Bloated, Crampy & Dismissed by Your Doctor? IBS vs. IBD - So Frickin' Mini

Megan, how's it going?

Donna?

I'm a more awake than I was 20 minutes ago.

That is a plus.

That is a plus.

Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something today because I feel like a lot of people aren't aware and don't know the difference between ibs, which a lot of people know of or have, and ibd, which a lot of people don't really know what that means.

In my brain, IBD means I've been doing that.

I love it.

Unfortunately, that's not what it stands for.

Okay, so I wanted to break down.

I wanted to break down what each one means, because I think that a lot of people are walking around saying, I have ibs, and they don't necessarily understand what it means or haven't been diagnosis.

What is IBD then?

What.

What are they?

Well, let's start.

Let's start.

Yeah, let's start with ibs.

IBS stands for irritable bowel syndrome.

It's basically a functional disorder.

And it doesn't show on any test that a doctor will do.

So they'll try to do stethoscopy or like, endoscopy, like going into the intestines to look and see if there's any damage or anything that they can see.

And often there's nothing.

So I'm going to bring it back to, like, you know how for some babies, a doctor would say, like, oh, they're crying a lot because they have.

They're colicky colic.

IBS and colic are almost the same thing.

It means we see you're in distress.

We have no clue what it is.

Yeah, that's literally what it is.

They had to give it a name to sound smarter, I guess.

But there's literally no, like, valid black on white.

I see that this is the specific problem.

It's.

There's no way to test for it, essentially, in that in the medical field, you have to be able to test for something to have a diagnosis.

Exactly.

There's no diagnosis.

You can test all you want, but there's no actual diagnosis.

And so what they do is they test certain different things, and when none of those show anything, they're like, well, it must be ibs, because we haven't found anything, but you're obviously in distress.

Right, Right.

So that's.

That's ibs.

Okay, we'll talk a little bit about the symptoms later.

But IBD is inflammatory bowel disease, and that is actually a real, actual inflammation.

There's visual, like, tissue damage.

It can be tested.

It's Usually linked to other things.

Right.

So IBD will show up in scans and biopsies where IBS does not.

So, you know, just going into the.

The numbers, and I know you love statistics and numbers and everything like that, so I have collected that information for you.

Okay, so IBS affects like 20 of the population in America.

In America, I mean.

But I would probably say probably worldwide.

But it's something that is.

I think we should look that up because that, to me, that's interesting because you hear a lot of people who say they have problems when they're eating in the US and then they come overseas and they eat over here and they don't have the same problems.

Yeah, that's true.

That is okay.

Anyway, so fair.

So 20% of the US population has it.

What I'm trying to say is, like, I think it's probably more just because.

And it's.

It is definitely worldwide.

Just because a lot of people will just have ideas and not actually even.

Right.

Go and test it or try to figure out what it is, because they're like.

Well, I've always had gut issues.

It just is what it is.

Right.

I have sensitive gut, so.

Right, that's what I meant.

It is unfortunately more common, of course, course, in women.

I think it's probably stress related also, but whatever.

We're going to leave that outside.

But in terms of symptoms, so if you're suffering from bloating, gas, cramping, diarrhea, constipation, or alternating diarrhea and constipation, which is a big kind of sign as well.

Yeah.

And it's often relieved after a bowel movement.

So we're clearing out our bowels, then we're feeling a bit better.

So the bowel is not struggling with food and stuff.

Then that is most likely ibs.

Okay.

And the diagnosis is again, colonoscopy, which basically looks normal.

And then the doctor's like, yeah, we don't see anything.

You have IBS, right.

The IBD, which apparently only affects like 3 million Americans.

So about.

Oh, my God, there's math here.

A lot less.

Yeah, there you go.

So it is actually an autoimmune.

It's an autoimmune disease.

It is connected with Crohn's, which is an autoimmune disease.

Or how do you pronounce that?

Ulcerative colitis.

So basically, the Crohn's will show anywhere from the mouth to the.

To the butthole, and the second will actually just show in the colon, and it can hire the risk of colon cancer.

Right.

So it is something that you definitely want to look into and actually treat.

So if you're not sure.

Right.

If you're like, well, what's the difference?

How do I know when I need to go and check for ibd?

Because it sounds more important.

If you have blood in the stool, if you have unexplained weight loss.

Lucky bitch.

If you have, if you have fever, fatigue, anemia, you know, waking up from symptoms in the middle of the night.

Yeah.

And of course, as I always say, look for things outside the box.

So not only gut related, if you have joint pain, like a lot of inflammation, like eye inflammation, skin issues, stuff like that.

So just your body kind of trying to show extra, like eczema, all those things.

Yeah.

Then, so you might want to test it out.

If someone starts off with IBS and they're like, this is not great, would it lead to IBD over time?

