January 2008 Archives

There was a survey out the other day which found that, out of 2,000 adults, 38% said that they "evaluated their self-diagnosed condition over the internet", and 48% said that embarrassing conditions such as sexually transmitted diseases and bowel problems would make them think twice about going to the doctor.

Now, first of all let's take a look at the 38% of people - that's a whopping 760 out of 2,000 adults - who are self-diagnosing and trying to evaluate their own symptoms over the internet. These people have no brain.

Does that sound a bit harsh? Well, it's true. I'm sorry if there's anyone reading this who self-diagnoses through a quick Google in the morning, but, in my humble opinion, you are daft. Let me give you a number of examples as to why, and seeing as though IBS is my specialist subject, as well as one of those embarrassing conditions that people worry about, I'll be using IBS as an example.

Let's imagine that I am an IBS sufferer, and I have never been to the doctor about my symptoms. I search for "IBS" on Google, and I get a number of different sites. Right away I'm in trouble - some of these sites are very well-researched and written by the best doctors in the world. Some are written by people who are only interested in selling you their brand new super-dooper pooper capsules that cure IBS, cancer and global warming in one go, only $99.99 while stocks last.

And some are written by IBS sufferers themselves, and let's say you click on to IBS Tales to try to get your diagnosis. I've listed some common symptoms of IBS on there, and maybe you have every symptom on the list. Hurrah, you think, I've found it!

Except that IBS Tales is written solely by me, and I often make mistakes, being a human bean. I've written that bleeding is a symptom of IBS, when I meant to write that bleeding is rarely a symptom of IBS. And you actually have cancer.

Now, that of course is an extreme example, but it's perfectly possible. And what about celiac disease, or colitis, or Crohn's disease? Are you able to see up your own bottom? If not, you're probably going to need a colonoscopy, and that's not something you should attempt in the living room.

And if you do have, for example, celiac disease, when you've just randomly decided you have IBS, then you're throwing away the chance to feel completely better, just for the sake of a doctor's visit. Celiacs stop eating gluten, and then they feel fine. That's it. Why on earth would you pass up a chance to get better that's so easy?

So, that's that - diagnosing any medical problem over the internet is plain crazy, and if I catch any of you doing it, *especially* if I catch any of you using IBS Tales to do it, then I'll personally come round and eat your gerbils. That's how strongly I feel about it.

Now that's out of the way, let's go back to the second stat of that survey, the 48% of people who would think twice about going to the doc with a sexually transmitted disease or a bowel problem. Now, that one I can understand a bit more, as long as people think twice but do go to see the doc in the end.

I mean, no-one wants to get their genitals out on the table, and no-one wants to talk about their bowel (except me, but I'm special). I do get that, and although my own embarrassment has rather worn off now after so many years as a sufferer, I do remember sitting in the doctor's office and cringing as I tried to explain myself. It's no fun.

I think the most useful thing to do though is to try to imagine it from the doctor's point of view. There are literally millions of people with IBS. Millions. Plus all those people with the other bowel disorders, plus people with everyday constipation or diarrhea. And then there's people with herpes, and genital warts, and hemorrhoids, and bizarre things growing on their buttocks.

I'm willing to bet that there's not a doctor in the country who goes for more than a few hours without hearing something disgusting, or seeing something gross, or poking their fingers into pus. These are not people who sell Prada handbags in Harrods - these are people who deal with bodies falling to bits and decrepitude. And they've seen it all before.

So, please, please go to your doctor and tell them all about your bowels. They're honestly not sitting there and laughing at you, or thinking "Well, I liked this person when they came here for some headache tablets, but now they're constipated I no longer value their time". They're thinking "Right, IBS, let's look at your drugs, did you have that colonoscopy, did you try the fiber drink?". And that's not scary. I promise.

IBS Chat is a new book which has been written entirely by IBS sufferers - and without them really knowing it! No, they haven't been hypnotised by an evil megalomaniac cyber-sheep and forced to talk about their bowels - stop being silly. They've just contributed to the rather wonderful IBS Self-help Group bulletin board, and now the best, most supportive and most knowledgable posts from that board have been collected into a book.

Now, perhaps the first question you might ask is why you would bother to buy a book version of a website, when the website already exists. The answer is, of course, editing. The IBS Self-help Group now contains thousands upon thousands of posts, if not millions, and while that fact makes it a great resource in its own right, it does mean that sometimes it can be hard to find what you're looking for. But no longer!

The book has been collated by Jeff Roberts, the founder of the IBS Self-help Group, and Barbara Bradley Bolen, a clinical psychologist and author of Breaking the Bonds of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The idea behind it is very simple - chapters are dedicated to various different aspects of IBS, such as diarrhea, constipation, diagnostic tests, medication, hypnotherapy etc etc, and then the best posts and threads from the bulletin board are arranged neatly within.

Personally I'm a big fan of things written by IBS sufferers for other IBS sufferers, and the whole reason I started IBS Tales was because I didn't want to read any more books by doctors who were well-meaning but remote, I wanted to read stuff by the people who were actually living it.

There's a real power in reading page after page after page (after page - you get your money with IBS Chat, it's over 500 pages long) written by people who are Just Like You. You begin to realise that most IBS sufferers have the same challenges and problems and bizarre things said to them by well-wishers, and that far from being abnormal we're part of a pretty huge club.

Not only that, you can pick up some great ideas for treatments - there's good coverage for example of the calcium and magnesium supplements that have proved so useful for so many people, despite rarely being mentioned by our doctors.

So, IBS Chat is definitely a book to add to your IBS reading list. My only gripe really would be that there's no index, but the chapters are so well-organised that this isn't much of a problem, and of course you can always look the subject up online.

Buy IBS Chat from Amazon.com