Fed up!

[huggit]

Hi Everyone! I haven't posted in a long while, but my IBS has been rumbling on. I have been to the doctors and had about 11 blood tests...all clear! I went to an NHS Dietitian and she suggested I went caffeine free, and did not drink more than the recommended daily amount of alcohol. So I duly went Caffeine free (drink decaf) and I only have about 4 small glasses of red wine spread over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So my anxiety around IBS has decreased, and I don't have as many episodes which is good. But I still have episodes which seem to be linked to fruit, fructose, vegetables, and eggs, anything healthy really. I keep having a strange aching sensation bottom right of my stomach, when I walk. I just want to feel better....it makes me want to turn to drink!!! I am IBS D by the way, any suggestions to help?

[CazO46]

I've only recently been diagnosed so I'm no expert but it was suggested to me that I should lightly steam my veg and eat tinned rather than fresh fruit. I am IBS D and C so I'm still testing the water with some foods as I haven't really been able to get stabilised yet . Sorry I'm not much help but I wish you all the best

[huggit in reply to CazO46]

Thank you for the reply! I usually cook carrots until they are soft and courgettes and have mushrooms too, but other vegetable seem to have an adverse effect. grrrr it is so frustrating!

[CazO46 in reply to huggit]

I know really frustrating and draining ! I'm on the hunt for a good cook book that might give suggestions, I'll let you know if I find one.

[huggit in reply to CazO46]

Thank you that's great, I seem to react to fructose sugars the most, and its in everything.

[Forestina in reply to CazO46]

Surprised about the tinned fruit. It definitely doesn't work for me and gave me diarrhoea. It could have been the mandarins themselves or the syrupy juice

[Kiwirotc]

Digestive enzymes trust me it’s been 8 months of trouble until I started taking them. Forget the ones with pre/pro biotics

[huggit in reply to Kiwirotc]

Which do you take? Thank you 😁

[Kiwirotc in reply to huggit]

Solgar theyre about a tenner but worth trying

[one-n-den]

I’m guessing that someone’s already suggested looking at the FODMAP lists of foods? If not, do try it. It will tell you which vegetables and fruits are likely to cause problems. You may find some contradictions with your experience, but in general I find it pretty accurate. Apples, for instance, are ‘high’ FODMAP, and I had been religiously drinking apple juice every morning! Things improved considerably when I switched to grape juice - grapes are low FODMAP and grape juice has much less fructose, according to the packaging.

Hope that helps!

[one-n-den]

By the way, mushrooms are High, carrots are Low...

[IBSsufferer_26]

I have had IBS for roughly about a year now. I've noticed there doesn't seem to be a chain of the same reaction in everyone's bodies. Everyone's different in there own unique way when it comes to IBS. My IBS doesn't consist of: Diarrhoea, Constipation, Abdominal Cramps. Etc. I just have 7x bowel movements a day. However, I have been looking up on the Internet about suitable diets for IBS. And it tells you to cut out flour from your diet: I.E: Bread, Pasta,Crackers,Cereal, Baked beans (Baked beans have (Cornflour) in them). I've also heard that Milk and Cheese a form of dairy is also no good for IBS. And should be avoided. Although it says it's ok to eat in the Low FODMAP diet, I still. Would stay away from Milk and Cheese. Best of luck anyway.

[Stuart24]

Hello, this is my general response to help people find a baseline. First, go to the doctors and get yourself checked for intestinal infections, and whatever other tests they want to do. Most people find they are all clear, and that IBS is a condition brought on by our modern diet, freely accessible food, sedentary lifestyles and a trigger of an earlier infection. After 27 years of suffering with IBS I have found that the long-term solution that actually works is all about vitamins and fasting and both are equally important. You are effectively the manager of a “food nutrient extraction factory”, I know that is obvious, but I have found that IBS is not about medicines, but about changing the way you run the factory, and thinking about it in that way.

