An Asian perspective on irritable bowel syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a prevalent chronic disorder, and its epidemiology depends on the diagnostic criteria used. Recently, the Rome IV criteria for IBS were published by changing the frequency of abdominal pain and excluding abdominal discomfort from the previously used Rome III criteria. However, the recent Asian consensus on IBS recommends the inclusion of abdominal discomfort and abdominal pain as diagnostic criteria. The low fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides, and polyols (FODMAP) diet has been proven to be effective in Western patients. Moreover, recent well-designed studies reported its effectiveness and the microbial changes after implementing it in Asian patients with IBS. However, traditional Korean foods including kimchi, one of representative FODMAP-rich food, exhibited a poor correlation with the food-related symptoms of IBS. Therefore, the low FODMAP diet protocol should be cautiously applied to IBS patients, especially to Korean patients with IBS. In Asian countries, there are lots of traditional herbal medicines and treatments for IBS; however, these studies have limitations including the heterogeneity of herbal mixtures and relatively small sample size. Therefore, well-designed studies based on large samples are required to validate complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of Asian patients with IBS.