Today I’m going to talk to you about IBS, which stands for irritable bowel syndrome, or in my opinion, It’s BS. And why would I say that? Because certainly millions of people have IBS. Well, I’ve been practicing for over 30 years and have seen over 100,000 patient visits, treating all sorts of conditions—pain, fatigue, brain fog, depression, anxiety, thyroid, adrenal issues, autoimmune.
But the one thing though that almost all my patients have in common is digestive issues. I’ve seen it more so lately, and it seems like almost everyone comes in with some sort of gut symptoms. Many of my patients have been to other doctors and get labeled as having IBS.
IBS Traditional Treatment
So I want to talk about what you can do to find out what’s causing it and how to correct it. So, typical scenario, you go to the doctor saying you have symptoms such as gas, bloating, abdominal pain, cramping, constipation, diarrhea. Even mucus in the stool can feel miserable.
And so you go in and your primary doctor says, all right, well why don’t you take this medication (usually acid-blocking drugs)? See if that works.
You go back, still no better. All right, well, let’s send you to the GI doctor.
So you go to the GI doctor. What’s going on?
Well, doc, I don’t know, I have some gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, just feel really irritable. My bowels feel irritable all the time. I don’t know what’s going on.
All right, well, let’s do some tests. We’ll do a colonoscopy.
Maybe they’ll do a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. So you get the results back and go in.
So what is it?
Oh, well you have IBS.
Oh, what’s that Doc?
That stands for irritable bowel syndrome.
Well, wait a minute isn’t that what I told you I had, irritable bowel?
Right, you have irritable bowel syndrome, exactly.
Well, what causes that?
Well, no one really knows what causes it.
What can I do about it?
Well, you can get this medication for it. We have acid-blocking drugs.
That’s the one that didn’t work.
Okay, we can do muscle relaxers or anti-anxiety pills, or you can do these pain meds or even anti-depressants. These are all common medications used for IBS.
And that’s why I say It’s BS because IBS is not a condition, it’s simply a description of what’s going on. It would be like going to the orthopedist and you say,
Doc, my neck hurts, it’s been really hurting a lot lately.
They do some x-rays, maybe an MRI.
Okay, well, you have something very serious. It’s called HNS.
HNS, what’s that?
Hurt neck syndrome.
What do you mean?
You have HNS.
Well, I know, my neck hurts.
But this is an actual condition. Look it up online.
You go online, HNS, there are support groups. There are all kinds of blogs, websites all over the place. I’m making this up, by the way, maybe I’m not, maybe it does exist. But this is how it works. Anyway, that’s why I say it’s BS.
Root Cause of IBS
However, IBS does exist. I know, I had it years ago, even as a kid I had all these symptoms. I was miserable. And as I got older, it even got worse. So I went through all this. I was able to get it cleared up and basically what it comes down to is finding out the root causes of IBS.
Number one is pathogens (infections)—bacteria, yeast, parasites. And why don’t they ever test for this? It’s so rare that you can even get your doctor to order a stool test. I like to order these comprehensive stool tests, not just to check for parasites, but also yeast, bacteria, digestive enzymes, different markers of inflammation, immune health. So it gives a clear picture.
So parasites, for instance, in one study I read almost half of the IBS patients had this parasite called Blastocystis hominis. I did other videos on that if you want to check that out. But 46% had blasto. and all the symptoms of IBS can be from this blastocystis and other parasites, the gas, bloating, cramping, diarrhea, constipation.
Yeast overgrowth is also a common cause of IBS symptoms, and bacterial overgrowth (dysbiosis) as well. And when I tested myself, these are just some of approximately 20 stool test parasite pictures and everything that I did years ago when I had these issues. I wanted to get to the underlying root cause. And it took me a while to figure out and get it cleared up. But you should do a comprehensive stool test if you want to find out and figure out what’s causing your gut symptoms.
So infections, pathogens are one. And what do you do about that? Well, depending on what it is, for parasites, there’s certain natural formulas we use and sometimes you need a prescription medication. For me, I use a series of products that I found really worked, and this was after I tried a few different prescription drugs for the parasites which did not work.
Natural Treatment for IBS
If it’s yeast, there are certain protocols for that. I use a product called Yeast Defeat™. If it’s a bacterial overgrowth, I use Microb-Balance™. There are probiotics that I use that are effective and powerful called ProbioSupreme™SB or other of our probiotics depending on the findings. So, eliminating the cause of the infection is one thing.
Second, are deficiencies—nutrient and digestive enzyme deficiencies, so that has to be addressed and they are different types of enzyme supplements, such as GastricZyme™ or PanAbsorb™ that can be a huge help.
Third, are food allergies/sensitivities. Gluten is the most common one I see. There are other foods that are highly reactive as well. You have to find out which foods you are sensitive to. That’s a major cause of digestive issues. Two ways to do this are, you can test, there is a comprehensive gluten celiac test, food allergy and sensitivity tests. You can check upwards of 100 or more foods.
So the typical tests doctors run for gluten, if you can get them to do that, is for just 2-3 markers for gluten sensitivity and celiac. But meanwhile, there is a particular lab test I use to check more than 20 different antibodies, which is a very comprehensive approach to find out if gluten is an issue.
Testing Options for IBS
So another option besides testing for gluten are testing for others. A food allergy test if you can get your doctor to order that. Some of the major labs offer panels of 10 or 15 foods, and those are true allergies. Most people have sensitivities more so than allergies, so I like to test both in panels of about 100 foods or more.
So aside from food testing, another option I came up with is a diet I call the FreeDiet® because it’s not only free of gluten but gluten, grains, sugar, yeast, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes, nightshades, and processed foods. And you go through that, phase one is typically four weeks where you are eliminating these potentially reactive foods. And most patients, usually within the first couple of weeks are doing so much better.
And then as everything clears up, we go onto phase two, we start adding foods back one at a time. So, this is what worked for me. Because I tested positive for gluten sensitivity, and I went gluten-free but was eating all the gluten-free grains, millet, rice, corn, gluten-free pasta and bagels, everything.
I was not feeling any better because you must eliminate the bacteria, yeast, parasites, all of those things. All of those live on, they love sugar, grains, yeast, starches. So this diet, the FreeDiet® is free of all of those.
It really helps your gut calm down. If you want a complimentary copy of the FreeDiet® phase 1 food chart, feel free to click here to check that out. So the FreeDiet® gives your gut a rest, calms down the inflammation, allows it to heal. If you have infections, pathogens, it also is the diet you would follow for that. So it’s all-encompassing as far as to help clear up gut issues and that’s what worked for me after I finally figured it out over many years of testing and tweaking and for many of my patients since then.
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