What is Irritable Bowel Syndrome and How Does Behavior Influence it?

Abstract

How often you poop can reflect your digestive health. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a very common digestive illness that affects close to one in five people. Symptoms include pain in the abdomen and changes in how often someone poops. Certain behaviors can increase a person’s risk of having IBS, including the foods they eat, the amount of exercise they get, how much sleep they have per night, and how often they go outside. All these behaviors can influence the brain, which tells the digestive tract the rate at which it should work—which then determines how often people poop. In this article, we will introduce IBS and the main behaviors that are known to affect this disorder.