If it's.

If they can't figure out what's causing.

The ibs, I believe that it can.

Just.

Because if you're still keeping to certain foods and lifestyle choices that will support an autoimmune disease, help it develop into an autoimmune disease, then yes.

Right.

So if you have IBS symptoms and you're having, you know, in, in functional medicine, we believe that there are five, two main ones, but five kind of very big foods that might support an autoimmune disease if you're consuming them a lot.

And some of them are.

Support an autoimmune.

You mean encourage an autoimmune disease to develop because you say support autoimmune disease.

Yeah, exactly.

No, so.

So cause it actually.

Or help help develop it into the autoimmune disease that it actually is.

Autoimmune disease is just a body attacking itself.

Right.

It's the body's immune system going like, there's something foreign in here that we need to attack and it's attacking its own immune system.

That's what autoimmune means.

And there are certain foods like gluten and dairy that are known to be big factors in that.

But we're also talking about corn and eggs and soy, things like that that are also.

They just.

A lot of people with autoimmune disease will be sensitive to these things or even allergic to these things.

So that's why we believe that that's.

Those are huge supporters.

So I would say if you are dealing with IBS and it's still.

And it's not IBD and you don't have autoimmune Try to do some elimination diets.

That's actually, you know, to see if the symptoms are better, be that the body is just signaling to you, look, we're sensitive to this and you don't want this to develop into a leaky gut, which then will lead into autoimmune disease, which sucks.

I know some people with some digestive issues, not just you, which you, you were going through your own digestive issues for a while.

But I have some other friends that, you know, it took them a while to get a diagnosis to see a gastrointestinal, A gastroenterologist, blah, blah, blah, a gastro doctor.

And I think it's the most important thing is that it's frustrating.

It's like it's one of those things that you, you know, it affects you every time you eat and, or even when you're not eating right.

And then to try to find someone who will help you with that.

And I think I don't have those problems.

I mean, I have some gastro distress every now and then.

I'm not saying I don't have any gastro problems.

I mean, my husband would really like it if I didn't fart as much as I usually do.

But, but I'm talking about, you know, pain all the time, or like you said, something where you can't leave the house because you have diarrhea and you don't know when something's gonna blow out or whatever.

But from what I got from the people that I know that are going through it, it's just very frustrating that you can't get a diagnosis or even if you do have a diagnosis.

So one of my friends was diagnosed with IBD finally.

And, you know, then she's going through, she's doing elimination diets.

And this was also a struggle for her.

So she actually sought out a nutritionist and said because she doesn't particularly like to cook, and she's like, okay, I've got to follow all these guidelines now.

And I did tell her about your upcoming app, about your elimination diet app, but I, you know, at the moment she just goes to a nutritionist and like, just tell me what I should eat, because I can't think about this.

You know, I just need to tell me what I should eat and when.

I should eat it, and I will.

Follow that to the T. And it's helping.

She said, you know, her stomach is less bloated, she feels better.

But it's, it's that long term commitment after you've done your elimination diet, after you figured out which foods are causing that for you to change your behavior.

Because even still, even when you know there's something that you, your body does not agree with, people will still eat it.

Because it's hard to break the habit of eating certain things.

It's hard to break the habit.

And it's also like there's a lot of hidden foods in the foods that we're buying.

A lot of hidden foods, a lot.

I mean, in, in Switzer alone, avoiding dairy.

Like you're buying crackers.

And there's dairy, there's dairy everywhere.

So there's a lot of things.

And, and I have to say that also I feel bad for nutritionists and dietitians and stuff also because there's also foods that you are going to be sensitive to.

Look, if you have leaky gut and you've been eating a lot of carrots in your life, you might actually be sensitive to carrots.

And carrots are okay on your list of, you know, if you have ibd, you can eat carrots.

But because you're specifically sensitive to it, it's very hard to pick up on it because it's a healthy food and you need to eat it and da da, da.

So it's a lot of.

You're your own science experiment and you need to really kind of notice.

And it's very hard to notice these things when you're still eating certain foods.

So I think the elimination diet is very important, but it's also very important for you to kind of keep a, a diary or something to notice what things are maybe causing distress.

Still when you've avoided other foods, that should be a problem.

So it is not easy, but it is worth it because when you feel better and you're helping your body heal, I mean, it's definitely worth it.

So.

Well, that's.

Our 10 minutes are up.

I think there's obviously a lot more to talk about here.

You're very passionate about this topic, I know you are.

And so if this 10 minute little mini spoke to you and you're just like, I want to know more, let us know.

And I'm sure we can.

We've done a lot of episodes on this topic, but I think that there's a lot, there's a lot of specific questions we could answer by getting some experts on to talk about things if you have any questions.

So I think we'll have to leave it there.

Donna.

Yeah, okay, bye.