IC/PBS – new study indicates co-morbidities (not suprising)

Interstitial Cystitis / Painful Bladder Syndrome  (IC/PBS) is one of the most demoralizing conditions in medicine.

For the reader unfamiliar to IC/ PBS – here are some quick points on this condition:

Symptoms include: urinary urgency, frequency, night-time urination, and pain in the pelvis that worsens as the bladder fills and improves with emptying.

This condition can be debilitating. The severity of the IC sufferer can lead to broken relationships, abstinence of sexual intercourse and job problems.

For a more thorough description: GO HERE

A recent study indicates that IC / PBS patients usually presents with other health problems: other disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Sjogren’s syndrome, fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety disorders, migraines, and other pain syndromes not related to the bladder. (Chelimsky et al. 2012)

 

My take on this:

 

It is short sighted to treat IC / PBS with one form of treatment – let’s say a medication like Elmiron.

For years practitioners have noticed that IC/PBS patients come in with a variety of health problems some of which are related and others that are unrelated to the bladder.

To bring relief to the IC/PBS patient by attempting to only treat the bladder is a set-up for failure.

Any level of success in treating this morbid disorder would come with the inclusion of holistic therapies. The word holistic is derived from the Greek word ‘holos’, which means whole. Holistic practitioners view health and illness as a dynamic web-like interaction between body, mind, spirit, and environment.

In my opinion focused diet therapy, acupuncture, physical therapy and psychotherapy works favorably for IC suffers.

Lastly, there is an old naturopathic medical adage that holds to true in this instance; “when in doubt, treat the gut.”

The gut is the center of health. If that is “out-of-wack,” so will everything else.

For some helpful tips I have written in the past: GO HERE

 

References:

Chelimsky G, Heller E, Buffington CA, Rackley R, Zhang D, Chelimsky T.Co-morbidities of interstitial cystitis. Front Neurosci. 2012;6:114.