Diabetes and GI Disorders: Understanding the Connection

Gastrointestinal symptoms are common in type 1 and 2 diabetes, and most, but not all, studies indicate that they are significantly more common in diabetes than in non-diabetic controls. The reported inconsistencies are most likely due to differences in the methodology used and the patient populations studied. It should be noted that gastrointestinal symptoms are sometimes not reported, especially those that are deemed humiliating (such as fecal incontinence), therefore current figures may be lower than they should be. Unfortunately, symptoms continue to be evaluated in clinical trials solely using participant self-report despite its acknowledged unreliability, rather than simple, validated measures, which are widely used in the assessment of ‘functional’ gastrointestinal disorders (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome and functional depression).