5 Mistakes To Avoid If You Think You Have IBS
We get it. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can be frustrating. You’re desperate for a solution. Now. But before you go down a Dr Google spiral, here are five common mistakes that are best avoided.
1. Not seeing your doctor
This step is crucial. Before self-diagnosing, it’s important to get a formal diagnosis from your doctor to rule out any underlying medical conditions. They will screen for conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease, parasites, helicobacter pylori, endometriosis and diverticular disease. These all have similar symptoms to IBS. Red flags to look out for that suggest your symptoms are from one of these conditions include unexplained weight loss, blood in stools, family history, persistent daily diarrhoea and recurrent vomiting.
2. Cutting out gluten before testing for coeliac disease
If you are confident that gluten is the culprit, head straight to your doctor before going gluten-free. To accurately test for coeliac disease, you need to be eating 8 to 10 grams of gluten daily for 6 weeks. This is equivalent to 4 slices of wheat bread. Without eating enough gluten, your test may falsely come back negative even if you have underlying undiagnosed coeliac disease. To know more about the difference between gluten intolerance and coeliac disease, read our article here.
3. Overdoing supplements
Yes, there is value in some supplements. But, the gut health supplement industry is rife with gimmicky products. It’s important to make well-informed decisions and ensure the supplement you take is both supported by high quality research and best suited for your unique symptoms and needs. Otherwise? It can be a large hole in your wallet with minimal return on investment.
4. Going on a restrictive diet before trying “first line” strategies
Jumping into a FODMAP diet or cutting major food groups can carry negative side effects (read more about that here). Instead, we like to start with these simple steps and recommend these extra 4 hacks as “first line” strategies. Turns out, you can get a great amount of relief without having to ditch whole food groups or go down an elimination diet.
5. Doing a low FODMAP diet solo
If you are confident that FODMAPs are your trigger, navigating the low FODMAP diet without formal support is well… hard. Not only is it confusing, but it can leading to nutritional deficiencies and may even make symptoms worse! Seeing an Accredited Practising Dietitian can ensure that you are meeting your nutritional requirements and avoiding common mistakes.
If you are overwhelmed and struggling to get symptom relief on your IBS journey, book in with one of our Accredited Practising Dietitians. We listen to your story with compassion and empathy to support you with creating an individualised path forward to manage your symptoms.
