Announcements

I would like to remind you about our free Tuesday Night IBS webinar on March 5 launching Kate Scarlata and Dr. Megan Riehl's new book Mind Your Gut. It has been receiving a lot of buzz as some people received advanced copies. I'm excited to be hosting the webinar with Dr. Dunleavy from the Mayo clinic. Webinar details below. It all starts at 7pm EST on Tuesday March 5. I would like to remind you about our free Tuesday Night IBS webinar on March 5 launching Kate Scarlata and Dr. Megan Riehl's new book Mind Your Gut. It has been receiving a lot of buzz as some people received advanced copies. I'm excited to be hosting the webinar with Dr. Dunleavy from the Mayo clinic.…

IBS is often misunderstood and stigmatized and is a condition that greatly affects our quality of life. I initiated World IBS Day on April 19th to raise awareness of its impact on individuals. Ardelyx Inc., a pharmaceutical company and the maker of an IBS constipation medication, will be taking the lead again in 2025 to raise awareness about this illness. We are very grateful for their continued commitment to patients. This year we want to Elevate the IBS Patient Voice and answer the question, Are you the best you can be? We are doing this by anonymously asking patients for questions that they have about IBS. These questions will be answered by doctors and other heal…

As the year comes to a close, I want to take a moment to thank everyone for their continued trust in me, the IBS Patient Support Group, World IBS Day and Tuesday Night IBS. I wish you and your loved ones a joyous holiday season. Jeffrey Roberts MEd, BSc Founder IBS Patient Support Group & World IBS Day Co-founder Tuesday Night IBS

December has been designated as Constipation Awareness Month to understand early signs of constipation. Usually Constipation is a condition which is not given the attention it should. It is important to remember that constipation may affect almost everyone. The symptoms of constipation may vary widely person to person. Usually people have bowel movements one to three times a day or three times a week. Chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) should be considered if you have less than three bowel movements in a week in the last six months. Also if you experience abdominal pain, bloating and hard stools with unexplained changes in your bowel habits you can visit your doctor fo…

Dear Partners and Friends, World IBS Day 2024 was an enormous success on April 19th thanks to our partners and friends from across the US and beyond. The medical media picked up the day and shared it widely. We saw more social interactions on the day than ever before. Ardelyx, as our 2024 lead partner, lit up the Prudential Center Tower in purple, as well as all of their buildings across the country. AbbVie and Ironwood continued as strong fellow partners for another year of success in raising awareness about Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The official tag for 2025 will be #WorldIBSDay2025 on April 19th, 2025. Please reach out to us now about working toget…

This is going to be a fairly long newsletter so I have summarized the contents for you. A Tuesday Night IBS webinar is Nov 19: IBS-C and the Patient Experience. A live interview with an IBS-C Patient and healthcare professional American College of Gastroenterology medical conference The new medical device GutTracker™ New book and a new IBS Course for IBS Patients with a discount from Dr. Emeran Mayer Paid opportunity for patients happy with IBSRELA which manages their IBS-C IBS News Highlights Tuesday Night IBS Webinar on Nov 19 about IBS-C from a Patient's perspective Next week on November 19 at 7pm EDT we will have our la…

I am often asked about "natural" treatment options to manage IBS. The obvious one is to consider the low FODMAP diet as a way to determine which foods high in FODMAPs could be contributing to your symptoms. FODMAP is an acronym for groups of carbohydrates (sugars and fibers) found in foods and beverages. It stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides Disaccharides Monosaccharides (Fructose) And Polyols. If this is new to you, you can read more about it here. The gut–brain axis is one of the most powerful relationships in our body and one which we can modify "naturally" as a treatment option.. Functional abdominal pain associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is bel…

If you've been diagnosed with IBS it has complicated your life. The symptoms never come at a convenient time. It gets really tricky when you discover that there are no magic treatments; however, we hope by being a member of our community we offer some guidance to living a better quality of life. Following up on the Food: The Main Course conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan that I attended in August, the podcast that I recorded is now published. You can find it here, https://www.ibspatient.org/community/topic/91347-food-the-ma... We are working on making it more convenient to find a Registered Dietitian in our directory who are skilled at managing IBS Patients and t…

Dear IBS Patient, A few weeks ago I attended the Food: The Main Course conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This specialized event featured expert faculty and dietitians from the University of Michigan and other institutions. It included lectures and panel discussions on key gastrointestinal diseases and disorders and state of the art talks addressing hot topics. It was a conference that I have wanted to attend for years and I was not disappointed. If you follow me on X (formerly Twitter) I was tweeting up a storm @ibspatient. I co-hosted a podcast with my wonderful friend Kate Scarlata MPH, RDN, for Tuesday Night IBS and Healio Gastroenterology. We spoke to the organi…

Dear IBS Patient, I have spent the last 20+ years talking about IBS. As you know, I attend several medical conferences annually and strongly believe in evidenced-based medicine. When I started supporting patients the term "advocate" was not used. Now, I recognize myself as a Patient Advocate. I define that as someone who supports other patients to live a better quality of life. I do not endorse any particular treatment. My role is to share what I learn and for you to have an informed conversation with your health care provider(s) to find the best treatment for yourself. An influencer amplifies a message. They are generally paid to do this. They may or may not ha…

Dear IBS Patient, I had the great privilege of attending another Digestive Disease Week medical conference in May to learn about the latest research surrounding IBS and other digestive diseases. This year was especially meaningful as I was accompanied by several other IBS Patient Advocates; Rebecca Kaplan @rebeccakaplan, Erica Dermer @celiacandthebeast, Katherine Wald and Christine Olivo @myibslife. This was funded by a grant from Ardelyx. We will all be sharing our perspectives about the conference in a blog or video in the coming weeks. I will also be summarizing the scientific insights that I learned in the next few weeks and posting it on our website forums. …

