If you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you may have tried a variety of alternative therapies -- probiotics, cognitive behavioral therapy, biofeedback, acupuncture, or simple dietary changes -- to reduce your painful symptoms. In this excerpt from a longer article from our Health After 50 newsletter, Linda Lee, M. D., Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins talks about alternative treatment for IBS.

IBS is one of the most commonly diagnosed conditions in the United States. People with IBS generally experience abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea, but symptoms vary greatly. For some patients, IBS is just a mild inconvenience, while others have such severe IBS symptoms they fear leaving the house.

Relief can be hard to find, because IBS is poorly understood; the cause is unknown, and not all people respond to available medications. So many patients, particularly those who already take drugs for other conditions, are turning to nonmedical, alternative strategies to manage IBS.

According to one estimate from the University of Washington, as many as half of IBS patients seek alternative care. The National Institutes of Health has formed the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to promote research into this area of medicine, and several major medical institutions, including Johns Hopkins, Duke, Harvard, the Mayo Clinic, and Stanford (among others), have joined the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine.

While "alternative" implies that patients use natural or nonmedical therapies instead of conventional medicine, in fact, many patients couple these approaches with conventional care under the supervision of medical doctors. This combination is commonly referred to as integrative medicine. For instance, at the Johns Hopkins Integrative Medicine and Digestive Center, patients meet with specialists in complementary medicine and a board-certified gastroenterologist.

While evidence for complementary therapies is inconclusive, Linda Lee, M. D., Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins points out, "Not many data support standard pharmacological interventions for IBS, either. Medicine can treat certain symptoms of IBS, but there isn't a proven cure in either conventional or complementary care. Since these symptoms are highly subjective, an integrative approach may be the best way to control IBS."