IBS is a disorder of how the gut and the nervous system communicate, not a structural disease. It causes pain with a change in bowel habit, relieved or worsened by passing stool. Tests come back normal, which does not mean the symptoms are imagined.
Symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome
Symptoms vary, and few people have all of them. These are the ones most commonly reported.
2-minute check
Does your pattern fit IBS?
Four questions. Your result appears immediately — we do not ask for an email.
Do you get abdominal pain that changes after passing stool?
Has your bowel habit changed in pattern?
Do symptoms worsen with stress?
Any blood, weight loss or night-time symptoms?
Your answers do not strongly fit an IBS pattern
Occasional bloating and irregularity are common and often resolve with simple changes.
Your answers are consistent with IBS
Identifying your specific triggers is more useful than removing a long list of foods.
Your answers fit IBS — but note the last question
If you answered yes to blood, weight loss or night-time symptoms, those are not IBS features and should be assessed properly first.
This check is an indication, not a diagnosis. It does not replace medical advice.
When to see a doctor
Arrange a medical appointment rather than waiting if you have:
- Blood in the stool
- Unintended weight loss
- Symptoms that wake you at night
- A family history of bowel cancer, coeliac disease or inflammatory bowel disease
- New symptoms after the age of 50
What causes irritable bowel syndrome
There is no visible damage in IBS. The problem is in signalling — the gut becomes more sensitive and its movement less coordinated.
Normal amounts of gas or stretch register as pain.
Transit speeds up, slows down, or alternates.
Stress worsens symptoms; symptoms worsen stress.
Usually fermentable carbohydrates, and usually individual.
Risk factors
- A previous gut infection
- High or sustained stress
- Anxiety or low mood
- Being female — rates are higher
- A family history of IBS
- Disturbed sleep
- Irregular eating patterns
How irritable bowel syndrome is diagnosed
| Test | What it indicates |
|---|---|
| Clinical history against Rome criteria | IBS is diagnosed positively, not only by exclusion |
| Complete blood count and CRP | To exclude inflammation |
| Coeliac serology | Coeliac disease mimics IBS closely |
| Faecal calprotectin | Distinguishes IBS from inflammatory bowel disease |
| Thyroid function | Both over- and underactive thyroid alter bowel habit |
| Stool testing | Where infection or parasites are suspected |
Not sure which of these you have had?The assessment asks, and tells you which are worth requesting.
Check my health parametersWhat happens if it is left untreated
Stated factually, because these risks are real and manageable rather than inevitable.
- Substantial effect on work and social life
- Anxiety around eating and travel
- Unnecessarily restricted diets and consequent deficiency
- Disturbed sleep
- Low mood
How Health Total treats irritable bowel syndrome
Our protocol runs alongside whatever your doctor has prescribed. We do not ask anyone to stop medication.
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1
Confirm it is IBS, and not something else
Coeliac disease, inflammatory bowel disease and thyroid disorders all mimic it and are excluded first.
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2
Find your triggers, not a standard list
A structured elimination and reintroduction, done properly, identifies the few foods that actually matter to you.
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3
Reintroduce, always
The reintroduction phase is the point. Long-term restriction causes deficiency and rarely helps beyond the first weeks.
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4
Treat the gut-brain link directly
Sleep, stress and eating rhythm affect symptoms as much as food does, and they are usually left out.
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5
Build a sustainable long-term pattern
The aim is the widest possible diet you tolerate, not the narrowest one that avoids symptoms.
What makes this different
A standard diet plan
- A permanent list of banned foods
- Elimination with no reintroduction
- Food treated as the only factor
- No exclusion of coeliac or IBD
How we do it
- Your specific triggers identified
- Reintroduction as the goal
- Sleep, stress and rhythm addressed
- Other causes properly excluded first
Nine questions. Two minutes.You will see your result before we ask for your name.
Start my free assessmentAudited results
Publication pending. Aggregate outcome figures for this condition — sample size, inclusion criteria, mean and median change, range and dropout rate — will appear here once the audited outcome report is complete and signed by a second clinician.
Under the ASCI Healthcare Guidelines, a success rate, timeline or efficacy claim requires peer-reviewed data or the organisation’s own audited outcome report. We would rather publish nothing here than publish a number we cannot substantiate.
Case studies
De-identified clinical records — the plan as delivered, the markers as measured, and adherence as it actually was. Each signed by the supervising clinician and verified by a second.
Case file 1
Awaiting the case production line — dependency D6.
Case file 2
Awaiting the case production line — dependency D6.
Case file 3
Awaiting the case production line — dependency D6.
The standard each case must meet before publication →
Published with specific, informed and withdrawable consent. Individual results vary.
Why Health Total for irritable bowel syndrome
Clinicians, named
Over 200 doctors and nutritionists. Every condition page here carries the name and credentials of the person who wrote it and the person who reviewed it.
Indian food, Indian bodies
Thirty years of treating Indian patients, with plans built from Indian kitchens and read against Asia-Pacific metabolic cut-offs.
Our own data
Outcomes come from audited internal records, not from studies conducted elsewhere on other populations.
Somewhere to walk in
Physical centres across India, which most app-based programmes cannot offer.
Recipes for irritable bowel syndrome
Low-trigger vegetable khichdi
Deliberately plain. What to eat when your gut is having a bad week.
See the recipe →Fennel and coriander infusion
Saunf after a meal, made properly — steeped, not boiled.
See the recipe →Buttermilk with roasted jeera
Thin, not thick, and never chilled. Both details matter.
See the recipe →Tempered curd rice
A live-culture food that costs nothing. One temperature rule decides whether it works.
See the recipe →Articles
Acidity is usually not about too much acid
The acid is meant to be there. The problem is where it ends up.
Read →The gut and the brain are on one line
Symptoms worsened by stress are not imagined symptoms.
Read →Why adding fibre sometimes makes constipation worse
The advice is right. The way it is usually followed is not.
Read →Questions we are asked
Is IBS all in my head?
No. The gut and brain communicate constantly, and in IBS that signalling is genuinely altered — the gut becomes more sensitive to normal stimuli. Stress worsens it, which is not the same as causing it. The symptoms are real.
Should I go on a low FODMAP diet?
It helps many people, but it is a diagnostic tool rather than a way of eating. It should be done with guidance and for a limited period, followed by structured reintroduction. Staying on it indefinitely narrows the diet and starves the gut microbiome.
Will I have this forever?
IBS tends to come and go rather than progress. Many people find symptoms settle substantially once triggers are identified and sleep and stress are addressed. It does not damage the bowel.
Do I need a colonoscopy?
Not usually, if the pattern is typical and there are no alarm features. Where there is blood, weight loss, night-time symptoms or a relevant family history, it is appropriate.
Start with your own numbers.Free assessment, free first consultation, and no figure quoted that we cannot substantiate.
Start my free assessmentReferences
- Rome IV diagnostic criteria for functional gastrointestinal disorders.
- Indian Society of Gastroenterology consensus on irritable bowel syndrome.
- [Further references to be completed by the medical review panel.]