“Doctor, whenever I get ready to go out, I’m getting the urge to defecate, whenever I finish breakfast, I get the urge”- these kinds of patient’s presentations are quite common in IBS.
Irritable bowel syndrome(IBS) is a functional disorder of the small intestine characterized by the abdominal pain, discomfort followed with altered bowel habits – hard or soft bowels.
Usually structural abnormalities cannot be detected in such instances. It is one among the commonly diagnosed functional disorder of the digestive system. Surely this will not kill the individuals; but the discomfort caused by this illness causes great distress to the patients and life becomes miserable with fatigue. Many people tend to lose weight over a period of time
In modern medicine they denote the contribution of hereditary factors, enteric infections, inflammatory action of the small intestine, altered food habits etc in this disease. Stress, depression, anxiety etc do play important role in the causation of this disease.
In Ayurveda, a similar condition is explained in the name of Grahani or Sangrahani. The name is given so because according to Ayurveda, Grahana (Retaining ability) is the function of Grahani organ (Small intestine in general and Duodenum in particular). As this function is significantly altered and bowel loses its control to retain for stipulated time period, according to ones requirement of absorption, this condition is called Grahani.
