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What Causes Irritable Bowel Syndrome?
Irritable Bowel Syndrome,or IBS, is believed to result when the muscles in thegastrointestinal tract began to function abnormally. This may also be due to the nerves inthat area may begin to function abnormally either in the area of the gastrointestinal tract,the spinal cord, or the brain. Nerve signals begin in the brain and spread to other nerves by traveling down the spinal cord and then to the gastrointestinal tract. Irritable BowelSyndrome may result in the brain where the signal is sent out, the spinal cord where thesignal is sent in the right direction, or in the organs of the gastrointestinal tract where thesignal is deciphered. It is not known for certain that irritable bowel syndrome is anabnormal function of the nervous system but many researchers have theorized that this isthe cause.There are different kinds of nerves that communicate with each other through synapses.Sensory nerves do what their name implies and “sense” things that are happening.Sensory nerves in your skin tell you when something hot is touching you and send themessage to your brain. Motor nerves are the response that happens as a result, such asmoving your hand away from the source of heat. The contraction or relaxation of themuscles in the organs of the gastrointestinal tract are motor responses that occur regularlywhich result in the secretion of fluid and/or mucus into the organ.Although it is only a theory that the cause of  irritable bowel syndrome is an abnormal function of the nerves that produce bowel movements, it is easy to see how the causecould come from any of the sources where nerves play a part in bowel function. It is amatter of debate as to whether functional diseases result from abnormal functioning of sensory nerves or if it originates from motor nerves. Some researches believe that signalsto the sensory nerves are misinterpreted and a message is sent to the brain to signal pain.For those who believe that motor nerves are the culprits that cause functional diseases,the arguments include the suggestion that abnormal commands through these nerves maycause a painful spasm of the muscles or that messages may simply be misinterpreted.This would result in a command being sent to the organ, such as those in the organs of the gastrointestinal tract, which results in the symptoms experienced from the disease.There is no reason to assume that only one or the other of the sensory or motor nervesmay be the cause, but both sensory and motor nerves are to blame for some functionaldiseases.Patients with irritable bowel syndromeproduce a larger amount of intestinal gas than others and this has researchers thinking that this may be an important clue to the cause of IBS. Patients with the disease may retain the gas in the small intestine longer, their abdominal size increases over the day through the evening until it returns to normal sizethe next morning. This causes some researchers to believe that the gas produced in these patients may be key in understanding the true cause of this functional disease.Most of us have been told our whole lives to “chew your food up” and some controversyexists as to whether poor digestion may contribute to the occurrence of IBS. This, along
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