IBS is BS

Ground Zero for IBS

Based on my own research, discussions with veterinarians and a medical researcher, I figured out why medicine missed the cause of IBS. Early in this book I discuss how the practice of medicine has changed. Concerning the cost of prescription pharmaceuticals, I explained why new drugs that come on the market cost so much. Remember the part about using animal models? Well, that's the key.

In order to understand what I am talking about, we should first look at the medical condition called pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can be acute or chronic. In the acute form it is a one time infection that causes inflammation of the pancreas that eventually resolves and the organ returns to normal with little or no after affects depending upon the severity of the infection. The chronic form of pancreatitis is in essence, a reoccurring infection and inflammation. In the chronic form the patient suffers the after affects life long. What are these after affects. In essence it is the compromised ability of the organ to produce some of the exocrine pancreatic enzymes necessary for digestion. Remember that your pancreas produces nine enzymes and one or more might become insufficient or deficient due to and resultant from pancreatic infections.

Now this is the exact turning point in which medicine made a huge error. A physician who suspects a patient presenting with pancreatitis will order a CAT scan and possibly an ultrasound of the pancreas. In addition, a blood test will be performed to measure serum lipase and amylase enzymes in the blood. Finally your doctor will order a special Elastase Stool test (El1) to determine if there is fat in the stool sample which would indicate deficient fat digestion. If these return as positive then the diagnosis is more then likely pancreatitis. Think about this for a moment. How did medicine end up being so concentrated on the lipase enzyme for breaking down fat and amylase which helps metabolize starches? The answer is the canine. Yes, dogs were studied extensively and after the studies and controlled experiments the scientists determined that if a patient were deficient in lipase and amylase after an infectious inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis) then they presumed that was the cause. This scenario more then likely arose from the research and experimentation that Banting and Best performed on canines that eventually led to their discovery of insulin and the treatment for diabetes. This was done during the second decade of the twentieth century which culminated in their insulin discovery in 1921.

Can you use the canine model to understand and diagnose the human? Well, the scientists said that canines are mammals with the same basic anatomy and digestive system, so yes we can. I say no we can't because what they left out was diet. If you are attempting to understand IBS then this is where the trouble arises. IBS means that "I don't know what is wrong with you". If your lab tests prove negative then it is assumed that you don't have chronic pancreatitis and you must have IBS but I don't know what causes it, the physician often answers.

Think for a moment, we are discussing three of the nine pancreatic enzymes out of all twenty-six digestive enzymes. The reason why the researchers singled out amylase and lipase is because of the canine diet. What do dogs eat? Meat of course and when you realize that dogs eat the same food day in and day out without variations, you can see the flaw in their studies. Do the math- three out of nine out of twenty-six, meaning that the researchers only concentrated on 11.5% of all of the digestive enzymes. If you want to understand IBS then study the human diet and not the canine diet. Let us compare the average dog to the average American person. Does your dog have a steady diet of fruits particularly peaches, cherries, black berries, juices, along with beans, cheeses, milk, ice cream, avocados, garlic, onions, candies laden with sugar or mannitol, sorbitol, maltose and Ican go on and on?

So, what is your take away here? The truth is that current medicine is hung up on just eleven and a half percent of the potential problem and etiology of IBS. There is a term called deductive reasoning and this is what should be employed here. In the chapter on diagnosis and treatment, I will show you how to institute this tool to help you and your doctor arrive at YOUR specific diagnosis and form of treatment.