Suffering From IBS

[ineedhelp786]

Hi everyone i am new here,

Last year i began to feel a fullness in my stomach even if i had not eaten anything. I feel as if my stomach is never empty. My stomach never rumbles with hunger. I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy. The endoscopy found mild erosive gastritis. I was prescribed lansoprazole. I can use the bathroom but even after i finish i feel as if i am not empty. My stomach feels constantly full and is distended from morning to the night. I know their are alot of people suffering more than me but this is really making me depressed. I do suffer from anxiety too. I dont know what to try anymore. i have tried mebeverine and lansoprazole. Has anyone experienced similar to me.

Thank you all.

[Positive_Poney]

Hello! Welcome!

First of all, it's ok to feel depressed, you don't have to be dying to have the right to say you feel down. But know it can get better! I have IBS as well (IBS D) and I have that feeling of fullness and something pushing on my belly but now it's on and off and some things make it better.

Does this feeling of fullness get better when you're lying down or after exercising? Is eating making it worse? (Try to keep a food journal for a week or two and cut down on acid and fatty food)

It could be due to gas being trapped and causing bloating or tension/stress (for example, I get this after a few minutes sitting in class or in public transportation). Applying something's warm to your stomach can help or taking simethicone or fennel capsules.

But managing anxiety should be a priority. My doctor always said something like 'The gut is the bin of our emotions'. Meaning if the emotions and the anxiety is not processed in some way, the gut is going to pay the price.

So think about a little step you can take today to alleviate your anxiety. It doesn't have to be much : taking a few deep breath from time to time, use an app to meditate for 5-10 minutes every day before or after work, get off the bus/metro/... one stop earlier or park your car a bit further than usual and try to walk back home calmly and enjoying the movement while thinking every step you take is one worry you leave behind.

You can also drink some relaxing tea (chamomile, passion flower, lavender,...).

I hope this helps. I am not a medical professional, so if your symptoms don't get better and/or you are more anxious, please seek medical attention. I don't know if you can choose another doctor or are stuck with your current GP, but another opinion can help. Some doctors are more understanding and will try new things!

Good luck

[oneoffhorsemen]

I can relate to this. Mine was gastritis. What I found that helped was actually not just one specific drug but a combination of healthy practices. And I will tell you about them.

1) The first and top of my list is exercising. Believe it or not, it is very very important when it comes to anxiety and digestion related problems. Even you do not want to hit the gym, at least stay active and go for walks

2) The second is water. Make sure you are drinking lots of water

3) A healthy diet, Breakfast IS A MUST!

4) Probiotics are necessary. These are healthy bacteria which help to support digestion and to fight off other harmful bacteria. For this, I used Flourish Probiotics by Eu Natural :amazon.com/Flourish-Probiot...

This is really good for digestive, urinary and gut related problems.

5) For anxiety, chamomile is a great option. Natural and will help to provide relief from stress and help you sleep.

[getmyselftogether]

Hello. GI issues are extremely hard to treat. I developed issues very similar to yours after ingesting too much fiber supplement without enough liquid. End result, fiber brick that scraped my intestines. That said, is there anything that you can think of that may have caused your problem? Sometimes, that helps mentally. For the physical issues, sad to say, please follow your physician's guidance. There are no real cures if you have something along the lines of IBS, but you can still have a good life. Herbal tea, massage, diet modifications, exercise and medications are all part of the process. Good Luck to you and keep us posted.

[Stuart24]

Hello, gastritis is not nice, but you will get over it with the medicines. I recommend the following to everyone with IBS symptoms now, because after 27 years of suffering this is now what is working for me, and for the first time I feel that I am in control, and the majority of IBS cases need first to get to a baseline of vitamins and eating and fasting discipline. The bloating feeling is very depressing. These recommendations are based on some excellent publications, and also just observing how healthy people live. First, go to the doctors and get yourself checked for intestinal infections, and whatever other tests they want to do. If you are all clear then the first thing to sort out is your vitamins and the timing of your eating. An incident of food poisoning or infection can start you on a cycle that you need to make a 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 now eating selectively to manage your symptoms. Your vitamin levels affect the health of your guts, and the health of your guts 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. Do not get the ones with calcium and magnesium 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 from your diet. The lansoprazole will reduce your acid, but you should still start on this process. If you are on low FODMAPs, go for all lactose free dairy products to boost your calcium. At the same time, sort out your eating and fasting periods straight away. Your small intestine should be practically sterile, and your stomach acid along with bowel cleaning during fasting will usually do this. You need to fast for this to be effective, and by that I mean, absolutely NO eating in between, only water, or tea with saccharin. Imagine that you never washed your dinner plates and just kept putting food on them all the time!, they would be filthy. You need to give your guts plenty of time free of food for cleaning. Eat a good breakfast at say 7am 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. After that, no supper or late night snacks, no food or milk at all until breakfast the next day. In general, do not eat fried or roasted starches, i.e. crisps, chips, roast veg or fried rice. Fried and roasted starches, the high temperature produced lovely crispy bits, are complex polymers that are very bad for you and are very difficult to digest, they feed the bacteria and make you ill. Starches should be boiled, and this is enough. You will feel hunger in the fasting periods, but do not respond to it - only with water and drinks - not fizzy drinks or milk. Importantly, when you are feeling better, do not resort to your old ways, you are still recovering. Start doing some exercise if you don’t already, this will also help with your gut motility. Equally, only eat red meats at lunch time as they take the longest time to digest. Your intestines take time to fully recover, 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 up to prevent you from relapsing. There is a lot of support for L-glutamine to help with nutrition specifically for your intestinal lining, this means buying some bodybuilder powder 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 GENIUS paper below, but it does fit exactly with what I have experienced, and for the first time I really feel in control and on the mend. Good luck.

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

[ineedhelp786]

Hi all, thank you for your replies. This all started a year during the month of ramadhan where I fast. I woke up one day and felt my stomach was still full. It is better when lying down or even sitting down. I can use the toilet but it does not feel like before. My stomach does not feel empty anymore. It feels thick if that makes sense. As well as this, I know this may sound crazy but it feels like something is dead and my stomach is not working properly. I tried symprove for a while but it didn’t help. I have been referred to gi specialist but I don’t have much hope.

Thanks again everyone