Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Loose Bowel

Question:
I just saw blood in my loose stools. There was some on the toilet paper too. I always thought what I had was IBS-D. This stuff all started when I started stressing in October. Diarrhea is a symptom of some disease I began fearing and now I'm stuck in some sort of feedback loop: A loose bowel movement causes me to stress over this disease (which I continuously test negative for), and I guess the stress of the disease causes me to have more diarrhea. I would like to think I was stuck with IBS-D as opposed to the disease. My symptoms which almost convinced me I had IBS-D were: loose stools, sometimes floaty, light coloured slight/dull pain in the lower left abdomen occasional pain under the lower left rib occasional pain left of the belly button mucous occasionally with a bowel movement undigested food coming out down there NO BLOOD However, I was never quite sure it was IBS-D because I never really had bad urges to go, its just that when I went, they were loose (sometimes extremely loose and gross). And they didn't typically occur after a meal although sometimes the pain in my lower left abdomen began shortly after a meal. My bowel movement frequency just increased from once every three days to once a day. I have just been hoping that I could classify what I have as IBS but some of the traits don't fit, where as others (mentioned above) do. Strangely, this blood appears about 3 days after my gastroenterologist specialist told me to start taking Fibercon. This morning I just took my 5th pill (which I have been taking once in the morning/ once at night for the past 2-3 days). Note that the blood was NOT caused by repetitive use of toilet paper. Also adding to the confusion regarding IBS is that my gastro specialist said that stress usually doesn't cause IBS, it just makes it worse. I mean I can clearly say that this diarrhea started right when this extreme stress (fear of disease) entered my life. Now I'm stuck wondering if the diarrhea is because of this disease or because of the fear of it. And since IBS is a diagnosis by exclusion, I'm having a hard time excluding that disease (even though I keep testing negative for it). Strangely, I always associated stress with ulcers. But when I read about ulcerative colitis, no where does it say that stress causes it. Also, every thing I read about IBS says that it doesn't progress to anything worse. Does that mean IBS doesn't develop into something worse like ulcerative colitis?

Answer:
Different ulcers. Ulcers in the stomach, which have been associated with stress by some people, happen because the acid in the stomach gets to the lining of the stomach for one of a number of reasons. Ulcerative colitis is an autoimmune disease. The immune system attacks the colon. IBS, if one has IBS doesn't progress into anything else. There are people who incorrectly get a diagnosis of IBS when they, in fact, have something else. It sounds like you've had quite a few tests to determine if the diarrhea is from IBS, or from UC. Blood in the stools comes from a number of things. Usually from hemmoroids either external, which you would probably know if you have, or internal, which you may not know you have, unless when you were being examined, they told you about it. How much blood are you seeing. A little bit of blood in amongst the stools wouldn't lead me to think something like UC. The friends I know with it mention startling and scary amounts of blood. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is often used for treating IBS, I did it as part of study to compare it with other treatments, and I found it quite effective for IBS, and I think it could also help you deal with the fears you've expressed here as well.