Visit the Microscopic Colitis Foundation Website
This article is about a research project designed to demonstrate that IBS does not carry an increased risk of turning into colon cancer, or an IBD, and the researcher, (one Dr. Chey), seems to have done that, according to his description. However, look at what he said in the last two paragraphs of the article that was written, following an interview with him, (the red emphasis is mine, of course):
In one breath, he recommends against ordering colonoscopies for IBS patients, and in the next breath, he points out how important it is to diagnose those patients with an "unusual disease" called microscopic colitis. Just how does he expect to diagnose them, without a colonoscopy?This research shows that it is unnecessary to order colonoscopies for patients with IBS, unless they show alarming symptoms like unexplained weight loss or anaemia, bleeding from the GI tract, or have a family history of colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, or celiac disease, says Dr. Chey.
"Lay people and doctors overuse colonoscopies, which are very expensive procedures, in patients with typical IBS symptoms and no alarm features. Of course, patients over the age of 50 years or who have alarm features should undergo colonoscopy to screen for polyps and colon cancer." Dr. Chey says.
Dr. Chey's research also showed that 2.5% of IBS patients older than >=45 years had an unusual disease called microscopic colitis, compared with 1.5% among the control group. Microscopic colitis can masquerade as IBS in patients with diarrhoea and is important to diagnose because it is treated differently than IBS, he says.
Of course, he says that people with "alarming symptoms", (such as bleeding, anemia, etc.), should be scoped, but that recommendation is directed at diagnosing cancer, Crohn's, UC, etc., and it has nothing to do with IBS, (nor MC, for that matter), so that's irrelevant to his study.
And then, to provide us with another good laugh, he complains about "Lay people" and doctors overusing colonoscopies.
How many "lay people" do you know, who perform colonoscopies, let alone overuse them? 
http://www.docguide.com/news/content.ns ... E20000C862
Is it any wonder that so many IBS patients suffer needlessly with MC, when researchers are still turning out recommendations such as this? They still don't get it. I'm beginning to wonder if they ever will.
Tex
