IBS – Diet or Medication?

What are the new findings?

  • In a controlled trial enrolling 470 newly diagnosed primary care IBS patients, a self-management FODMAP-lowering smartphone application was superior to standard medical therapy in alleviating IBS symptoms.
  • The superiority of the diet app was already present at 4 weeks and persisted at 8 and 16 weeks.
  • The diet app had a high acceptability and adherence rate.
Diet or medication in primary care patients with IBS: the DOMINO study – a randomised trial supported by the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE Trials Programme) and the Rome Foundation Research Institute — https://gut.bmj.com/content/71/11/2226?rss=1

Increased Mortality of Patients with Childhood-onset Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Compared With the General Population

The researchers identified patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease between the years 1964 and 2014 via the Swedish patient register. Using these data, they compared mortality rates in about 9,400 children who developed IBD with those of other children.

Their results show that children who developed IBD before the age of 18 have a three to five-fold higher mortality rate than people without IBD, both during childhood and into adulthood. This translates to a 2.2-year reduction in life expectancy in individuals monitored up to the age of 65.

Source article.

Study abstract.Study abstract.

Linzess – Think IBS with Constipation

Linzess is felt to act as a guanylate cyclase-C agonist. An agonist increases the activity of a process, the opposite of an antagonist. Linzess seems to act locally on the surface of the inside of the intestinal lining cells and by activation of guanylate cyclase-C increases levels of intracellular cGMP (cyclic guanosine monophosphate) which results in increased levels of chloride and bicarbonate in the intestinal lumen and speeds up gastrointestinal transit.

via Does Linzess have a role in IBS with constipation?.