Is stomach pain a symptom of IBS?
Stomach pains or cramps are one of the most common symptoms of IBS. In some cases, they may be relieved by going to the toilet, as a bowel movement may help to relieve this symptom temporarily. However, understanding the likely causes of the pain as part of IBS, can also help inform better management.
Of course, stomach pain can also be related to lots of other different things as well. So, we can never say for sure, and it must always lie with your doctor to make any official diagnosis.
Your doctor would aim to rule out other, potentially more serious digestive disorders, such as IBD, the inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn's disease, or ulcerative colitis, for example. They would then look at your remaining symptoms and with the help of the Rome IV criteria, they can often come to make a diagnosis.
But actually, even if you've been given an IBS diagnosis, what does that really tell us? In terms of your symptoms and how to manage it, it doesn't tell us all that much. And this is because IBS is still a really broad umbrella term. If you look online through the NHS website or anywhere similar, you will see that there's no 'cure' for IBS. More specifically, there's no 'universal cure' because it's just so individual.
Ideally, we still need to go into your own individual symptoms; your underlying likely causes, in order to inform the best treatment.
Some of these causes can include low stomach acid or digestive insufficiency. Then we have stress, which can contribute to the digestive insufficiency; dysbiosis, or the imbalance of bacteria, which can come about as a result of the stress or the digestive insufficiency; or there may be a combination of all these.
Stomach pain - is it always IBS?
Once again, a little reminder that we are not able to diagnose. That would be up to your doctor. But I do think it's important that you understand your own physiology and where certain things are, and what it could mean!
Firstly, in terms of pain or discomfort that's situated very high up, just up underneath your ribs. Especially if it's fairly central, this is where your stomach and your oesophagus lies, rather than your large intestine.
Quite a common sign of low stomach acid are symptoms of heartburn or acid reflux. Therefore, pain quite up high could suggest that this low stomach acid state could be a contributing factor.
Symptoms of low stomach acid may also have a part to play in translating into other symptoms of IBS, since the stomach working properly is an important influence on how the rest of your digestive tract works. For the proper release of many of your lovely digestive enzymes further along the digestive tract, you need sufficient stomach acid to trigger these. And these processes will also influence the balance of bacteria throughout the rest of the digestive tract.
Next, if you experience right-sided pain, up high underneath your ribs, this is liver and gallbladder territory, although we'd want your doctor to investigate this further.
Sometimes, mild gallbladder issues could be managed with the help of a nutritional practitioner as steps such as diet, lifestyle and proper hydration could be helpful. But if there are any gallstones present, this should always be managed by a doctor. If you've had your gallbladder removed, there are some herbal remedies such as dandelion that may be helpful.
And then lower down in your gut, right down low, that's your large intestine. We have different parts of the large intestine. Over the right side, low down, you've got your ascending colon. So, this is one of the first sections of the large intestine, after the small intestine meets your large. So, all your food waste has to travel up, against gravity. And then, it curves around and goes across your abdomen, so there's quite a tight corner there.
So particularly, if you're a bit constipated or dehydrated, there could be pain and discomfort in this area if that food waste is struggling to make that journey up and round that corner. Although I would always advise to go to a professional, some abdominal massage, going in a clockwise direction, (always clockwise!) could actually help to potentially move waste if that is a bit sluggish.
What can be done to manage IBS pain?
Silicol Gel can often be a nice one to start with to help promote some calm. This is lovely and anti-inflammatory and can help to calm the area if there is an imbalance in bacteria, pathogens present, or any more acute symptoms present, including heartburn, or diarrhoea (as always, any severe or persistent symptoms should be managed by your doctor).
Therefore, Silicol can often be helpful in instances of flare-ups and can often work well throughout the full length of your digestive tract.
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After introducing some initial calm with Silicol Gel, you may also want to introduce a digestive bitters remedy such as Yarrow Complex. Bitter tastes are something your stomach, in particular, responds well to, but unfortunately, nowadays, our diets don't often comprise of much bitterness! This is where a bitter tincture can come in, to help fill this void.
By encouraging the correct stomach acid levels by relaxing, and choosing certain tastes, we can also help influence the balance of bacteria throughout our digestive tract; both in the stomach and beyond, throughout the small and large intestine. This balance of bacteria, otherwise known as our microbiome, is thought to have quite a direct influence on the symptoms of IBS as well.
A source of L+ lactic acid such as with Molkosan may also be a useful next step. This is a substance that our good gut bacteria naturally produce, so any top ups through our diets may prove helpful.
Probiotics may also respond better when a prebiotic is introduced first too, as backed by research, since the environment in which they are being introduced into will now be better supported. (1)
Then, some additional digestive tips to always keep at the forefront, are as follows: Proper hydration. We need sufficient water, but always apart from your main meals by around 15 minutes, in order to protect those lovely, strong gastric secretions that we spoke about. Constipation can very often be an underlying factor in cases of IBS. And constipation can also have negative influences on your gut bacteria balance as well.
Next, stress is another important area to consider. Stress can have quite direct effects on your gastric secretions, which as previously mentioned, can have a domino effect along the length of the digestive tract.
Stress and mental health symptoms can very often go hand in hand with those of IBS, so stress management techniques can often be an area worth exploring.
How do you know if your stomach pain is serious?
As always if you experience any severe or persistent symptoms, or those coupled with other worrying symptoms including red or black stools, then you should always contact your doctor for further advice and investigations.
