Antibiotic can help ease the pain of sufferers of irritable bowel syndrome, a poorly understood and painful condition that especially afflicts younger women, according to the Associated Press.

In two large studies done in the U.S. and Canada, results showed 41 percent of the patients who took the antibiotic rifaximin said their symptoms substantially improved which lasted up to 10 weeks, compared to 32 percent of those who got fake pills.

Dr. Mark Pimentel of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who led the research in the U.S. and Canada, said, “Experts want to see if that translates into a longer term benefit. but the fact that relief extended beyond the two weeks of treatment suggests that we’ve actually touched on the cause of IBS, as opposed to just covering up symptoms.”

IBS is a common gastrointestinal ailment, affecting one in every five Americans, and is more common in women than men. Main symptoms are abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea or constipation, or both, while causes of the disorder remains a mystery, but scientists provided sensitivity to certain foods or stress as theories.

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