Q. My stomach hurts when nervous — is this IBS?
If abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation recur during stress/tension, IBS is likely. The cause is brain-gut axis dysfunction; Korean medicine stabilizes autonomic and gut function together.
📝 Detailed Answer
It is possible. However, there are criteria for the diagnosis.
Irritable bowel syndrome is characterised by abdominal pain appearing in connection with bowel movements. The pain reduces after a bowel movement, or when there is pain the frequency of bowel movements or the form of the stool changes. Such a pattern has to recur over several months for the diagnosis.
Brief abdominal pain only when you are tense may be a normal response. Everyone's intestine responds to emotion.
There are also things to distinguish. Lactose intolerance, thyroid dysfunction, inflammatory bowel disease and parasitic infection can look similar.
If there are bloody stools, diarrhoea severe enough to wake you at night, or weight loss, do not put it down to tension — you must have testing.
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Hyo-seop Kim
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