Bloating so bad 😞

[Tdet]

My Ibs really bad at present gas, bloating , cramps & trips to loo 4/5 times a day😞.I think it’s probably diet related/stress.

Tried buscopan, paracetamol & peppermint tea but guts in turmoil😞.

Any suggestions ?

[FRreedman]

Go back to basics. No alcohol or fizzy drinks and replace with a minimum of two litres of water per day. Don’t eat peanuts, sweetcorn, brussel sprouts or baked beans. Eat, only, small mouthfuls of food and chew well before swallowing. Good luck and stay safe.

[bburzycki]

Well I also suffer from huge bloating all the time with my IBS - I have found very few things help except altering diet and in some cases anti gas medication but it just comes back. What have you tried as far as diet. Also cutting out sugar can help.

[asbayford]

You didnt mention if you've tried the low fodmap diet?

[sat2019]

Try Bimuno - got good reviews. I have just bought some from Holland and Barrett. Its a powder form and you can mix into drink.

[sat2019]

also forgot to mention trying out, yakult as its good for digestive issues!!

[Jane123456]

I had similar symptoms and could not leave the house if I ate anything as this would stimulate my bowel into action. I looked at my diet and the foods I liked the most/craved as these are often the foods that are causing the problems. I love cheese and butter and so I substituted all the dairy in my diet with non dairy for several weeks. It took a while but my gut settled down. I also took pro-biotics. Then I started to use lactofree milk, cheese and butter only a little at first. Now a year or more on I can tolerate small amounts of “real” milk, butter and cheese but not too much. I should also say I had tried a gluten free diet in the past but it really hadn’t made much difference. This doesn’t mean that dairy is your trigger, it could be any one or more of a number of foods including spices, sugar etc. or something else causing this extreme gastric irritation. Your gut is expelling what is irritating it and the bloating/gas is probably produced as a result of an imbalance of gut flora.

I didn’t do a low fodmap or exclusion diet as such as for me I excluded the food I felt I couldn’t live without (obviously I could and am better for doing so). If there is one food or food group that you can say the same about perhaps start with that as exclusion diets and low fodmap can be very hard to do and very time consuming.

[xjrs]

Here is some information about IBS that I have shared with others in this group:

IBS can be due to a number or combination of factors - these can be stress (including stress from early life experiences) which impacts the communication between the brain and the digestive system. There are lots of free webinars online at the moment regarding mindfulness meditation which might help. Plus you can ask to be referred for CBT or something similar to reduce your anxiety - I would have thought online appointments are available. Exercise can play a major role in IBS in terms of reducing stress, helping your gut microbiome and regulating bowel movements.

There is also not absorbing certain types of carbohydrates called FODMAPs very well, the residue ending up in the colon and bacteria feeding off them causing symptoms. Ordinarily feeding gut bacteria is a really good thing - when you feed good gut bacteria these produce by-products that have great health effects in the gut and throughout the body. However, in some people with IBS bad bugs might have the upper hand over good - these bad bugs may cause symptoms such as pain or disordered bowel movements. There is an interesting infographic on this here:

gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com/....

This is why it’s worth trying probiotics such as Alflorex (which has been scientifically studied for IBS) or Symprove to crowd out the bad bugs and make their numbers die down. If that doesn't work you can try the FODMAP elimination and reintroduction diet. This is normally under the guidance of a nutritionist via GP referral - this may not be possible at the moment so you can read about it online. If you download the Monash University FODMAP app it will tell you which foods contain FODMAPs and in what quantities. You can eliminate all FODMAPs for 2 weeks and then introduce each type of FODMAP one at a time starting in small quantities, increasing over a 3 day period and wait up to 4 days for symptoms. I go much slower than this - only introducing a small amount (1/4 to 1/3 of a normal portion size) of the same food for 3 days and then increase if tolerable or no symptoms and cut back to the previous amount if symptoms for longer and then try to increment again . I've read your microbiome can adapt to handling a new food if introduced very slowly and your bad bugs are under control with a good probiotic. Ideally you want to eat as many FODMAPs as you can since they are good for your health. Many people with IBS don't have diverse gut bacteria - it has been found that people who lack a diverse microbiome are more prone to diseases in general. In the long run, if you can get your symptoms under control, the ideal situation is to have a very varied diet - lots of different coloured fruits and vegetables, a variety of protein and carbohydrate sources including cereal fibres. This may seem a long way off, but with the right treatment all of this is possible. Last year all I could consume to control my IBS was white rice, protein and limited low fodmap veg. Using the approach above (particularly introducing Alflorex) I am now able to consume far more foods - more than I've ever dreamed of including wholewheat bread which is unheard of for me.

If you are also suffering from pain, you may be suffering from visceral hypersensitivity (functional abdominal pain) - there is info about it here:

iffgd.org/lower-gi-disorder...

It is where the brain interprets the normal activity of the bowel as pain - this is due to a wearing down of neurons in pain control centres of the brain which can be caused by PTSD, neglect or abuse in childhood, extreme stressful events etc. The first line treatment is nerve pain agents such as low dose amitriptyline. There is a theory that being on something like amitriptyline for 6-12 months can help the pain control centre neurons to regenerate. Note that amitriptyline can cause constipation, but this can be helpful in people who are diarrhea dominant. Unfortunately I couldn't tolerate these. Linaclotide (for IBS-C only) & Alflorex have helped me with this intestinal pain.

You may also find assistance with anti-spasmodic medication such as mebeverine (Colofac) or enteric coated peppermint.

You can find some info on self management here:

theibsnetwork.org/the-self-...

[dinghy]

Hi there apart from all the good diet advice you've aready received, i suffer from stress related IBS and use silicolgel to control the flare ups - to the extent that if i know i'm going to be in a slightly stressful situation, eating out, travelling, business meeting - i take it before during and after and i have particularly the windy tummy and diarrhoea urges under control. i've been using it since 2014 and i wouldn't be without it as its enabled me to do so much more now than i ever was able to do. Also, though i am now older and convinced hormonal changes are calming my symptoms down now too, which has to be a positive of reaching 50!

[Charliebaby1967]

Unfortunately I suffer terrible aswell , the doc gives me loperamide hydrochloride which you can get at chemist fairly cheap, that's not too bad with buscopan , but unfortunately the only thing that stops it for me is morphine sulfate which I'm on for other medical issues, I have to go to the loo at least 6 to 8 times plus a day and my pain is excruciating, good look x

[Edgar77]

Its worth looking into hiatus hernia or gall bladder problem.