Identify and Track IBS Symptoms
If you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), keeping a journal can help you track your symptoms and find out what may be triggering them. Record what you eat, when you feel stressed, or anything else that you think might be triggering your IBS. Also note when you have IBS symptoms, along with what form they take (diarrhea or constipation) and how long they last
Start using this IBS Symptoms and Triggers Diary. After you've been tracking your symptoms for a while, you can look for common triggers. Then, one at a time, begin to get rid of or change suspected triggers one at a time. This method won't cure your IBS, but it may help reduce your symptoms and the effect IBS has on your daily life.
Understanding IBS
IBS can be a confusing condition. Its symptoms vary from person to person and may be very serious in some patients while others only experience mild discomfort. To best understand IBS, it helps to understand how IBS affects your body.
IBS is a digestive disorder that affects the organs involved with digesting and processing food. After you eat, food travels through your stomach into your intestines. As it moves through your small intestine and colon (large intestine), it's broken down and your intestinal walls absorb any nutrients. What’s left over is waste.
Rhythmic muscle contractions in your colon push the waste toward your rectum. When the waste has reached the end of your colon, you experience the urge to have a bowel movement and the waste leaves your body through the anus.
In people with IBS, the regular, rhythmic contractions of the intestines don’t work like they should. Food is either pushed through the system too quickly, resulting in diarrhea, or too slowly, resulting in constipation. Some people with IBS experience only diarrhea or constipation, while some people will experience both diarrhea and constipation (although at different times).
Treating IBS can be difficult, in part because doctors don't know exactly what causes it. We do know, however, that symptoms are frequently triggered by certain foods or behaviors. Common triggers include:
- Certain foods and drinks, depending on the person
- Large meals
- Stress
- Menstrual cycle (for women)
More About IBS