Introduction

This is very important...

what are your thoughts on ibs diagnosis

78% of people reporting to ERs due to IBS have chronic gastritis.

population studies on microscopic colitis are rare, but have found that rates are much much higher on a population level than previously assumed

the symptoms labeled as ibs (diarrhea and constipation with no obvious flags for inflammatory bowel disease) are often treated as an issue of simple dietary intolerances, or as a psychosomatic condition, and people with ibs are told to follow various diets, or to "reduce stress."

these diets tend to be high fiber, which could literally kill someone whose actual issue is gastroparesis, or could severely aggravate microscopic colitis. i know that when i was trying to eat high fiber, my symptoms were completely unmanageable, and switching to a low fiber diet is the only thing that's helped at all. the food intolerance stuff can be really helpful for people who do have rare food intolerances, but for people who actually/also have autoimmune gastritis, it wastes time that could be spent monitoring for gastric atrophy, metaplasias, and precancerous lesions.

the worst part of this is that things like microscopic colitis and h-pylori related chronic gastritis are treatable, either with steroid medication or antibiotics to kill the h-pylori. but if you're dismissed with "dietary changes" or "reduce stress," then you're not getting treated for conditions that can cause really serious tissue damage and increase your cancer risk.

basically ibs is a "fuck you get out of my office" diagnosis

Time to order your free Covid tests:

http://covidtests.gov

Paging Dr. House: A Medical Mysteries Reading List - Longreads

Once upon a time, I wanted to be a doctor. Never mind my terrible grades in all things science. Never mind that I decided this in my second year of college, after deciding that the music school that I’d wanted for years wasn’t for me. It was 2006. It was the age of Dr. Gregory […]

I love a good medical drama. My mother, a nurse, raised me on ER and General Hospital, always pointing out all the plot lines that “would never happen in real life” but were really cool to watch on TV. My mother credits ER with pushing her toward her decades-long career in the operating room. So when I, a poor lost college sophomore who had gone to school to play French horn (French horn!) and found it wasn’t what I thought it would be, I did what I knew best to do and turned to TV. And on TV, I found House.

House had it all: a painkiller-addicted doctor with a smart mouth and a slap-worthy face, medical mysteries solved via CSI-style case-of-the-week format, and a beleaguered crew of sidekick physicians whose instincts were never quite as good as House’s. I would spend each episode studying the setup and trying to unravel what the medical culprit could be before the ultimate reveal. Instead of realizing that what I might want to be was a writer with a good plot, I missed the mark and decided I wanted to be a doctor.

Want to feel like you’re watching House, M.D. this Tuesday morning? Dig into Lisa Bubert’s new reading list on medical mysteries!

Everyone with gi issues deserves a kiss on the forehead right now

and ibs otter, which i made mostly for me lol. i really want her name to start with cy…. cypres…. cyril….. hmm

it shouldn't be a controversial take but:

disabled people are allowed to hate being disabled

Chronic pain things😎

April is IBS Awareness Month. If you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you are not alone – IBS is common with prevalence estimated at 10% to 15%. Yet many people remain undiagnosed and unaware that their symptoms indicate a medically recognized disorder.