How infection can cause Irritable Bowel Syndrome?

IBS research on why and how infection causes IBS focuses on two areas:

• How the inflammation that accompanies a bowel infection damages nerves in the gut lining and alters the way the gut nervous system works
• How a low-grade inflammation remains in the gut following the infection In general, acute GI infections cause inflammation of the mucus membrane lining the intestines. They initiate a cascade of events that don’t stop when they’re supposed to. The inflammatory process seems to have a life of its own where immune cells infiltrate the intestinal lining and become a local irritant to the nervous system.

Consuming probiotics (good bacteria) either in yogurt or in capsule form is a worthwhile preventive measure when you have an episode of infectious diarrhea. Replacing your good bacteria that may be lost with continuous diarrhea may help to avoid the future development of IBS. The best types of probiotics are those that guarantee that each capsule contains one billion live organisms.