Anemia and ibs

[Candyman8]

Hi all thanks for your advice a few weeks ago. Well I've finally been diagnosed with ibs, while I'm not overjoyed about it, it's a relief to know what's wrong after suffering for 19 years. My doc did full bloods and the only thing that came back was anemia, is there a link. Didn't get chance to ask doc. And I also read somewhere that hormones could play a big part, I'm only asking this because I get back pain around the time of my periods thanks in advance

[BabsyWabsy]

Hi, Now you have a diagnosis you can learn what helps for you and yes hormones do play a part in everything. Many people on here have reported that when they have a gut flare up, their periods are worse than normal. I am beyond that age but sometimes get acute back pain/muscle spasms when I have a flare up, which may be inflammation, or other hormones at play. So I am guessing it could be a combination of things.

[Candyman8 in reply to BabsyWabsy]

Thanks for the reply, so I guess I have a lot of research to do

[howarddavies]

I suffered with anaemia when I was first diagnosed so yes I suspect there is a link

[Candyman8 in reply to howarddavies]

Thanks for the reply, can I ask what your doctor did about it. My doctor has just said to eat iron rich foods, which I've read you should avoid if you have ibs

[howarddavies in reply to Candyman8]

Sorry to have taken so long to reply. I was put on a course of iron tablets & put in touch with a specialist because they suspected it was part of something bigger

[Stuart24]

Hello, I've got a drawer full of medicines and pro-biotics that I have taken over the years, and do you know what I take now? None of them. After 27 years of suffering with IBS-D I have found that the long term solution that actually works is all about vitamins and fasting and both are equally important.

This is 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, you can be a carrier of some bugs and only suffer occasional flare-ups. But, if you are all clear then the first thing to sort out is your vitamins and the timing of your eating (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 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 high 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 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 straight away. 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 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 small intestine plenty of time free of food for cleaning. God didn't design us to have cupboards full of rich foods permanently available day and night. 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. 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. No supper or 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. The high temperature that gives the lovely crispy bits, makes complex polymers that are very difficult to digest, they feed the bacteria and make you ill. Starches should only be boiled, and this is enough. You will feel hunger in the fasting periods, but you must 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, and you need to make a life-style change to have this level of discipline in your eating and continue with it. Start doing some exercise if you don’t already, as this will also help with your gut motility. 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 all the time 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 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 GENIUS paper below, but it does fit exactly with what I have experienced, and for the first time I really feel in control of something that has been a burden for years, but is not longer. 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

[Candyman8 in reply to Stuart24]

Thanks for that. So in a nutshell get a good all round vitamin for my age and for me don't eat any snacks after tea, which is my only downfall. I will take all your advice on board thanks again