I went to my doctor yesterday, along with my husband, as he was worried that my IBS was getting worse.
She allowed my husband to come in with me and she did actually see us for about 45 minutes. But it didn't start too well. My husband tried to explain that he felt that we weren't being given any support with my IBS. So she became tearful and started stating how many times I had been to the doctors in the last few years. Then she started talking about an official complaint. I was feeling absolutely dreadful at the time but tried to calm her down and explain that my husband was just worried something had been missed and that there was something else going on. He had done this big chart with all my symptoms and what else they could be attributed to. Anyway she asked me numerous questions and said its "just" IBS and anxiety is making it worse. She gave me an examination and again said everything is fine. So my husband said "so there is nothing you can do" to which she said "that's not true, we can give her anti-depressants".
History seemed to be repeating itself. About twenty years ago, I went down to quite a low point and my husband did the same then and took me to the doctors to find out what more could be done. That time I was given prozac and ended up sat on the living room floor shaking like a gibbering wreak. So not sure what to do with these antidepressants that my husband picked up from the Chemist earlier today. This time I have Sertraline. Pharmacist said that all the SSRI's work differently for different people. Don't know what to think!
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Maureen1958
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I really feel for you Maureen. It doesn't seem like your getting much support from your GP. Can you not ask for a second opinion or say you want to be referred to a hospital specialist where they will give you all tests to make sure their is no other problems. I dont know what to say about the antidepressants only you can decide if you want to try. Try to keep strong, Sue xx
Thanks Sue for your reply, I have put a general reply at the bottom of the page. I wasn't expecting such a response. I will think about the anti-depressants for a bit longer.
Oh Maureen, I really feel for you. There's me doing well on the Low Fodmap diet. I had diarrhoea and acute nausea daily before the low fodmap diet, I'm now so much better.
What symptoms do you have? Just trying to think what else it could be.
I'd love to wave a magic wand for you but you do need more help, also, what a lovely understanding hubby you have.
Hi Alicia thanks for your reply. I have put a general reply at the bottom of the page, I wasn't expecting such a response. Yes, my husband is a sweetie, I don't know why the doctor got upset.
I had a long long battle with my GP telling them something was wrong and they sent me for counselling, told me it was all psychological and i ended up having major surgery.
If you feel what they’re telling you isn’t right, please keep pushing- you know your body best.
They could do appropriate testing to rule out anything else and give you more guidance.
I found what works best is telling my GP what I want (referrals, tests, dietician etc)
Hope you get some answers and start to feel better
Thank you for your reply. I have put a general reply at the bottom of this page, as I thought it would be easier. Thanks again.
I was given Sertraline last week, i only managed 3 days, felt worse, dizzy, nausea so I stopped taking them, i should go back and ask for a different type but I haven't!
All would say is try them because everyone os different and you may be ok on them
Thanks for your reply. I might give them a go, but like you if they don't agree with me I will not keep taking them like I did with the prozac. I have put a general reply at the bottom of this page if you are interested.
Hi Maureen, you've always helped a lot of people on here. Is it IBS C or D or both? If it's D or both I think it's all about pre-biotic galactooligosaccharides - basically baked beans 3 times a week, I know that sounds mad but it works. It reconstructs your gut bacteria, inflammation disappears, but it takes several months. I am so much better now, I can even eat wheat based pepperoni pizza and not be bad at all. Low fodmaps help you cope with a poor bacteria farm, but fixing the farm is the way to liberate yourself from the increasingly strict limitations of IBS. That has worked for me anyway. Best wishes, Stuart
Hi Stuart, thanks for your reply. I used to have beans a lot when my tummy was more runny but haven't had them for quite a while. I did a poo test earlier in the year and it came back that my gut biome is in a good state. You may be interested in the general reply I put at the bottom of this page. Thanks again.
Hi Maureen, I have read your post below. It does sound like I was when I was out of control, sounds like general fast gut motility but probably with some triggers. Are you fasting between meals, and cutting out motility triggers?
Things that cause your guts to drive on food through your small intestine prematurely to your colon, meaning that nutrient rich food arrives to your colon, overfeeds bad bacteria and causes diarrhoea, or loose stools.
I discuss it more in my full testimony below, apologies for the length this makes it:
This is my general approach to help people understand and repair their gastro-intestinal (GI) performance after being diagnosed with IBS.
