IBS And Diarrhea: How To Manage Symptoms

Author's Bio: Marcie Vaske, MS, LN, CNS

Hi, and welcome back to our channel.

Today we're going to talk about IBS and Diarrhea and how to manage those symptoms.

So first we'll talk about common symptoms followed up with the causes of IBS and Diarrhea, how you can treat IBS and Diarrhea naturally, and talking through different lifestyle and diet tips and how can you manage your symptoms.

[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]

But first, my name is Marcie Vaske and I'm a licensed nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic and at Oswald Digestive Clinic, we treat and see lots of clients who obviously struggle with IBS and diarrhea, even constipation, bloating, gas.

I'm going to link our website here where you can easily make an initial appointment if you're struggling with gut issues or know someone that is. I'm also going to link our free guide, which is Five Ways to Improve Your Gut Health. So let's dig into our topic, which is IBS and Diarrhea.

So first, what is IBS?

It stands for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. And Irritable Bowel Syndrome is just a collection of different symptoms such as bloating, gas, abdominal, cramping, constipation, and of course diarrhea. And then there's also just diarrhea, which can be on its you may have diarrhea without irritable bowel syndrome, but oftentimes these two are connected.

So to understand the connection between IBS and diarrhea is something we are going to talk about, but like I said, sometimes diarrhea just is a symptom on its own without irritable bowel syndrome. So as we move through our topic today, we're going to, I'm going to help you understand better the difference between that as well as their connection.

So first to get us started,

What are some common symptoms of IBS and diarrhea?

And as I said, oftentimes they overlap together, and number one can be just abdominal pain and discomfort.

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So if you're feeling like you have a lot of movement in your lower intestinal tract or you're just having cramping, stabbing pains can be irritable bowel syndrome as well as diarrhea. Another common symptom is just changes in bowel habits. So with IBS, you can have either constipation or diarrhea where things are kind of mixed or one or the other, whereas with just diarrhea, we're thinking mostly of just loose stools that kind of come more abruptly instead of erratically.

Now of course, along with diarrhea and IBS, you are going to probably experience bloating gas, and that's very common with both issues.

Another symptom is going to be just urgency. So feeling like you're fine one minute and the next minute you're running to the bathroom with some pretty urgent stools. And this can be the connection between IBS and diarrhea. Of course, if you have an acute affection, sometimes diarrhea is just the cause or the symptom of that.

Now, if you're struggling with IBS and diarrhea and you're having maybe up to six or 10 loose stools a day, oftentimes you're going to feel fatigued. And this is because your body is just not absorbing the nutrition or the nutrients you're consuming and you can feel very tired also because you are dehydrated.

So if we're having a lot of loose stools, often people who struggle with this do are oftentimes dehydrated. So if you're struggling with diarrhea because of an acute infection, it's oftentimes going to become more quickly and then end pretty abruptly as well.

Versus if it's an IBS related diarrhea, it's pretty chronic. So feeling like it started, and it may have felt acute in the beginning, but now you're looking at six months or a year later and you're still really struggling with diarrhea.

Causes of IBS

Now, some of the causes of IBS, which would then connect to this diarrhea symptom is a change in our microbiome.

Microbiome

So our microbiome or gut microbiome is a environment where we have multiple or trillions of bacteria, fungi, and different types of microbials in our gut. We want it to be very diverse to have the best outcome for gut and gut health. Sometimes that doesn't happen, and we have a breakdown of our gut microbiome, which can lead to IBS symptoms.

Visceral hypersensitivity

Another cause of IBS is also going to be a visceral hypersensitivity, which means that your intestinal tract is very sensitive to changes. So for example, if you have gas, which may be normal, just daily gas, for people who are real hypersensitive, they feel that much more, which causes more pain. Also, another symptom, or not symptom, but cause of IBS can be food intolerances.

And for people who struggle with maybe a lactose intolerance, a gluten sensitivity, or a variety of different food sensitivities, by eating those foods create IBS symptoms.

So how do we diagnose IBS and diarrhea?

And IBS is, as I mentioned, just kind of a collection of many different symptoms.

Medical history

And so first it would just be doing a medical history. So understanding your history, your health history.

