i have ibs and here lately the pain is constant. Sometimes when trying to pass stool will cause my gut to hurt too. i do not eat at all! This has been going on for quite sometime of being afraid to eat. i tried to eat yesterday and l had the spasms to return. i have talked to my gastro doctor and he says it is spasms! i need to keep trying to eat! l finally broke down yesterday and eat a salad. well it seems i am paying for it now. But it has become eating or non eating will cause the spasms. I also drink a lot of colas too! I was prescribed medicine to take for the spasms. l do not like taking medicine but you have to do what you have to do i guess. please can anyone explain this to me as to why spasms are getting more frequent spasms.
Hello there sorry to hear you are suffering. It is a horrible feeling when u think u cant eat or u will become ill and in pain. However the one thing u have mentioned is that u drink a lot of cola. This in itself could be causing all your problems. Personally i cant touch the stuff as it causes intense gut spasms and cramps and gives me chronic wind and diarrhoea and thats only a few mouthfuls not even a whole can. I hope u could find it in you to cut back or stop drinking completely to give ur tummy a rest. Then try to build up your food intake slowly by eating plain gut soothing foods. If you google u will get good ideas back. My good foods are plain cold cooked chicken or turkey. White rice. Rice noodles. Carrots and peppers. Herbal teas such as fennel or ginger. Hope this helps you
Hi there I agree try going off cola. Please look up Dysbiosis, see if it fits you, lettuce can't be digested also that condition lives on carbohydrates and bloats you, with pain etc. it is a condition where your good bacteria has been destroyed. If you think it fits ask your doctor for a test.
Thank you for the infomation....I had never heard that.
Hi quit the colas-its gut rot ! If I have these I will be on my hands and nees begging for mercy!
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Thank You so much for the information!!
Thank all of you very much for the information!! l just was not quite sure because of one thing l do love colas. This did cross my mind and l guess hoping it could not be true. I will cut way back because the pain is horrible!!
Hi Annie! I'm sorry you have to deal with IBS, but believe me, most of the pain can be eliminated with dietary changes and stress management.
My first attack was when i was 12yrs old and my knees were drawn up and locked under my chin. I was in so much pain, sharp stabbing pain, that i couldn't draw enough breath to wake my cousin right next to me!
I wasn't diagnosed with IBS for another 10 years, and suffered badly, and often, for another 15-20 years, before finally figuring out how to prevent the pain.
Now, it only hits me when I'm under extreme stress.
Unless i drink soda or any other carbonated beverages... And i love Diet Coke!! Or, eat certain raw vegetables, like broccoli and onions. They are harder to digest for me and produce gas... gas hurts!
IBS sufferers often had traumatic childhoods, and internalize stresses. Finding ways to deal with stress will help tremendously!
When spasms hit, breathe through them like you might through a child birth labor pain. Clasp your hands together, focus on squeezing those hands together and your breathing. The more tense we are ...because, let's face it, it can hurt!... the more the spasms are going to hurt.
Thank you for the information Feelyne. My heart goes out to everyone on here because l know the spasms can be so terrible. l never had a childhood trumatic experience but stress with job and other everyday things seems to bring on a lot too. I am sorry a lot of people on here suffer. But everyone on here has been so helpful and that l am so grateful for. Thank you Again
This may not help everyone but a few years ago I was suffering from constant stomach issues from bloating to cramps to constipation to diarrhoea and no two days were the same. It was very hard to live with and very upsetting. The doctor told me I had IBS and to try eliminating one food at a time, e.g. Gluten, dairy etc to see what worked. This made no difference.
I then went to the health food store Holland and Barrett (in the UK) as they take a blood sample and test it for you. The nutritionist said it could be a number of things but also asked if I ate atificial sweetener. I did, (on a very regular basis), as I was trying to lose some weight and thought that diet foods would help. He then told me the first piece of advice he would give me would be to give this up, especially aspartame as it is a chemical which is not supposed to be ingested in large quantities and has an extremely negative effect on lots of people. I was eating it all the time -
Sweetener in my cereal and in coffee/tea
Diet coke, sprite etc
Cordial (most of the full sugar ones also have a percentage of sweetener in them now as well). In fact the only cordial I can find in tesco without sweetener is Ribena full sugar.
- low fat yoghurts (SOoooo many of them! Even Activia low fat which is supposed to be good for your gut)
- flavoured water!!!!!
- some fresh orange and apple juice
- some cheap ciders and flavoured beers
- some full sugar soda e.g schweppes tonic, lemonade and supermarket own brands
-lucozade sport
-sugar free chewing gum and mints
-lite hot chocolate drinks
The list goes on and on and on.
It is also in several medicines that are sweetened, e.g. Lemsip and I have also heard it is in Imodium (how ironic seeing as it is supposed to calm diarrhoea!)
There is also sweetener in some of the probiotic drinks we are constantly being told will settle our stomach for the day ahead, e.g actimel
It takes a while but I started by checking every label and avoiding all artificial sweetener. These have many different names but common (in the Uk) are aspartame, Sucralose, saccharin etc.
Overnight my problems disappeared! My stomach literally returned to being calm and normal for the first time in years and I have been fine ever since.
I also told my mum and sister as they had worse problems than me. My mum was diagnosed in 1985 with IBS and had always just "managed" it. They both were cured as well by cutting out sweetener. My sister had been at the stage of giving up her job as a fitness instructor as her stomach was so bad she couldn't get through a class. The sweetener in the lucozade sport she was drinking at every class was causing it.
This was all in 2007 and since then I have told many people who have not believed me at first but once they have seriously checked all labels and tried it, they have been amazed.
My mum said it made sense for her, at the lowfat diet industry started in the 1980s and that is when she started getting IBS. Also it often seems to be women who have more issues and in my experience more women than men buy these products. The only man I ever helped by telling him was my brother in law who was in agony and on a diet before his wedding. He had been stocking up on low sugar products and this was what caused his pain.
I have also read recently that stomach issues in children have increased massively since 1990 and researchers are trying to find out why. Every child I know is constantly being given low sugar juice, yogurt etc as their parents think they are healthier. Before the 1990's no one drank low sugar juice etc as a child.
I believe that the food industry know the risks of sweetener but make far too much money from it (one tea spoon of sweetener is a tiny fraction of the price of sugar).
This is well worth trying, it has changed my life. If you are worried about weight gain, I found I lost weight by eating more natural products and regular sugar when I feel like it.
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Nausea All The Time!
I am new here and l have IBS with constipation. Has anyone else gone through with these type of symptons a lot? 
Antidepressant I was just put (on a cocktail of Psychatric meds) called Seroquel is stopping pain, cramping and IBS! But now..am very "C" 😳