Firstly, IBS must be diagnosed by your doctor or consultant, after checks and treatment for gastro-intestinal infections, or any other clinical reason for your illness. Most people with IBS symptoms find they are all clear, and that they have IBS usually initially set off by a GI infection or other trauma to the GI tract, which is then maintained by our modern diet, freely accessible food, anti-biotics, sedentary and clinically clean lifestyles. This is new age, western illness that is increasing in prevalence.
In IBS-D (diarrhoea predominant), the gut becomes hypersensitive to certain triggers, and the official description is that a physical brain-gut dysfunction develops which causes the gut to over-react to mild stimuli. This does not give enough time for small intestine digestion, resulting in under-digested, nutritionally rich rood entering your colon (large intestine). This excessively rich food causes an imbalance in the types and quantities of good and bad bacteria, which leads to inflammation, loose and frequent stools, gas, pain, mucus, and worsening gut performance that spirals out of control. Eating between meals causes your small intestine to become overgrown with bacteria which compete for your nutrition and cause gas and bloating. IBS-C (constipation predominant) is the opposite situation where movement through the gut is too slow. Be aware that you can still get new GI infections which make the situation even worse, or have newly developed other clinical issues that are not connected to IBS, so you need to be vigilant for this and if concerned then you should visit your doctor again.
Contrary to many, I find that stress control is not that significant in IBS. It may have an effect on adrenalin and serotonin levels, and may cause you to eat in an irregular way and not look after yourself, and these disputably have a stronger effect than the stress itself directly on your gut performance.
The good news is that IBS is at least controllable if not reversible, and you need to be positive that with the correct understanding and behaviours you can get your life back in control. Unless you actually have an allergic reaction to bread or milk or other foods, the fact that you currently can’t eat high FODMAP’s does not mean that will not be able to (at least in moderation) in the future when your GI tract is sufficiently repaired and maintained.
After 27 years of suffering with IBS I have found that the long-term solution that actually works for addressing IBS is about FIVE key topics: your vitamins, daily fasting periods, peristalsis control, toxic food additives and colonic bacteria maintenance.
You should consider yourself as the manager of a very sophisticated “food nutrient extraction factory”, that gives your body you the extracted nutrients from food and drink and keeps you alive. Resolving IBS is about changing the way you run that factory, get it back under control, and learn how to get the best performance out of it. Imagine a chaotic food factory where the raw materials keep getting added half-way through a cooking process, where someone is randomly messing with the speed dials of the conveyor belts, where the place is never cleaned, where you don’t have the right tools (i.e. vitamins, enzymes and bacteria) to do the job properly, and where the occasional spanner (illness or food poisoning) gets thrown in too; it’s not going to work well, nor have a clear route to improvement.
So after your doctor’s tests, if IBS is your diagnosis, then the first thing to get familiar with is the FODMAP diet. Eating low FODMAPs alone won’t fix you in the long term, but they are the right place to start in order to reduce the total amount of bacteria fermentable food that you are eating. You will later need to wean yourself off the diet, and selectively feed up the good bacteria in your colon using the galactans that are banned under the FODMAP diet. You need to be cutting out wheat and milk products at least, and replacing them with oats, gluten-free options and lactose free milk options, and understanding which fruit and vegetables you can eat. You can gradually work off this diet as your symptoms improve. The whole process takes several weeks, but eventually, you can be back eating just about everything again.
The FODMAP fruit list is complicated, but an easy way to remember it is like this: the "fleshy", juicy fruits are bad, i.e. (nectarines, peaches, apricots, pears, apples, plums, dates etc), but segmented fruits (oranges, mandarins etc.) and all berries are generally OK as you are not likely to eat lots of them. The best fruit of all bananas and you can eat them endlessly. They also make a base for meals in the way that plantains are used in Central and South America. For example, microwave three bananas until they are mushy, and put a couple of fried eggs and lactose-free cheese on them. Yellow plantains can be used similarly. This makes a very different and nutritious breakfast.
Bananas, figs, kiwis and pineapples have an excess of glucose over fructose, and so you can potentially use these fruits to balance fruits with excess fructose. For your body to absorb fructose, you need glucose to be present with it in a ratio of 1:1. If you want to make a fruit salad, make sure it is composed mainly of bananas, kiwi, pineapple, mandarins, strawberries etc. Adding any amount of high FODMAP fruits is generally not advisable, because they can also contain high levels of polyols, and these cannot be neutralized by balancing the glucose content.
