Functional gut disorders have long known to cause depravity in quality of life. Among the group of these heterogeneous disorders, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been known to affect a large chunk of our population. IBS is not as simple as it sounds. Caused by a multitude of factors, the heterogeneity of this disorder has laid the foundation for research and the new principles of neurogastroenterology. Dysbiosis and methane production are one of the forthcoming factors that are currently under investigation. Down the road of exclusive enteric anaerobic fermentation of polysaccharides, methane is produced. It was considered to be an inert gas in the past, with little to no role in gut activity but now it is established that it has an impressive role in the etiology of constipation-predominant IBS (C-IBS). Acting as a neurotransmitter, it is known to affect ileal and colonic transit time, which has currently been shown in animal studies. Many laxatives, ionophore antibiotics, drugs like rifamixin and neomycin have been targeted against this very principle. Lately, lovastatin has emerged as a potential pharmacologic therapy to devoid the gut of methane without disrupting the gut niche in itself and has shown promise in relieving the symptoms of C-IBS. The goal of this article is to compile and assemble the literature available on IBS and the neuromodulation of methane to teach physicians and research scientists about the current age of gastroenterology and the growing need to emphasize the role of methane in the symptomatology of functional gut disorders like C-IBS.
Thanks for posting this. Good to see research being conducted, but unfortunately, so much is at research stage and not properly gone through clinical trials. It seems the same topics keep going round and round.
The problem is there are people setting themselves up in practice who are not medically trained and treating people based on research papers that have not gone through clinical trials.
IBS needs to be taken seriously and sufferers given proper information about what research has been done, what has been discounted and what needs to be taken forward for further investigation until a conclusion is reached with the results translating into treatments for patients. This would stop of the merry go round of research paper after research paper looking at similar things but going nowhere as far as patients are concerned. This has been going on for decades but isn't helpful to us.
It shouldn't be up to patients to do their own research. There is a distinct lack of ownership within the health departments of governments to move forward in improving the lives of patients and shutting down research that goes nowhere. This isn't just true of IBS.
I'm sure there is a lot of waste in government spending that could be redirected to helping people like us. In fact, shouldn't alleviating suffering be the top priority for all governments?
One thing that they should be able to understand is the direct impact on productivity and the economy, due to the cumulative sick days due to IBS and some needing to become economically inactive as a result. IBS was a big factor in me deciding to retire early. There are some current stats out there that there a huge number of unfilled vacancies and many people cannot work due to sickness.
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