If you are suffering from abdominal cramps, diarrhea, constipation, fatigue, back pain, acne, or allergy symptoms, you could be suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a gastrointestinal disorder, often exists for many years. It is typically treated from a symptomatic approach rather than a determination of causes.

Treating it symptomatically means that IBS is often covered up with medication while only providing temporary relief. Therefore, the underlying cause continues to exist and weakens the immune system, often leading to more chronic illness.

To correct Irritable Bowel Syndrome, one must determine the underlying causes. From my clinical experience, some of the most common causes of IBS are unrecognized food allergies, undetected parasites, and stress. Some questions then arise: Why aren’t these causes being investigated? How can one determine the specific causes for your own situation?

Standard medical training does not address parasites or food allergies as possible causes of IBS. Also, the few standard medical tests available have a limited scope in determining chronic parasite infestation and in detecting hidden food allergies.

Undiagnosed parasite infections are one of the most neglected problems in the United States. These may account for a great deal of unexplained symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The diagnosis of parasite infection via stool samples for “ova (eggs) and parasites” is not reliable unless one has acute parasite infection. Parasites tend to reside in the intestine, but can travel to the blood, lymph, heart, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, and brain.

Parasites can produce numerous symptoms, such as abdominal cramps, bloating, weight loss, diarrhea or constipation, allergies, anemia, and immune system disruption. These are all symptoms that are often misdiagnosed as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. When parasites are the true cause of the symptoms, if these are not detected, then the wrong treatments will be used and the chronic condition will persist.

For food allergies, I have found the IgE and IgG blood tests to be the most reliable tests for detecting delayed hypersensitivity to foods. One hundred of the most common foods that typical Americans eat are tested. Foods that produce the most allergic reactions are often the ones people consume most frequently: wheat, milk and dairy products, corn, eggs, citrus products, soy, and peanuts.

The following is a very typical scenario of my patients with IBS. A 31-year-old female came to see me after more than 10 years of suffering from IBS. We conducted food allergy tests and a variety of other diagnostic tests I commonly use to determine chronic parasite problems. After eliminating the foods to which the patient showed extreme sensitivity and eradicating the parasite infections, the patient became symptom free within a short period of time.