Wild New Hypothesis Suggests IBS Could Be a Form of 'Gravity Intolerance' - ScienceAlert

There's an invisible and relentless unit acting connected your bowels close now, and it mightiness beryllium causing immoderate radical superior irritation.

No 1 truly knows however oregon wherefore irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) develops, but gastroenterologist Brennan Spiegel from Cedars-Sinai infirmary successful Los Angeles has outlined a weighty caller hypothesis.

In a paper published successful The American Journal of Gastroenterology, Spiegel argues IBS is triggered by the body's inability to negociate gravity.

Our bowels, Spiegel explains, are similar a large sack of potatoes that we person to transportation astir our full lives.

If our body's accustomed absorption of gravity fails for immoderate reason, our diaphragm tin gaffe down and compress our intestines, perchance causing motility issues and bacterial overgrowth.

"Our tense strategy besides evolved successful a satellite of gravity, and that mightiness explicate wherefore galore radical consciousness abdominal 'butterflies' erstwhile anxious," says Spiegel.

"It's funny that these 'gut feelings' besides hap erstwhile falling toward Earth, similar erstwhile dropping connected a roller coaster oregon successful a turbulent airplane. The nerves successful the gut are similar an past G-force detector that warns america erstwhile we're experiencing – oregon astir to acquisition – a unsafe fall. It's conscionable a hypothesis, but radical with IBS mightiness beryllium prone to over-predicting G-force threats that ne'er occur."

The bully portion astir Spiegel's proposal is that it's easy testable and doesn't exclude different theories of IBS.

Currently, determination is nary definitive trial for IBS, and its symptoms are highly adaptable from diligent to patient. As a result, the syndrome is usually made arsenic a diagnosis of exclusion.

Once different disorders that tin origin gut symptoms – specified arsenic pain, bloating, cramping, constipation, oregon diarrhea – person been ruled out, patients are usually told they person IBS.

Today, about 10 percent of radical worldwide are thought to endure from the syndrome, and Spiegel is 1 of galore scientists moving to fig retired why.

Gravity, helium argues, mightiness beryllium the grounding unit that pulls each these antithetic symptoms together.

Under Spiegel's framework, a disordered effect to gravity mightiness besides trigger a gut-to-brain enactment disorder. By squashing the intestines, it mightiness adjacent interaction the gut microbiome, causing hypersensitivity, inflammation, oregon discomfort.

"There's specified a assortment of explanations that I wondered if they could each beryllium simultaneously true," says Spiegel.

"As I thought astir each theory, from those involving motility, to bacteria, to the neuropsychology of IBS, I realized they mightiness each constituent backmost to gravity arsenic a unifying factor. It seemed beauteous unusual astatine first, nary doubt, but arsenic I developed the thought and ran it by colleagues, it started to marque sense."

If IBS is caused by the assemblage struggling to grapple with gravity, past it could explicate wherefore carnal therapy and workout tin beryllium truthful beneficial successful relieving its symptoms.

It could besides explicate wherefore serotonin tends to beryllium elevated successful IBS patients.

Serotonin is simply a neurotransmitter that is primarily produced successful the gut to modulate our bowel movements and besides our mood, but excessively overmuch of it tin trigger diarrhea. It is also involved successful the regularisation of our humor unit successful effect to gravity.

Without serotonin, Spiegel says, your assemblage mightiness not beryllium capable to basal up, support balance, oregon proceed circulating blood.

"Dysregulated serotonin whitethorn beryllium a signifier of gravity failure," argues Spiegel.

"When serotonin biology is abnormal, radical tin make IBS, anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. These whitethorn beryllium forms of gravity intolerance."

Chronic fatigue syndrome/ myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is different chronic and debilitating sickness without a origin oregon cure, and it often crosses implicit with IBS. Many CFS/ME patients also conflict with lasting up, which tin origin a abrupt driblet successful humor pressure, fatigue, dizziness, and a racing heart.

Other symptoms that transverse implicit with IBS see little backmost pain, headaches, dizziness and postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which is erstwhile humor unit plummets aft a idiosyncratic rises.

All of these conditions could beryllium explained by the body's inability to decently negociate the unit of gravity.

Without nonstop research, Siegel says the gravity proposal is conscionable a "thought experiment". But helium hopes it encourages caller ways of researching and treating IBS successful the future.

"Our narration to gravity is not dissimilar the narration of food to water," writes Siegel.

"We unrecorded our full beingness successful it, are shaped by it, yet hardly announcement its ever contiguous power connected the quality of our existence."

Perhaps it's astir clip we considered it.

The survey was published successful The American Journal of Gastroenterology.