So, having adopted the basic FODMAP diet, the next thing to sort out is your vitamins. An incident of food poisoning or GI infection can start you on a cycle that you need to make a concerted effort to recover from. IBS causes long-term vitamin deficiencies that are practically impossible to overcome if you’ve already adopted the FODMAP diet. Fundamentally, your vitamin levels affect the health of your intestines, and the health of your intestines affects your vitamin absorption; so it is becomes a vicious circle that you have to break.
Get some multi-vitamins and take them every day with your breakfast, but don’t use ones with high levels of Vitamin E. You should keep your Vitamin E supplement well below 100% RDA (NRV) to avoid weakening your skin. High doses of Vitamin E causes ruptured blood vessels, and many other undesirable side-effects. It is also a fat-soluble vitamin, which means that it can accumulate easily and cause over-dosing problems.
In the UK particularly, just about everyone is deficient in Vitamin D. Get a blood test for Vitamin D and get you doctor to judge your supplement level required to get you to healthy levels. This vitamin is crucial for so many things, and its deficiency causes a whole host of medical problems, including affecting the efficiency of your digestion.
Also, do not get vitamins with high calcium and magnesium content, as in large doses these carbonates will consume your stomach acid, and magnesium will give you diarrhoea (it is a laxative). Unfortunately, the low FODMAP diet cuts out almost all good sources of calcium, but taking pills to replace it is not the answer, you should try to get these minerals from your diet, so it is important to go for all “lactose-free” dairy products in preference over other non-milk alternatives. You will find they are barely different in taste and texture from normal dairy products. However, milk even without lactose is a cause of excess stomach acid production (and burping), so almond milk fortified with vitamins and calcium is a better alternative.
Secondly, you should understand that your “food nutrition extraction factory” works on a batch-wise basis, and definitely not on a continuous process. So, you need to sort out your fasting periods immediately to give a clear break between batches, and the complete processing of each batch. This is normally overlooked by GP’s, but is an absolutely essential element for resolving IBS. The recommendation to eat “little and often” is simply wrong for IBS because it causes “Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth” (SIBO).
Your small intestine should be practically sterile, and your stomach acid along with bowel cleaning contractions during fasting (called MMC) will usually do the cleaning. But, you need to fast for this to be effective, and by that I mean, ABSOLUTELY NO eating in between meals, ideally drinking only water. Imagine if you never washed your dinner plates and just kept putting food on them all the time!, they would be filthy and full of bacteria and this is what happens in your small intestine. This results in SIBO, which is apparently responsible for 85% of IBS cases, but is really only one of factors that you need to address. 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 human evolution, and this is bad for you. 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 by your small intestine. Furthermore, you should be able to avoid future bouts of gastritis as during the fasting periods, your stomach becomes more neutral at nearly pH 4.
As a basic program, eat a good breakfast at say 7am (porridge with 50% almond milk or lactose free milk) or what suits you and then a good lunch at 12 o'clock – and absolutely no food in between. After lunch, no food at all for at least 5 hours, and eat well again for your evening meal because it has got to get you through the night. Ideally, no food after 7 pm, no supper or snacks, no food or milk at all until breakfast the next day. You will feel hunger in the fasting periods, but you will not starve, and this is doing you good!, You must NOT respond to the hunger - only with water or fruit tea. This is CRITICAL. Unless you are in a very healthy GI state, a mid-morning or afternoon snack interrupts your set meal digestion, causing acidity, SIBO, and driving premature advancement of food into your colon resulting in putrid fart gases mentioned later. Importantly, when you are feeling better, do not resort to your old ways, you are still recovering as you intestinal villi repair and become more efficient, and you need to make a life-style change to have this level of discipline in your eating and continue with it. It takes a few weeks at least, and you need to persevere with this. Failing on this will undermine all of your other good works. In a couple of weeks, you should be able to be getting off the low FODMAP diet, and begin working back the higher FODMAPs slowly into your diet. Some people recommend longer fasting periods, but for me the regular program above is sufficient without going extreme.
So, the third aspect of IBS is peristalsis control, also called gut motility. This is the speed at which your intestinal contractions drive food through your intestines. IBS-D can be characterized as having excessively fast gut motility or excessive peristalsis, while IBS-C is where the motility and peristalsis is too slow. If it’s too fast, then your digestive enzymes don’t have enough time to work on the food and for you to absorb the nutrients, and the food is driven prematurely into your colon which gives IBS-D.
