An estimated fifteen percent of all Americans suffer from the symptoms of IrritableBowel Syndrome (IBS). The name implies that the symptoms are a result of a bowel thathas become irritated and is not functioning normally. Although the bowel may, in fact,not be functioning normally it is not because of an irritation. Also known as spastic colonor spastic colitis, IBS is a difficult condition to describe or to try to control.Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a functional disease which means that the muscular organsof the gastrointestinal tract or the nerves that run through the organs, are not working asthey should. That means the muscles aren’t working as they should be but it is difficult toknow which part of the nervous system is to blame for the problem. Since the brain andspinal cord are also a part of the communication and response process, there could be anerve that isn’t responding or communicating correctly in the muscle, the spinal cord, or the brain.What is most difficult aboutIBSis that it can’t be seen and diagnosed with the naked eyelike some gastrointestinal diseases can. Some conditions can be visualized with theassistance of exploratory surgery and others can easily be detected using x-rays. Diseasesthat involve cells or bacteria too small to visualize may be seen with the aid of amicroscope. Often, tissue samples are taken to test and the final results are determined bymagnifying the sample.Functional diseases cannot be diagnosed in these ways since they are not visible with thenaked eye or with magnification. Occasionally, tests using gastric emptying studies or antro-duodenal motility studies are successfully used as diagnostic procedures. The problem with the tests are that they are not always available and do not pinpoint the causeof a functional abnormality. It is often simpler to eliminate the non-functional disorderswith tests and then diagnose Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the absence of another explanation.There is always the possibility that what is thought to be a functional disorder will turnout to be a disease from a visible abnormality. Several years ago, it was determined thatulcers weren’t caused by stress as originally thought but by a bacteria called H. pylori.This bacteria can cause digestive distress and produce symptoms that may be thought to be associated with IBS. However, if a sample of the tissue in the stomach is examinedunder the microscope, H. pylori would be visible and the disease would no longer beconsidered a functional disease. H. pylori can cause severe symptoms but these can betreated with specific types of antibiotics and the bacteria will disappear.The distinction between diseases which are functional and non-functional is hard todetermine. Functional diseases may have unknown biochemical or molecular abnormalities that may some day be able to be measured to use as a diagnostic and,hopefully, treatment tool Functional gastrointestinal diseases may eventually be shownto be caused by reduced levels of chemicals in the organs of the spinal cord or brain. If this occurs, then the disease will no longer be a functional one since it will be able to be