Those with irritable bowel syndrome are often at a loss to explain why their digestive system is acting up. They try taking probiotics, they try to reduce their everyday stress, they make time for exercise, and they try to eliminate various foods from their diet.
Still, relief can elude them. As IBS patients, they are part of an estimated 15 percent of American adults who suffer from symptoms. Irritable bowel syndrome is usually categorized as diarrhea-predominant, constipation-predominant or a combination of the two.
IBS symptoms also include gas, bloating and abdominal pain. In any form, IBS can conflict with work and play. It’s no wonder patients constantly seek solutions to its causes.
A new idea is taking hold, however, and it’s called the low-FODMAP diet, developed by an Australian dietitian, Dr. Sue Shepherd. Low-FODMAP created a buzz at the American College of Gastroenterology conference in fall 2011, and nutritionists and dietitians in the United States and elsewhere are becoming versed in the way it works so that they can advise patients.
“Many people who have tried it say they can’t believe how much it’s changed their lives,” said Jeffrey D. Roberts in a November 2011 Wall Street Journal story. Roberts founded the online support community at IBSGroup.org.
Low-FODMAP zeroes in on dietary changes to relieve IBS symptoms; in particular, it calls for meals that restrict several complex sugars. Known as fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, they give FODMAP its name.
Why these complex sugars? Researchers believe that as these molecules move through the digestive tract of someone with IBS, they have trouble being absorbed by the small intestine; in the large intestine, the molecules ferment in the presence of normal gut bacteria, thus prompting IBS symptoms.
To keep daily meals low in FODMAP, patients have to be cautious about everything from dairy products, wheat, rye, corn syrup and artificial sweeteners to certain fruits and vegetables. The many variables make the low-FODMAP diet complicated, and so IBSGroup.org and healthcare practitioners are urging patients to seek menu-planning help from a nutritionist or dietitian.
You can find the beginnings of a worldwide registry of dietitians who can administer a low-FODMAP diet on the IBSGroup page at http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/topic/146862-low-fodmap-diet-worldwide-dietitian-registry/
Also helpful is the “Low-FODMAP Diet Page” on the IBSGroup site. Access the PDF at http://www.ibsgroup.org/ibs-diet/
Dr. Shepherd came up with the low-FODMAP diet a decade ago when she was developing diets for lactose- and fructose-intolerant patients. In time and through clinical trials, she found that it often worked for IBS patients.
Dr. William Chey, co-editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology and an official at the University of Michigan Health System, is part of a team designing U.S. clinical trials for the low-FODMAP diet. He told the Wall Street Journal that in the coming years doctors and others will be paying much more attention to the role of foods in functional GI disorders.
“This FODMAP approach doesn’t make everybody better, but it makes a lot of people significantly better,” he said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, recent small studies in Australia and the United Kingdom reported that a majority of IBS patients trying the low-FODMAP diet found relief.
Eventually, the low-FODMAP diet for IBS patients might become a pathway to relief on par with gluten-free diets for patients of celiac disease.
Sources:
“IBS Diet.” Irritable Bowel Syndrome Self Help and Support Group. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. http://www.ibsgroup.org/ibs-diet
Beck, Melinda. “When Everyday Foods Are Hard to Digest.” The Wall Street Journal Online. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204554204577023880581820726-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwMTExNDEyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email
Reviewed January 12, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith