How to Treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Alternative Therapies

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a Registered Dietician with the Austin Regional Clinic and I'm going to talk to you about how to treat irritable bowel syndrome with alternative therapies. Oftentimes patients are not responsive to the traditional methods of treatment of IBS such as medications, fiber, high fiber diets and counseling. So there are some other methods available that have been shown to actually have very, very great improvements in IBS. One particular method utilizes a mediator release test. This particular test is actually identifying foods that cause reactions based on the immune system. This particular blood test actually identifies a hundred and twenty two different foods and twenty seven different food chemicals that can cause a reaction using either of the type 3 or the type 4 pathway in the immune system. So one these foods are actually identified, the patient can now eliminate them from their diet and they can follow what's called an Immunal Comb Diet. It's basically a phased approach where they start out with their least reactive foods and again, remember there was only a hundred and fifty total substances that were identifies. So they will basically start adding back in things that were not tested that they don't know if they react to or not and do it in a phase approach so they can identify whether this new food they're adding in is going to make them react or not. So, this actual approach has been very useful in treating IBS. A couple of other things that have been useful are things such as Cognitive Behavior or Therapy. But what has been found to be most effective is actually a combination of both Diet Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy because again it has actually been shown that the immune system is involve with IBS and typically it involves the type 3 and type 4 pathways. So, if you eliminate those foods and also combine the Behavioral Therapy as well, you have the best chance of having a positive outcome in reducing symptoms of IBS."