World Digestive Health Day today on May 29 raises awareness on making digestive health a priority in people's lives around the world! We are proud to support it. #WDHD2024

World IBS Day - April 19th: Light Up the Sky for IBS PR Newswire World IBS Day - April 19th: Light Up the Sky for IBS 21 Mar, 2024, 08:41 ET Aims to elevate awareness for the 800 Million Irritable Bowel Syndrome sufferers worldwide TORONTO, March 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- IBS is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder affecting 10-15% people globally manifesting in symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea. Misunderstood and stigmatized, this condition significantly impacts individuals' quality of…

World IBS Day - April 19th: Educating Others about Irritable Bowel Syndrome Are you the best you can be? TORONTO, March 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- IBS is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder affecting 10-15% people globally with symptoms like abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea. Misunderstood and stigmatized, this condition significantly impacts individuals' quality of life. World IBS Day 2025 on April 19th, receives lead support from Ardelyx Inc. (United States). Educating patients and Healthcare Providers about the questions that IBS Patients have …

We have added a new forum on our website community called IBS Twitter Feed. We've curated some of the best individuals who tweet about IBS and have added a feed to our forums. New tweets will be added daily.

Dear IBS Patient, Happy Valentine's Day! 💖 We had a wonderful Tuesday Night IBS webinar in January speaking about IBS-D. It generated a ton of questions which our panel of experts answered. Our February webinar about pelvic floor dysfunction and IBS-C has been rescheduled to later in the year due to a scheduling conflict; however; we are so pleased to be involved in launching a new book on our March 5 webinar for IBS sufferers, from Kate Scarlata MPH, RDN and Dr. Megan Riehl PsyD with Dr. Katie Dunleavy MD as the moderator. More information is below about the webinar as well as the link to register. Introducing: Mind Your Gut: The Science-Based, W…

Dear IBS Patient, Happy New Year! I have heard from quite a few people who have diarrhea predominant IBS as to why do we not have more webinars or surveys about that? We are certainly trying to work with industry to talk about this. We hope to have a survey soon that members can participate in. Our January webinar on January 23rd will be talking about diarrhea predominant IBS (IBS-D). We hope you'll join us for that discussion. I would like to highlight a new research study about the anti-histamine ebastine that we list in the IBS News Highlights below. We have heard anecdotal information from patients for over 20 years that anti-histamines offered some relief f…

Dear Community, I have been a little behind in reading and responding to postings. The holiday times are usually pretty busy around here. Unfortunately, I have had several illnesses over the last few months and it has kept me away. I try and make sure that every post is read and that I respond. We're all here to help each other. Happy New Year! Jeff

Dear IBS Patient, I would like to wish you and your family a safe, healthy and happy holiday season. I completely appreciate that holiday time can be difficult with many gatherings, different foods and likely a good amount of stress. Together they can quickly ruin the holidays. Let's hope they don't. Take one day at a time. Don't look too far into the future about what might the holidays bring. I can always find something to eat when presented with different foods. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Appreciate the time with your family and friends. Traditionally our website community forums and Facebook group get pretty busy around the holidays. It's actually…

Dear IBS Patient, I was so happy to receive messages from quite a few of you explaining how the monthly newsletter and Tuesday Night IBS webinars are something you look forward to each month. CW wrote, "reading it helps me feel hopeful and it lightens my burden." Knowing that it lightens someone's load helps me to continue doing what I am doing. In late October I will be traveling to the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) annual meeting to learn about some of the research that leads to new treatments options for IBS. Research involves gathering data from patients and writing scientific papers before arriving at a new perspective on how to treat IBS. I ap…

Dear IBS Patient, For those in the northern hemisphere, Labor Day is the traditional end of summer and the beginning of school for people of all ages. I just came back from a trip to Austin, TX where the temperature was in the 100's every day and no sign that summer is coming to an end so quickly. The change of seasons has always been troubling for me. It's especially troublesome from fall to winter and winter to spring. Perhaps it's the change in diet or the unpredictable weather. Unpredictable is what many of us feel our IBS is like. It's my hope that with our community, webinars and podcasts, that you'll find something that eases your unpredictable IBS for you. …

Dear IBS Patient, In our Facebook Group community I recently posted about a new book to be published early in 2024 by Kate Scarlata RDN, MPH and Megan Riehl PsyD when a member wrote "I’m a skeptic. I haven’t been told anything new in years and now there’s a new book to buy." My opinion is that the newest thing that has happened in the treatment of IBS has been the low FODMAP diet which helps 70% of those that have worked with a Registered Dietitian to find their most offending high FODMAP foods. In addition, in the last year the US FDA approved both Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Gut Directed Hypnotherapy (GDH) for the treatment of IBS. Both require a prescript…

Dear IBS Patient, Happy 4th of July to those that are celebrating! I am back after a short post-Digestive Disease Week break and ready to share more education about IBS. In early May I attended Digestive Disease Week (DDW) in Chicago. This annual medical conference shares the latest research and treatment options for digestive health and is presented by researchers and other healthcare providers. It is attended by physicians, dieticians and GI psychologists from around the world along with the pharmaceutical industry, other vendors and regulatory bodies. I have been attending DDW annually for over twenty years. This DDW conference solidified my overall impr…

I am very sorry for all the spam postings lately. We have added a new Question and Challenge for new registrations to hopefully slow down the spam registrations. If you have any difficulty registering please contact me. Jeff