Holistic Treatment of Functional Irritable Bowel Syndrome with a Spotlight on Medical Acupuncture: A Narrative Clinical Update!

Abstract

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common recurrent functional disorder without organic pathology. IBS mostly afflicts females often presents in different forms with abdominal and extra-abdominal symptoms, and impacts quality of life of patients around the world. Objective: This update aims to critically describe the salient clinical features of IBS along with brief snapshots of complementary, conventional and integrative therapeutic approaches with a special focus on medical acupuncture. Methods: A selective e-searches of relevant literature were carried out using keywords and Boolean operators, and finally 65 articles were retained for this critical clinical update. Results: The main clinical manifestations of IBS include diarrhoea, constipation, abdominal pain, bloating and flatulence in the absence of "red flag" signs. Its several types (IBSdiarrhoea/constipation/mixed) affect approximately 15% to 40% of the general population. A variety