I have IBS-C, Does any one have similar symptoms? If so what products have you found to be beneficial.

[bigbunbun3]

My IBS-C is not like the usual problem of the stool being hard and difficult to pass, but most of the time I can only go a tiny amount then my bowel just does not want to work, leaving me feeling so bloated. After 20 yrs of this, and trying so many products, I have found the FODMAP diet the most beneficial. I am now also trying Symprove, ( 7th week) but as yet no improvement.

[marky555]

Hi

I had this type of IBS for 30 years but I'm currently much better. I did not use the FODMAP diet but did excluded trigger foods, for me this was milk and cutting down on cooking oils and processed food. This plus glutamine ( decrease stomache lining permeability) and high dose vitamin b12 and general vitamins and iron tablets has helped me greatly. I also meditate and practise Thai chi but my belief I'd that the vitamins and glutamine were of the greatest benefit. I also found things like lemons and grapes and raisins a problem I think because of the sulphites. It takes a lot of effort and trial and error to get IBS under control but if you persevere you will hopefully manage a great improvement. But as you can see it took a holistic approach to get mine under control.

[poing]

I can identify with this. I don't have any trouble pooping, there simply isn't much poop there sometimes. I think this means that there isn't enough healthy bacteria in the colon (as I'm sure you know, poop is mostly dead bacteria).

Eliminating my trigger foods helped. For me these are gluten and yeast, but everyone will be different.

Symprove contains traces of gluten and so does VSL#3, which rules them out for me... I want to try Align, but can't get my hands on it.

Magnesium citrate is an effective and pretty safe stool softener, and I use that now and again, more if things are bad.

Specifically with bloating, I found enteric coated peppermint oil taken on an empty stomach helped. I used one called Colpermin. Also, not snacking between meals helped when bloating was bad, I think it gives the digestion a better chance to move things along. My bloating is pretty much gone now.

Also, I have been using something called resistant starch helped me because it has a prebiotic effect. Basically, this boils down to eating mashed potato (the waxy variety) and adding potato starch to foods - I use it to replace some flour in GF baking, and add a teaspoon or two to live greek yoghurt when I eat that. Potato starch has the highest levels of resistant starch.

Potato and potato starch are not FODMAPs as far as I know, which is one reason that I decided to try them. FODMAPs tend to cause problems because of their prebiotic effects (feeding gut bugs), it took a while to find something that was both prebiotic and not fermentable. I think the low FODMAP diet is a bit tricky for those of us with C because you are also eliminating a lot of foods that feed gut bacteria, which in general help to keep poop soft and bulky... so you have to pay attention to where the dietary fiber come from.