If your farts really smell like something died in your guts, then this is because partially undigested proteins are making it through to your large intestine. This smell of rotting flesh comes from the amino acids lysine and arginine being metabolized by bad colonic bacteria into cadaverine and putrescine – the compounds that give the characteristic smell of death! Do not worry that you yourself are rotting, this is just temporary, but it shows that you really need to sort your digestion out. This may be that you have simply eaten more proteins than you can handle, but more likely that your small intestine motility has been too fast.
“Digestive enzyme” supplements are usually plant-based enzymes which work in a wider pH range than your own enzymes, and so can get to work on the food while it’s still in your stomach and also during transit through your small intestine, and so boosting the work of your own pancreatic enzymes, that are released by your pancreas into your small intestine. In this case, not only are you ensuring you have sufficient enzymes working on your food, but you are also gaining extra time for effective enzyme and food mixing and action. I would suggest trying some multi-component digestive enzyme supplements, and take these with at least two meals a day, particularly your heaviest meals. You want them to contain at least amylases, proteases, and lipases (for starches, proteins and fats respectively), but they can also contain other enzymes such as cellulase (for tough vegetables) and betaine HCl which helps with stomach acid production. Pancreatic enzyme production can decrease as you get older, but this is not usually a reason for your problems, as the pancreas usually produces a vast excess over what is required. If you are taking a omeprazole or another PPI (proton pump inhibitor to reduce stomach acidity), it may be a good idea to use enzymes at this time as your stomach acid digestion will be less effective; this will be compensated to some extent by the additional enzyme action. Most importantly, you want to be sure that undigested food does not get to your large intestine where the bad bacteria will go to town on it, causing bloating, inflammation and pain. Using enzymes for IBS-D can improve your nutrition and help you to break out of the IBS cycle, but for this to work effectively you still need to slow down your gut peristalsis, by looking at the following things:
Caffeine massively stimulates peristalsis of the intestines and so this is negative for IBS-D, but positive for IBS-C. Between meal snacking, spicy foods, black pepper, chilli peppers, sucralose, sorbitol, black tea, coffee (and de-caffeinated coffee!), peanuts, cashew nuts, almonds, black beans also stimulate peristalsis. The general advice given for IBS is to cut down on tea/coffee stimulants, no more than 3 cups a day is the NICE guidance, but this entirely depends on whether you have IBS-D, IBS-C or a mixture of both. If you have IBS-D, you must cut out tea and coffee altogether, and for IBS-C you could try drinking more! You can “tune” your gut peristalsis by how much tea or coffee you can tolerate in a day. A mug of coffee contains about 120 mg of caffeine, there is about 50 mg in black tea, and 30 mg in the same volume of coke. A Pro-Plus caffeine tablet only contains 50 mg of caffeine (equivalent to one cup of tea!), and if you were having 10 of these a day you would rightly be concerned! Caffeine is a drug with no nutritional value. The half-life for excretion of caffeine from your body is between 5 and 15 hours depending on your health. So, it can take about three days to remove it all from your body to know how you would really perform without it. The best thing to do is to move on to decaf tea, and have one decaf coffee per day if you really want. Acknowledging this powerful effect is very important, because even if your natural enzyme levels are good, and you also take enzyme supplements, if your gut peristalsis (motility) is too fast you will still drive undigested food to your colon causing all of the usual symptoms simply because enzyme digestion takes TIME.
You should be aware that, caffeine also “drives” anxiety, agitation and nervousness. If you are also suffering from stress, then normal tea and coffee is definitely not helping you. Caffeine is a drug substance, it’s just that as a society we’ve mistakenly chosen to ignore that important fact, and have adopted living with a certain caffeine fuelled life as being normal. Even de-caff coffee, contains other substances that may trigger gut peristalsis, so even with decaf coffee you have got to be vigilant.
Gut peristalsis is very sensitive to adrenalin. A friend of mine says that “adrenalin not used by your muscles goes to your guts” and there may be some truth to this. If you have a busy life, you are probably not coasting along on a bed of feathers, and you probably not aware of your almost constantly high adrenalin levels – that is until you start actively lowering them. Crucially, what does work, is hard exercise to burn up your adrenalin and stop it interfering with the nervous system of your guts. My advice is to do something every day, whatever you can manage in your busy life, it will all help. It will improve your gut motility, general health, bone strength, relieve tiredness, help you sleep better, improve your mental agility and help get your anxiety under control. To many people, exercise may seem like a waste of time, but it is equivalent to spending a bit of time sharpening an axe – of course it is not wasted time, but time very well spent in servicing your whole body and mind.
