How Do I Get Rid of My IBS?

Welcome to the Gut Honest Truth blog where a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner gives you digestible information to tackle your chronic health concerns.

That’s me, Katie Morra;

Side note- If you want an even deeper dive into understanding and resolving Irritable Bowel Syndrome - check out my "How to Get Rid of Your IBS" e-book.

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On to the post...

The (Dreadful) IBS Diagnosis

Here's a scenario I hear constantly:

You've been dealing with GI issues for a while. You've tried to manage on your own — dietary changes, stress reduction, maybe some supplements. Eventually you see a gastroenterologist. After 15 minutes, you leave with a diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a recommendation to try low FODMAP, maybe a fiber supplement or a probiotic. If you were lucky, they ran some basic labs.

And yet here you are — still symptomatic, still searching for answers.

You're not imagining it. And you're not out of options. The problem isn't you — it's that IBS, as a diagnosis, doesn't actually tell you anything about what's causing your symptoms.

What Is IBS?

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a label applied to a chronic pattern of recurring abdominal pain or discomfort accompanied by changes in bowel habits. It affects an estimated 10-15% of Americans and is the most common complaint in gastroenterology offices.

IBS is diagnosed using the Rome criteria and is further categorized as:

• IBS-C — predominant constipation

• IBS-D — predominant diarrhea

• IBS-M — mixed

  
  

Formerly called spastic colon, spastic bowel, mucous colitis, and functional bowel disease, IBS has always been something of a catch-all. At GHT, we refer to it plainly as a trash can diagnosis — not because the symptoms aren't real, but because the diagnosis itself tells us nothing about what's actually driving them.

IBS vs. IBD — What's the Difference?

A common misconception is that IBS will eventually turn into Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). That's generally not the case.

IBD (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis) causes visible, measurable tissue damage and inflammation that shows up on diagnostic imaging. IBS does not cause structural tissue damage. That said, people with IBD often experience IBS-like symptoms — which is part of why the two get confused.

Common IBS Symptoms

• Bloating and distention

• Indigestion

• Diarrhea or frequent loose stools

• Constipation

• Cramping and abdominal pain

• Mucus in stool

• Undigested food in stool

• Food sensitivities

• Headaches

• Fatigue

The breadth of that list is actually a clue — these symptoms point to dysfunction in multiple systems, not one single condition. Which is exactly why a single diagnosis and a single treatment rarely solves the problem.

What's Actually Causing Your IBS?

At GHT, we look at five main areas of digestive dysfunction when a patient comes in with an IBS diagnosis:

1. Low Digestive Output

Digestion depends on three interconnected outputs: stomach acid, pancreatic enzymes, and bile. When any one of them is insufficient, the whole process downstream is affected.

Stomach acid is the conductor. It signals the release of digestive enzymes and bile, breaks down protein, kills pathogens, and makes nutrients available for absorption. When stomach acid is low — due to stress, medications, nutrient deficiencies, or age — food moves through in a poorly digested state, creating the perfect environment for bloating, dysbiosis, and IBS symptoms.

Digestive enzymes (produced by the pancreas) assist in breaking down fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Without adequate enzymes, undigested food particles become a fuel source for opportunistic bacteria, yeasts, and parasites.

Bile (made in the liver, stored in the gallbladder) is essential for fat digestion. Floating stools are often a sign of fat malabsorption — a clue that bile output is insufficient. If you've had your gallbladder removed, fat digestion support is especially important.

2. Chronic Stress

Stress shuts down digestion in real time. When the nervous system perceives a threat — whether that's an actual emergency or a tense email from your boss — blood and energy get redirected away from the gut and toward the extremities. Your body prepares to fight or flee, not to digest.

Chronic stress suppresses stomach acid production, impairs motility, increases intestinal permeability, and creates an environment where pathogens can thrive. It's one of the most underaddressed drivers of IBS we see in practice.

The goal isn't to eliminate stress — that's not realistic. The goal is to understand your stress load, improve your nervous system resilience, and build habits that support parasympathetic function.

3. Gut Infections

This is one of the most important and most overlooked areas in IBS care. Five infections in particular frequently drive IBS symptoms — or trigger flares in people who already have a sensitive gut:

• H. pylori — the most common gut pathogen worldwide, present in over 50% of the population

• SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth)

• Candida overgrowth

• Parasitic infections

• Dysbiosis — a broader imbalance in the gut microbiome

Standard GI workups often miss these entirely. At GHT, we use the GI-MAP stool test and SIBO breath testing to identify these infections accurately and build a protocol targeted to what's actually present.

4. Food Sensitivities and Leaky Gut

Food sensitivities can initiate a cascade of inflammatory responses in the gut — and long-term exposure to a food you're sensitive to can cause ongoing gut irritation that directly worsens IBS symptoms.

Unlike food allergies, sensitivities can trigger reactions anywhere from a few hours to 72 hours after eating, making them genuinely difficult to identify without structure. The gold standard is a proper elimination and reintroduction protocol — not just cutting out gluten indefinitely or avoiding an ever-growing list of foods.

A note on leaky gut: while intestinal permeability is real and well-researched, it's more of a downstream consequence than a root cause. Identifying and addressing the triggers (infections, food sensitivities, stress) should come first — the gut barrier often improves significantly when the underlying drivers are removed.

5. Thyroid Dysfunction

Your thyroid controls gut motility — how quickly food moves through your digestive tract. When thyroid function is low, everything slows down: digestion, absorption, bowel movements. This directly contributes to constipation, bloating, and IBS symptoms.

Here's what I see constantly: patients who've had their thyroid "checked" and been told it's fine — but only TSH was tested. That's like looking at the tip of an iceberg and assuming there's nothing underneath.

A complete thyroid panel should include TSH, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, and thyroid antibodies (TPO and TgAb). Only then do you have the full picture.

What Most IBS Patients Have Already Tried

By the time patients reach us, they've usually been through several rounds of:

• Fiber supplements (Metamucil, Benefiber)

• Probiotics

• Acid-reducing medications (omeprazole, Pepcid)

• Low FODMAP diet (helpful short-term for some, but not sustainable or addressing root cause)

• Being told it's stress or anxiety and referred for mental health support or antidepressants

• Xifaxan (rifaximin) for SIBO — sometimes helpful, but often without retesting to confirm eradication

Some of these can offer temporary relief. None of them get to the root.

Practical Starting Points

If you're currently dealing with IBS, here are some things worth doing before or alongside working with a practitioner:

• Track your bowel habits and symptoms — patterns often reveal themselves when you write things down.

• Keep a food diary — note what you ate, when symptoms appear, and how severe they are. The 72-hour window for food sensitivity reactions means you may be surprised by the connections you find.

• Try a 10-day sugar and fruit elimination — if removing these makes a noticeable difference in your symptoms, that's a strong signal worth investigating further with proper testing.

IBS does not have to be your permanent diagnosis. You don't have to "just live with it." There are real, identifiable things driving your symptoms — and with the right testing and a targeted approach, most people see significant improvement.

At GHT, we use comprehensive functional testing to find out what's actually going on in your gut — and build a protocol around that, not around a label.

Ready to stop guessing? Schedule a free discovery call with our team here.