Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, is a functional illness that causes the gut or intestines to work in an abnormal way, causing discomfort, pain, bloating, flatulence, constipation and/or diarrohea.

There are two main types of illnesses we can get: structural and functional. A structural disease is when there are physical changes to your body, for example an ulcer in the stomach, a tumour, a broken bone or damage and inflammation to the lining of gastro-intestinal tract. These changes can be seen using scans such as MRI or x-ray, by doing biopsies or by testing blood, urine or faeces.

Functional illnesses have no physical differences and cannot be seen using scans or tests. IBS is a functional illness, and because there are not tests for it, it is much harder to diagnose. IBS is diagnosed by eliminating other structural diseases that can be tested for such as: cancer, endometriosis, Coeliac disease and Inflammatory bowel disease. Doctors will also use a criteria (called the Rome 4 criteria) and your description of your symptoms, to help them diagnose IBS, once everything else has been ruled out.

If you have any of the following symptoms, it is really important that you see your GP.

unintentional weight loss,
increasing severity of symptoms,
blood in stools or rectal bleeding,
excessive vomiting,
family history of IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), bowel cancer, other bowel conditions or endometriosis,
persistent daily diarrohea,

It is really important that other conditions are ruled out, so if you have any of the above symptoms, are concerned about your symptoms, or have not been officially diagnosed with IBS it is very important that you see your GP.

Topics this Resource Guide Covers:

• Symptoms of IBS
• Causes
• Different types of IBS
• Your Poo
• Fibre and IBS
• Fruit and IBS
• Nutritional management of IBS
• FODMAP’s – including how to do each phase, elimination and re-introduction
• FODMAP’s stacking
• Gluten and dairy free
• Building a meal
• Meal ideas
• FODMAP food Lists

The document is over 3700 words and is a 15 to 20 minute read.