Most doctors will be able to provide you with the necessary testing and evaluation. Your doctor will want to track your bowel movements over a period of time as well as monitor your other conditions during the monitoring.



There are several things that they will look at:

Are you relieved from the pain after defecation? When you feel this way, is there a change in the frequency of your stool? When you are experiencing this pain, is there a change in the form or the way your stool looks?

Then they will gauge the differences and answers found with what is considered to be normal against what is not:

If you have more than three bowel movements per day or you have less than three movements per week that is considered abnormal.

If you have hard or lumpy stool or you have a very loose and watery stool that is considered abnormal.

If you are straining, or you have an urgent need to go or you feel like you can not completely finish, this too is abnormal.

If there is any sign of mucus, this is abnormal.

In addition, the feeling of pain in the abdomen or the feeling of being bloated is considered abnormal.

Even through all of this screening, your doctor is likely to do a blood work up on you as part of the process of diagnosis you.

Finally, your doctor will do a thorough examine of you. The exam will look at your physical conditions and to rule out any other possible findings that may suggest something besides irritable bowel syndrome is to blame for your pain.

When It is Not IBS

Your doctor may actually find that you have symptoms that do not present within irritable bowel syndrome. These symptoms can include blood within the stool, weight loss, fevers, diarrhea that gets you up at night or pain that gets you up at night. These considerations indicate that perhaps something else is wrong rather than IBS.

Where The Truth Lies

Unfortunately, there is no known cause for irritable bowel syndrome. Many that experience it do not know of anyone in their family that has had it. That could be because it just was not something that was discussed or that IBS is not hereditary. There are things that are known about IBS though, that can help you to find the real solution to your pain and discomfort. We do know a great deal in fact about how IBS affects us and what we can do to help to stop it.

One treatment that has given great results for many IBS sufferers is the addition of a pure aloe vera supplement to their diet. Relief was reported in only a few days time and even with the more severe cases, improvement was noted in the majority of cases.