This is based on some excellent publications, and also by observing how healthy people live. But, if you are all clear from the Doctor’s, then the first thing to sort out is your vitamins and the timing of your eating and fasting periods. An incident of food poisoning or infection can start you on a cycle that you need to make a really concerted effort to break out of. IBS causes vitamin deficiencies which are very difficult to overcome in most people’s diets, especially because you are probably eating selectively to manage your symptoms. Your vitamin levels affect the health of your intestines, and the health of your intestines affects your vitamin absorption, so it is a vicious circle that you have to break. Get some really good, expensive, multi-vitamins (ideally constituted for your age) and take them without fail every day before your breakfast. Get a blood test for Vitamin D and get you doctor to judge your supplement level required in IU’s. Do not get the ones with high calcium and magnesium content initially as certainly in large doses these minerals can mess you up as they consume your stomach acid, and you should get enough of these minerals from your diet. If you are on low FODMAPs, go for all lactose free dairy products to boost your calcium. At the same time, sort out your fasting periods immediately. This is normally completely overlooked by GP’s, but is critical. Your small intestine should be practically sterile, and your stomach acid along with bowel cleaning during fasting (called MMC) will usually do this. You need to fast for this to be effective, and by that I mean, ABSOLUTELY NO eating in between meals, only water, or zero-sugar drinks. Imagine that you never washed your dinner plates and just kept putting food on them all the time!, they would be permanently loaded with bacteria. You need to give your small intestine plenty of time free of food for cleaning and maintaining the factory. The modern scenario of have cupboards full of rich foods permanently available day and night is a modern luxury outside of the original design of the human being. Your stomach will sort itself out when you have got control of your small intestine (although if you've got gastritis you'll need to finish a course of omeprazole first), and then your large intestine will improve later as nutrients are more efficiently absorbed from your small intestine. Furthermore, you should be able to avoid bouts of gastritis as during the fasting periods, your stomach acid is more neutral at nearly pH 4. As a basic program, eat a good breakfast at say 7am (porridge with 50% lactose free milk) or what suits you and then a good lunch at 12 o'clock - absolutely no food in between. After lunch, no food again for at least 5 hours, and eat well again for your evening meal because it has got to get you through the night. No supper or snacks, no food or milk at all until breakfast the next day.

Further to this there are some things that cause direct inflammation of the colon by toxicity, and are are considered separate to the usual SIBO mechanism described here:

1.) Seek out and try to eliminate “trans-fats”. These cause direct inflammation of the colon, separately to bacterial overgrowth and you will be more sensitive than most because of SIBO and this confuses what is causing you trouble. Chips, hash browns, butter, popcorn and things cooked in cheap or old frying oil as you find in many restaurants can give you colon pain directly through inflammation. It usually passes in a day or so, but trans-fats are bad for you in a miriad of ways, not only by inflammation of the colon. Ideally, starches should only be boiled, rather than fried.

2.) E407, or “Carrageenan” – is a high MW galactose food additive derived from a red seaweed, which is only present in small quantities as a thickener, but even at that level it has been shown to be “highly inflammatory to the digestive tract” and associated with IBS, colitis and other GI diseases. There is loads of literature and objections to this substance on the internet. It is present in Milbona Crème Caramel, and many other products. After weeks of good health, just one of these products knocks me out with colon bloating and pain. I have found this by trial and error several times. Food tests show that even the food grade carrageenan contains between 2 and 25% of the non-approved “degraded” carrageenan, which is colon damaging and carcinogenic. Some food agencies now prohibit this additive altogether, and it may be responsible for a lot of IBS cases. It may be found in chocolate milk, cottage cheese, cream, crème caramel, ice cream, almond milk, diary alternatives, such as vegan cheeses or non-dairy desserts, coconut milk, creamers, hemp milk, rice milk, soy milk, and particularly processed meat. It is used extensively in cheap meats and is injected even into beef joints – so always get organic or local butcher fresh good quality meat!). It may be labelled as E407 or Carrageenan, but if you’ve got IBS, consider it as highly toxic for you. It may take a couple of days to get over a dose of this.

3.) E451 and E452, are sodium triphosphate and sodium polyphosphate predominantly used for packaged ham. These are also allergens for IBS and give me a similar reaction to E407. The diphosphate (E450) is commonly used in many foods and is not troublesome in my experience. Make sure you buy fresh ham “on the bone”, and check with your butcher whether it has been treated.

Red meats take a long time to digest, and also contain some trans-fats, but are usually tolerable. Only have them once a day, and just a light salad to go with them, not a load of starchy food or grains, as they have long digestion times. Ideally, you don’t want carbohydrates being held up in transit with heavy meats.

You will feel hunger in the fasting periods, but this is doing you good, and you must NOT respond to it - only with water or no-sugar drinks. This is CRITICAL. Importantly, when you are feeling better, do not resort to your old ways, you are still recovering, and you need to make a life-style change to have this level of discipline in your eating and continue with it. Do start doing some exercise if you don’t already, as this will really help with your gut motility, and your general health. It takes a few weeks at least, and you need to persevere. You then need to maintain a healthy and consistent way of eating and always keep the vitamins topped to prevent you from relapsing. In a couple of weeks, you should be able to be getting off the low FODMAP diet, and mixing back in the higher FODMAPs.

There is a lot of support for L-glutamine to help with repair of your intestinal lining; this means buying 500g of the bodybuilder powder type and having a couple of tea-spoons of this a day, one before breakfast and one just before you go to bed, and you can have this in a light cordial drink. A lot of this was taken from this excellent paper below, but it does fit exactly with what I have experienced. For the first time I really feel in control of the IBS mystery that has been a burden for years. Good luck. Please reply if this works for you.

Treatment and Management of SIBO — Taking a Dietary Approach Can Control Intestinal Fermentation and Inflammation

By Aglaée Jacob, MS, RD

Today’s Dietitian

December 2012, Vol. 14 No. 12 P. 16