irritable bowel syndrome and the amount of fiber in the diet, some people benefit from eating a high-fiber diet, while others find reducing their carbohydrate intake helps.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AND ABDOMINAL SYMPTOMS:

According to Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Jan 1996, volume 26 Number 1, page 38, IBS patients are thought to have underlying psychological disease. Majority of the patient who consulted the doctor about their symptoms showed evidence of anxiety and depression.

Psychosomatic disease is frequently a source of multiple referrals, leading to multiple investigations and often multiple operations. This imposes a considerable economic burden on society. The Symposium on Psychosomatic diseases, held in the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, in April 1995 brought together doctors from many different fields of medicine to hear presentation that dealt with the etiology and management of psychosomatic disease.

HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENT:

Prognosis: Favorable.

Miasmatic Preponderance: Psora

There is no specific treatment of any disease in homeopathy. Homeopathy is Individualization. Homeopathy treats the man in disease and not disease in the man.

Master Physician Dr. Samuel Hahnemann guides us for all times to come through 'Organon of Medicine' as follows:

1. Every physician who treats disease according to general character, however he may affect to claim the name of homeopathist, is and ever will remain in fact a generalising allopath, for without the most minute individualization, homeopathy is not conceivable. Foot Note 2 to Para 6 of Introduction.
2. Duty of a careful apprehension of its ascertainable symptoms and characteristics is as indispensable for the homeopathic physician as it was before discovery psora theory; no real cure can take place without a strict particular (individualisation) of each case of disease. Aphorism-8
3. The individualising examination of a case of disease demands of the physician nothing but freedom from prejudice and sound senses, attention in observing and fidelity in tracing the picture of the disease. Aphorism-83.
4. The homeopathic physician treats each disease according to their several peculiarities. Foot Note 71 to Section 73.

Selection of Similimum:

In correct prescribing the symptom totality, as we call it, of the patient must be matched against the symptom totality of the remedy. This totality should not be a multitude of irrelevant details but a certain basic pattern, significant to the total functional unit. Two or three symptoms may already represent a totality, if they are truly characteristic of the outstanding pattern of the drug pathogensis. This empirical observation points to the fact that in the multitude of observable details certain expressions, notably the MENTAL and GENERAL symptoms, are outstanding representative of the wholeness of a disturbed organism; they subordinate logically almost automatically, the "particulars", namely symptoms and changes applicable only to certain parts and organs.

Since the MENTAL symptoms are of determining and overruling importance in establishing the pattern of the totality, the conclusion is justified that they may also be a major factor in its formation.

The homeopathic approach is phenomenological one. Dr. Samuel Hahnemann developed this theory not on the basis of speculation but as the result of pure observation.

References:

• www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia-hmtl
• Samuel Hahnemann, Organon of Medicine, 6^th ed., by M Bhattacharyya & CO, Calcutta. 1960
• Samuel Hahnemann, The Chronic Diseases, by M. Bhattacharyya & Co, Calcutta, 1960
• J T Kent, Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy, by Sett Dey & Co, Calcutta.
• Processo S Ortega, Notes on the Miasm, by National Homeo. Pharmacy, New Delhi
• Walter J. Coville, Abnormal Psychology, by Barnes & Boble, New York, 1962
• Cornelia Richardson-Boedler, Applying Homeopathy and Bach Flower Therapy to Psychosomatic
• Illness, by B Jain Publishers (P) Ltd, New Delhi, 1998
• Philip M Bailey, Homeopathic Psychology, by B. Jain Publishers (P) LTD, New Delhi, 2002
• Edward C Whitmond,Psyche and Substance, by B Jain Publisher (P) Ltd, New Delhi, 2002
• Prafull Vijayakar, Theory of Suppression, by Mrs Preeti Vijayakar, Mumbai, 1997
• Prafull Vijayakar, The of Myasmtion of Miasms,by Mrs Preet Vjayakar, 2003