Is it true that IBS can go away on its own?

Is it true that IBS can go away on its own?

Lin Chang (UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases) gives expert video advice on: What causes IBS?; Can stress make IBS worse?; What can I tell people who insist my IBS is 'all in your head'? and more...

There is information and studies that have shown that IBS can go into remission or go into a period where the patient symptoms go away, but that doesn't mean that the symptoms won't recur. In most individuals it will recur. They have actually done studies where they look at the overall prevalence of IBS, so it will be 10 percent of one time point. If you look at it years later the prevalence is still 10 percent. Some of those individuals, about 20 percent, won't have symptoms anymore but you will get new patients or new individuals that didn't have IBS previously who will now develop the symptoms. So the prevalence stays pretty steady, but patients can go in and out of having symptoms.