Stomach pains could be sign of serious intestinal disorder

K.C. King recalls that her physician told her she was fine, even after doing some blood work. But she wasn’t.

“I was in constant pain. I’d have stomach cramps for eight hours,” said King, a massage therapist from Loves Park. “Back then, they thought it was all in your head.”

After visiting a nutritionist 14 years ago and finding that her liver function was “off the chart,” she underwent a food elimination diet and discovered she has celiac disease.

Celiac disease is one of several intestinal disorders that many women deal with every day, including ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease. A person with celiac disease can’t digest gluten, a protein in wheat, barley and rye. Celiac makes it impossible to eat regular bread, cereal, pasta and other starchy foods.

But King doesn’t dwell on that.

“It’s amazing how much better you feel after you stop ingesting gluten,” she said. “Health-food stores and even regular grocery stores are carrying more gluten-free products. Capri Restaurant has a gluten-free menu; they’ll even make gluten-free pasta for you if you give them 24 hours’ notice,” she said.

Gap in diagnosis

Sandy Nugent of Roscoe, whose daughter was recently diagnosed with celiac disease at age 20, said only one day after removing gluten from her diet, her daughter started to see vast improvements in her energy.

“She had been so exhausted that she had to sleep every day for a few hours,” Nugent said. “That night after she went gluten-free, she was up until 11:30.”

Remedies for other intestinal disorders often aren’t so clear-cut.

Marcie Howard, a family nurse practitioner specializing in gastrointestinal and liver disease at Rockford Gastroenterology Associates, said women report suffering from irritable bowel syndrome twice as often as men. But in general, men don’t visit the doctor nearly as much as women, so it’s difficult to know whether it’s more prevalent in women.

Howard urges women who have persistent bouts of diarrhea, constipation, weight loss and/or bleeding to see their primary-care physician, who can determine whether they need a referral to a gastroenterologist.

Depending on the symptoms, patients may go through various diagnostic tests to determine the cause, she said. That might include blood tests to check thyroid levels, stool tests, lab work, a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy (examination of the large intestine), an upper endoscopy (exam of the upper digestive tract) or biopsy of the small bowel if celiac disease is suspected.

Irritable bowel syndrome is often considered a diagnosis of exclusion — after running various tests and finding nothing, symptoms of diarrhea and constipation are often labeled as IBS. Howard said that to treat IBS, a physician might recommend diet modification, bulking agents such as bran or psyllium, and an antispasmodic medication.

Genetic links

Inflammatory bowel diseases, which include Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are autoimmune disorders and often carry a genetic component. According to the National Digestive Diseases Clearinghouse, about 20 percent of people with Crohn’s have a close relative with inflammatory bowel disease. People with IBD suffer twice as often from anxiety and depression, according to a study by Canadian researchers. They have higher rates of panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and major depression than those without IBD.

For general digestive health, Howard recommends eating traditionally and maintaining a regular exercise program.

“In general, people need to go back to basics,” she said. “There is so much fast food out there now. We need to eat as close to nature as we can get.

“Set up an exercise program that starts slowly. Walk for 10 minutes, three times a week, then slowly work up to 30 minutes every day.”

Rockford Register Star