Hildreth: Ten causes you can check for IBS

The key word is irritability. The bowel or intestinal tract expresses discomfort or pain secondary to stretching. Stretching is almost always secondary to excess gas and/or muscular spasm. Gas is secondary to putrefaction, putrefaction is due to food spoilage, and food spoilage in the intestinal tract is secondary to undigested foods probably because of poor enzyme activity.

Acidophilus, bifidus and other enzymes are required for preparation of food for assimilation through the intestinal wall to be sent to the liver by way of the bloodstream. If all of the food is digested in the small intestine and large intestine, it will not putrefy and express bowel irritability and gas formation. The reason this is important to know is because not only are you very uncomfortable because of the irritable bowel syndrome but you are not getting the food value and nutrients out of the food you are taking in. There may be also toxins from the food spoilage in the small or large intestine because of poor digestion that you are absorbing and affecting other parts of the body. If the bowel mucosa is not inflamed and irritable for some reason and the pH and enzyme activity is adequate, the bowel will be happy, relaxed, and you will not be uncomfortable because there will be no gas pressure and no bloating. You will be assimilating and using all of the nutrients the food you have been eating has to offer. Let’s go through a list of some of the more common causes creating a chronic inflammation of the bowel lining, with associated irritability, muscular spasm, overactivity, gas formation and possibly resulting in diarrhea or constipation. The autonomic nervous system, which we referred to in the last article, is held in balance by its two components: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nerves. This balance or imbalance can be altered by other components and systems of the body causing bowel dysfunction.

Number 1, and a very important one, is emotional unhappiness secondary to ongoing chronic anger, fear or hurt which result in chronic insomnia and hormonal imbalance. By way of the autonomic nervous system, this creates muscular spasm of the small and large intestine along with the stomach and esophagus creating an increasing acid state, chronic inflammation of the bowel and complete digestive dysfunction.

Number 2, which is an ongoing chronic infectious process in the large majority of us, particularly as we age, is systemic fungal infection and mainly Candida albicans. Candida creates altered bowel flora and complete alteration of the pH or acid-base balance of the bowel resulting in a complete enzyme dysfunction.

Number 3 is the frequent use of antibiotics. Even though we take the antibiotics to kill some infectious process in our body, the antibiotics are not specific and they will also kill a lot of the bowel flora and again altering the pH and promoting increased Candida growth.

Number 4 probably plays a much greater role than we realize secondary to a relaxing, retirement type of lifestyle, and that is eating out and enjoying a mainly refined diet including sugar intake. Candida enjoys a high sugar medium and its continuous growth.