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IBS, huh? What is it actually?
Apr. 5th, 2022 12:51 pmAside from all the other reasons to despise American health care (mostly involving predatory insurance companies; privatized health care; inadequate care for women, gender nonconforming, Black, fat, disabled, and other marginalized populations; abuse of medical professionals by schools, hospitals, and senior professionals), I am once again reminded to be enraged at the number of patients given a "diagnosis" of IBS (which for practical purposes means, "Something's wrong with your gut. Damned if I know what!") when they have specific, diagnosable, treatable pathologies.
SIBO. Bile reflux. Reduced FGF19. Gall stones. Biliary atresia. Pancreatitis. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Crohn’s disease. Ulcerative colitis. Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. Food allergy. Endometriosis.
You can look up symptoms and find all these causes online. But the doctor has fifteen minutes to hear you out, try to remember anything from their training that rings a bell, then throw up their hands and say, "Sounds like IBS. Take an antidiarrheal, eat more fiber, and lose weight (because the insurance company mandates that we tell you to, or because I'm an asshole). Next patient!"
Most of this stuff is treatable with surgery, medications, or even particular strains of probiotics. Yet people are unnecessarily living with life-altering symptoms because an awful lot of us don't have access to medical care meeting even a basic standard of quality.
Things that can go felch a dysenteric tortoise before expiring in a conflagration: Capitalism, puritanical esteem for suffering, discrimination, the HMO Act, and Citizens United. (Also Richard Nixon, if we can briefly resurrect him for this purpose.)
SIBO. Bile reflux. Reduced FGF19. Gall stones. Biliary atresia. Pancreatitis. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Crohn’s disease. Ulcerative colitis. Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. Food allergy. Endometriosis.
You can look up symptoms and find all these causes online. But the doctor has fifteen minutes to hear you out, try to remember anything from their training that rings a bell, then throw up their hands and say, "Sounds like IBS. Take an antidiarrheal, eat more fiber, and lose weight (because the insurance company mandates that we tell you to, or because I'm an asshole). Next patient!"
Most of this stuff is treatable with surgery, medications, or even particular strains of probiotics. Yet people are unnecessarily living with life-altering symptoms because an awful lot of us don't have access to medical care meeting even a basic standard of quality.
Things that can go felch a dysenteric tortoise before expiring in a conflagration: Capitalism, puritanical esteem for suffering, discrimination, the HMO Act, and Citizens United. (Also Richard Nixon, if we can briefly resurrect him for this purpose.)
