Why bowel pain radiates

Bonnie - chronic bowel pain that is not treated often radiates to other organs, creating or further exacerbating pain in those areas as well. The following study sheds light on why this may occur. The findings are particularly relevant for those suffering from chronic pelvic pain.

When it comes to chronic pain, there are two things to remember:

1. Chances are that pain starts in the gut, so rule out gastrointestinal disorders, intolerances, and allergies first.
2. A friendly bowel is a friendly body.
   

Conditions that cause chronic pelvic pain -- such as irritable bowel syndrome and overactive bladder -- often occur together. Nerves in the painful organ may ''leak'' information to nerves in an adjacent organ, and as a result the brain isn't sure which organ the pain message originates from, according to University of Pennsylvania researchers presenting evidence at the annual meeting of the American Urogynecologic Society.

For patients, the findings may be reassuring, as they are sometimes told after examinations and testing that nothing is wrong functionally in the adjacent organ in which they feel pain.

Patients with chronic pelvic pain often have symptoms from multiple organs, such as bladder and bowel. Patients diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome or IBS, for instance, often also have symptoms of bladder urgency, or overactive bladder, in which they get a sudden urge to urinate and may ''leak."

Researchers looked at an animal model to find out what happens to surrounding organs when the colon becomes inflamed and painful. They induced colonic inflammation with a chemical and then tested bladder function. They saw a lot of bladder spasms in the animals with colonic inflammation. Those with the inflamed colons had five times the number of bladder contractions as the control animals.

Researchers believe that nerves from the inflamed organ, in this case the colon, may be communicating with nerves from other organs. When the messages reach the brain, it doesn't know which organ is inflamed. Because of the 'cross talk between nerves, which scientists call cross-sensitization, it may send the pain message to both organs.

P.S. While this study focused mostly on chronic pelvic pain, I can assure you that gastrointestinal pain can lead to chronic pain in just about every other area of the body if left untreated.