Physical examination

Also a physical examination, and this is oftentimes when people are starting to have symptoms, they do go in and seek a physician care to be sure to rule out anything physical going on.

Lab tests

Also, there is lab tests that can help to diagnose IBS and diarrhea. And with these labs or tests helps to rule out if it's anything underlying such as a bacterial infection or a viral infection going on.

Imaging tests

Also, there's imaging tests. So you can do, if you go into the physician, you may do some testing. Again, ruling out that there's anything physical in nature that's an issue that needs to be taken care of versus just symptoms that you're feeling.

Breath tests

Oftentimes as well, breath tests are ordered and breath tests can show if there is a small intestinal bacteria overgrowth or sibo as well as lactose intolerance, kind of again, just ruling what's in and what's out.

So we know where to be begin treating you well. And also, elimination diets are also something that can be helpful to rule out food sensitivities and how your digestive system work. So if you've gone in to see your healthcare provider to rule out any underlying physical issues and you're still having symptoms, sometimes this is now a time where reaching out to someone, a gut health expert like myself or at our clinic, can help you change your symptoms with diet and lifestyle.

And number one, what we'd work on is just identifying trigger foods. So if we know that there are certain foods that are going to irritate your bowel, which then creates the diarrhea, we want to eliminate that. Also, for some people, increasing fiber can be helpful. Now, fiber is always something we want to have in our diet. It's very helpful for having a good bowel movement every day, but we need to be real careful with that.

So knowing how much insoluble fiber versus soluble fibers to consume is something working with a healthcare practitioner can be really helpful for. Also, as I mentioned, if you're having a lot of diarrhea, you want to make sure you're staying hydrated because if you're going multiple times a day, you're losing a lot of fluid.

So making sure that you're staying hydrated is something else to work on. And another lifestyle thing to work on as well is the stress. And I know I talk about this in all of our videos, but stress is such a quiet issue. We feel it, but we don't realize how much it's really doing to our body internally. And stress and diarrhea are hand in hand. And so if you're having a lot of diarrhea and it's more of the, and it's connected with irritable bowel syndrome, reducing stress can be a big help in reducing diarrhea.

So how can you manage your symptoms of IBS and diarrhea?

And sometimes this feels like a lost cause, especially when you're really having a lot of issues with urgency going multiple times a day. You sometimes feel bound to your house or bound to the bathroom. And so taking certain measures is going to be really helpful. And when I see people who are struggling with a lot of diarrhea first, yes, we work on what kind of fibers need to be incorporated or maybe cut back on if they're having too much fiber, and then putting in the appropriate amounts of specific fibers to help them slow down the bowel.

Also, experimenting with digestive enzymes can also be really helpful in digesting your food better, which then slows down digestion in a positive way. Also, things like stress management, which I just talked about is stress is such a trigger for diarrhea that really working on different ways to reduce stress from your life by either meditation or doing exercise or taking 15 minutes just to breathe and just kind of calm your mind. Really noticing that connection.

First of off is going to be helpful in giving you the best step in how you can use different mindful stress relieving techniques. Also, limiting caffeine and alcohol. We know caffeine is definitely a stimulant, and sometimes if you've ever noticed, you'll drink your morning coffee and at a half hour or an hour later you're in the bathroom having your daily bowel movement.

But for people who struggle with diarrhea, this can really irritate the bowel and have multiple bowel movements in the morning or whenever you have caffeine. Alcohol also does trigger diarrhea for some people. If you're trying to find a healthier digestive system, really getting rid of things that aren't supporting you while you're getting healthy is ideal.

And lastly, get enough sleep. Again, this is something else I talk about a lot too, but we take sleep for granted. Sometimes only sleeping is the few hours because we're so busy, but if you don't take the time to get enough sleep, so many things in our body can start to work less efficiently.

So I hope this help give you some clarity about IBS and diarrhea and that they are very connected. First, understanding if you have IBS and then working with maybe a gut health expert like myself or at our clinic to help you find a way to manage your IBS best. Because like I said, sometimes it feels really overwhelming when you're having multiple bowel movements a day and you're stuck in your house or feel like you have to be.

So again, if this sounds like you make an appointment with us, we see this all the time and we want you to feel better.

So hope you have a great day, and thanks for watching.

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If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.