Habba syndrome, named after Dr. Saad Habba, is a newly recognized disease that causes chronic diarrhea after meals and is often mistaken for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). It is caused by abnormal contractions of the gallbladder and can be treated with cholesterol-lowering drugs. Many people diagnosed with IBS may actually have Habba syndrome.
Habba syndrome is not new, but has only been recognized as a disease since the early 2000s. It is named after Dr. Saad Habba, who began studying patients suffering from chronic diarrhea, particularly after meals, to determine whether causes other than irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) could explain this condition in a certain percentage of these patients, especially those who have not responded to standard IBS treatments. In 2000, Dr. Habba published his first finding, suggesting that a certain condition could be mistaken for IBS but had completely different causes, related to abnormal contractions of the gallbladder, and the name Habba syndrome has been associated with these findings.
Symptoms of this condition are usually chronic, watery diarrhea that can occur soon after meals and is not usually associated with significant cramping, a hallmark of IBS. Symptoms often go away if people fast, which is not the case with IBS, and they don’t respond well to regular IBS treatments. The syndrome can make it embarrassing for people, as the problem can be difficult to control and patients may try to refrain from eating due to the clear connection between food consumption and bouts of diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea can also lead to poor absorption of necessary nutrients and some people may feel tired or sick all the time and not be able to lead a normal life.
According to Dr. Habba’s studies, what appears to occur is gallbladder dysfunction, and his initial studies showed poor gallbladder function, which creates a situation similar to where people have had their gallbladders removed. Treatment for most people doesn’t require actually removing the gallbladder to improve symptoms. Instead, most people who have been diagnosed are given cholesterol-lowering drugs, and this could solve the problem completely, although treatment can take a few weeks to be fully effective. Ironically, this treatment has already been around for many years to address the symptoms that occur when people have had their gallbladders removed.
The reason the discovery of Habba syndrome is so significant is because there are so many people currently diagnosed with IBS who may have Habba instead. Although this disease is still considered to be newly discovered, patients who have not responded to traditional IBS treatment methods may not respond to treatment because they are really suffering from gallbladder dysfunction and most IBS treatments do nothing to fix it. For those people who have symptoms that seem to fit Habba instead of IBS, it might definitely be worth seeing whether a trial with cholesterol-lowering drugs changes or fixes the chronic diarrhea, since gallbladder scans don’t always show dysfunction.
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