Simplicity Fares Better Than Drugs for IBS

Severe abdominal pain and irregular bowel symptoms can be defined by Irritable Bowel Syndrome—or IBS—usually remedied by prescribing laxatives, stool softeners, and/or antispasmodics for the cramps, constipation, and diarrhea caused by the gastrointestinal condition. New research from London sought out to discover whether or not alternative, natural medicinal remedies are as efficient as the popular over-the-counter drugs in relieving IBS.

Among the alternative remedies for IBS are fiber supplements, hypnotherapy, probiotics—a beneficial mix of bacteria and yeast often found within the stomach—and aromatherapy, specifically peppermint oil. IBS is difficult to treat because its cause is relatively unknown and the symptoms are varied and often inconsistent.

Published by the British Medical Journal, Dr. Alex Ford and his team from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, analyzed 38 different studies from the past 25 years with over 2,500 participants who have IBS, using three different remedies versus a placebo group: antispasmodics, fiber treatments, and peppermint oil.

Twelve of the studies used the fiber diet with 591 patients, another 22 of the studies compared antispasmodics with the placebo group in 1,778 IBS patients, and the last four studies used peppermint oil in 392 volunteers. While all three of the applications were effective in treating IBS, with no serious side effects, peppermint oil proved most beneficial in the trials. Ford and his colleagues found that almost half of all IBS sufferers had their discomfort disappear after participating in the natural remedy studies.

Within the fiber study, insoluble fiber like bran didn’t affect the results, but soluble fiber (psyllium-based like the popular brand Metamucil) helped reduce the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome in one of every eleven patients. The antispasmodic drugs such as hyoscine— used to relax the muscles in the stomach and ease cramping—which are no longer widely prescribed in modern medicine, showed relief in only one of every five volunteers and this was the only drug-based remedy contrast used in the publication. Hyoscine can be found without a prescription in the United States.

The McMaster University study led the researchers to ask for better guidelines to treat this confusing, uncomfortable stomach condition. In the last few years, widely-prescribed drugs such as Zelnorm and Lotranex have been pulled from the shelves due to gastrointestinal side effects, and the increased risk for stroke or heart attack. Professor Roger Jones from King’s College London says the new drug results were a wake-up call and this new study should inspire more research and better investigation into IBS, "These new-generation drugs were going to be the magic bullets for IBS, but it didn't turn out that way…. I think this new paper is important because it shows patients and their physicians that these older treatments can be effective [and] reawaken interest in the pharmacotherapy of irritable bowel syndrome and stimulate further research".

Though researchers have yet to define which treatments work best for which patients because of the different varieties of IBS determined by specific groups of symptoms, hopefully this new study will pave the way for more in-depth research to be done.
About 5 to 20 percent of the population is living with IBS and there are many cases left undiagnosed, with 10 to 15 percent of people in the United States alone showing twice as many women diagnosed as men. The UK also reports around 8 million people suffering with the disorder and Professor Jones thinks that the significance of natural treatments are in the best interest of patients as well as their wallets. Maybe more conditions can be helped by looking back through mom’s home remedies, erasing the complication and making simplicity the new go-to plan.