I've had IBS for 22 years and was diagnosed without any internal examinations when I was 14. I have always suffered bad cramps, bloatedness, food intolerances and just wondered if anyone knows if there are many differences between the conditions?
I have it and Chron's disease is extremely painful, I felt like passing out with the pain. You also have alot of blood and mucus in your stools. if you feel it may be more than IBS, see your GP and ask for a Barium meal and a colonoscopy, that will find out for sure. Docs usually put alot of things under the umbrella of IBS, they did to me when i first went GP but I kept going back cos it kept getting worse.
Other symptoms I have is alot of joint pain, tends to be in the knees, hips, elbows, wrists and shoulders.
People with Crohn's disease or Coeliac disease which is untreated will tend to have weight loss and things like anaemia and other vitamin deficiencies caused by malabsorption in the intestines. Crohn's disease causes bloody diarrhoea up to 20 times a day when someone has a flare up.