Explainer | IBS, its symptoms, causes and treatment, and foods to avoid for a condition experts say is more common since the coronavirus pandemic
- Irritable bowel syndrome can strike without warning, causing symptoms including stomach pain, diarrhoea and gas that can severely disrupt daily life
- For IBS Awareness Day on April 19, we talk to experts and a former sufferer about treatment advice, which ranges from diet management to lifestyle changes
Imagine having stress so severe that it affects your stomach, with stabbing pains and sporadic attacks of gastric distress requiring urgent trips to the toilet. To avoid accidents, you may wear a diaper to travel between home and office – and you dare not take long-distance trips or travel abroad.
About 10 to 15 per cent of people worldwide experience some degree of this disorder: irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS.
IBS cases are rising in Asia, where prevalence is lower than in the US and Europe, because people are eating less healthy Western diets and experiencing higher stress, says Catherine Hermant, a kinesiologist at Balance Health in Hong Kong (kinesiology is the study of human body movement).
Stress is a significant contributing factor to the disorder, she explains, something exacerbated by pandemic – she has seen more IBS sufferers in the last year than ever.
“Our head plays a big role in IBS,” she says.
Despite its prevalence, IBS is not easily diagnosed as it is a collection of symptoms – including lower abdominal pain or discomfort, diarrhoea, constipation, gas, and bloating – rather than a disease, Hermant says, explaining that the generic nature of those symptoms could point to any number of other illnesses.