I had IBS and after many years research found it was caused by hypothyroidism which was not diagnosed because my thyroid blood tests were normal. As this is a long story I have set up a website ibshypo.com which details how I discovered the cause and got better.
Jim.
Very interesting, well done on doing all this research although I haven’t managed to look at it all yet, but I have found that taking a large magnesium supplement every day for the last 6 months has vastly improved my IBS as well as my Trigeminal Neuralgia (which is why I started it)so very interesting link. Thank you for this.
Great job Jim! That's wonderful that you've cured yourself, and have set up that website to try and help others. I love the opening sentence on your website "We need to discover the root causes of IBS, Hypothyroidism, Fibromyalgia and CFS/ME using good science, not to find better ways of managing these conditions but to effect cures", couldn't agree more. I think I've found the root cause of my own IBS, and think it was TMJ in my case, but I'm still working on curing it, and also my daughter has CFS and I have friends with fibromyalgia, so I'm going to try and read everything you've written on your website but a bit at a time because I can't take too much at once.
Thanks for your kind words. You've reminded me I didn't put anything in about temporomandibular joint disorder(TMD). I'm a bit rusty on it but there are strong links with IBS, hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia. The IBS link is I believe independent of IBS type. I'm sort of glad people can't take it in all at once because it's taking me time to present it in a clear way. Also, there are many hypothyroid patients on high doses of thyroid hormone who will be at risk if they are able to remove their resistance to thyroid hormone. So, I want them to understand what is going on before I reveal a treatment.
Hi jimh111, thanks for sharing so much of what you've found out, very interesting.
I didn't realise you'd struggled with resistance to thyroid hormone, and very very useful to hear that it started fairly suddenly in adult life.
I've had a thyroidectomy for cancer, and have had resistance to thyroid hormone replacement. It seems to me that NDT has got past that a little better than synthetics. I now take a high dose of NDT and T3, currently 6.5grain of Naturethroid and 35mcg of T3, but I am still increasing /juggling.
Self medicating has got me from the point of being largely bed bound with perfect looking thyroid panel results, to now being able to move around the house and do basic self care and a bit of very gentle activity. I'm nowhere near 100%, but this is a million times better than not being able to take care of myself.
One of the questions I often come up against is why I wasn't more sick before my thyroidectomy if I've got resistance to thyroid hormone, so it's great to have one other case to show it doesn't have to work that way.
Hi-Ho Silver! Not sure I have the silver bullet. (sorry this is way before your time but I couldn't resist).
I've read your profile, I won't go into lots of thyroid stuff because this is the IBS forum. It's possible your radio-iodine treatment had an effect. My ibshypo.com website covers the aetiology of IBS, the effects of low magnesium status and that for many patients undiscoved hypothyroidism is the cause. I'm adding pages about an acquired form of resistance to thyroid hormone (ARTH) which presents with normal thyroid hormone levels. The reason why will be explained in the next week or two. It involves endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which are very similar to thyroid hormone and disrupt its effects (but NOT in the pituitary - hence normal blood test results). Some people are susceptible to these EDCs which were introduced in the 1970s. We take them in from the environment and eliminate them. However, if our metabolism slows down our elimination rate slows leading to a higher EDC burden -> hypothyroidism -> slower metabolism -> slower elimination of EDCs -> higher EDC burden etc. There is a snowball effect which just might explain your situation.
I have found a way of eliminating these particular EDCs but there is a big caution for patients like yourself who are on very high doses of thyroid hormone. If you remove the EDCs the resistance is removed and the high dose thyroid hormone will make you very thyrotoxic. Unfortunately, the response to treatment is not linear, it goes in steps so you have to be very cautious.
For ordinary IBS patients: sorry about all this technical detail, it's necessary to protect those patients on high dose thyroid hormone therapy. I will update the IBS topic in a couple of weeks time with details of a very cheap and effective therapy which is completely safe for those not on high dose thyroid hormones.
Hi there ! glad that you have found the root cause of your illness and i'm going to read your story in your website to know more , but meanwhile may i ask what were your main IBS symptoms that correlated with hypothyroidism ???
Hi, I should point out I think I was an extreem case, eventually my hypothyroidism got much more severe than normal. The photographs in ibshypo.com/index.php/hypot... give an indication but it's very important to point out that my IBS started a year or two before the first photograph, when my hypothyrodism was minor and I looked normal. The textbooks will tell you that hypothyroids suffer from 'constipation' but when we look at hypothyroid patients' descritptions they describe constipation or alternating constipation and diarrhoea along with bloating and straining to defecate. i.e. they are describing IBS.
It's 20 years ago so it's difficult to remember the symptoms then but I went to my GP and said I was tired and found it difficult to concentrate. I was yawning all the time, I definitely remember saying that as it was put on a referral letter. I might have been putting on weight, I can't remember exactly when that happened.
Doctors consider hypothyroidism to be lack of thyroid hormone but it can also be caused by impaired thyroid hormone action, the hormone is there but not effective, just like in type-2 diabetes. My hypothyroidism was caused by endocrine disruption. I'm just putting details on my ibshypo.com website. In a week or two I will describe a very simple and safe way of getting rid of the endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) that causes this. The reason for the delay is that a number of patients with a similar condition are taking very high doses of thyroid hormone. If they get rid of this EDC and the resistance that it casues they are at risk of having too much hormone which can be serious. So, I need to explain exactly what happens so hopefully patients on high dose hormone treatment will understand and take care.
Can you tell me how long it took for the magnesium to work I’m on day 4 of taking it and it’s giving me terrible diaorhea xx
First what form of magnesium are you taking and how much? If it's giving you diarrhoea then stop taking it for a while as it's counterproductive and then perhaps resume on a much reduced dose.
Magnesium deficiency can take many months to correct as nearly all magnesium is in bone and tissues, very little in the blood. I guess the essesntial point I would make is that supplementing magnesium is a small part of the story, the difficult bit is to find why you are defiicient (assuming you are).
Have you been diagnosed with IBS? Sometimes diarrhoea and urgency can be caused by other things such as bile acid malabsorption and colitis. If your symptoms came on suddenly and you haven't seen a gastroenteologist I would press for an appointment.
I'm a fellow patient not a doctor.
I cured my IBS
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My IBS