Closely related to this (and possibly more importantly is serotonin), which is a controlling hormone for your bowel, and is the target of low-dose anti-depressants used for IBS treatment that are used to raise your levels of it by inhibiting its destruction. TCA’s (tricyclic antidepressants) are used for IBS-D, and SSRI’s are used for IBS-C. It is important for your doctor to get this the right way round if you choose to try the medicine route. Exercise increases your serotonin levels, but there are also two other surprising ways to do this: 1.) increase your agreeableness (and avoid hostility), 2.) bright light, i.e. get outside in the daylight as much as possible and avoid dim lighting indoors.
The fourth aspect of IBS is that some food additives are quite simply toxic for you and cause excessive stomach acid production, direct irritation and inflammation of the colon, allergic reaction of the colon, or they are laxatives that give you diarrhoea that you didn’t realise you were eating.
Try to seek out and eliminate “trans-fats”. These cause direct inflammation of the colon, and you will be more sensitive than most people and this confuses what is causing you trouble. Chips, hash browns, butter, doughnuts, popcorn and things cooked in cheap or old frying oil as you find in many restaurants and commercial products can give you colon pain directly through inflammation. It can take up to three or four days to recover from this inflammation, but trans-fats are bad for you in a miriad of ways (cardio-vascular and diabetes etc), not only by inflammation of the colon. A big problem here, is eating out at commercial outlets that do not change their cooking oil often enough. There is evidence that as cooking oil is re-used that the trans-fats (and other compounds) increase. So, if you want fried food as a treat, do it at home with new oil at a low temperature, and only use it once. Ideally, starches should only be boiled, rather than fried.
E407, or “Carrageenan” – is a food additive derived from a red seaweed, which is only present in small quantities as a thickener, but even at low levels 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 commercial Crème Caramels, soft cheeses, and many other dairy and meat products. After weeks of good health, just one of these products can knock you out for 24 hours 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 might 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 even injected 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, you must consider it as highly toxic for you.
Carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) which is more widely used in the food industry, and has similar toxicology in animal studies, giving inflammation of the colon. However, the jury is still out on CMC to its impact on humans, and personally I can tolerate this.
Also, NICE advises against the use of Aloe Vera for IBS - although I would say for the hydration of skin burns the pure plant gel itself is miraculous, so I would recommend you get a tube of this for your medicine cabinet for minor burns.
Organic acids. As a chemist (not a pharmacist), for years I could not understand why vinegar gave me prolonged stomach pains. Acetic acid in vinegar, and citric acid are both carboxylic acids that are much weaker than the hydrochloric acid (HCl) that is produced by your stomach to digest food, they are about 1000 times less acidic. In your stomach, they will be protonated by the stronger HCl, and so should not be able to express their acidity, and will contribute practically nothing to your stomach acidity directly. However, what they do is stimulate your stomach to produce MORE acid, more than you need. I struggle to neutralize this with whatever amount of Gaviscon I take, so I suspect that in their neutral state these organic acids may actually pass through your cell walls where they can then express their acidity and cause burning pain. The same would apply for mono-sodium glutamate (MSG), which clinical trials and several scientific articles connect with IBS. In the stomach this will quickly become glutamic acid (a di-acid) and lose the sodium. In white wine malic acid, and in red wine succinic acid do the same. Tomato paste is another one that is concentrated in organic acids and gives me prolonged pain, although I am fine with normal or diluted tomatoes. Sour fruits are generally high in organic acids, and should be avoided. Pineapple juice, sour orange juice and berries also cause pain. All these different organic acids are of roughly similar acidic strength, but it is the trigger to produce more stomach acid, and their own action on cells that may be the issue.
E338, E339, E340, E341, E450, E451 and E452, are phosphates, diphosphates or polyphosphates as different salts. Natural phosphates are essential for life, and your body is full of organically bound phosphates, however, free ionic phosphates have several problems. Firstly, they are laxatives and will give you diarrhoea (sodium phosphate was once used to prepare patients for colonoscopies!). Secondly, they are associated with cardiovascular disease and accelerated aging. Since the 1990’s we are now exposed to twice the amount of added phosphate in foods; this is bad. There are calls to have added phosphate labelled on products as a health warning. Particular culprits are mass produced sausages and processed ham and chicken slices (and other meats), some cheeses, and cola (both diet and normal). So, always buy ham “on the bone”, which usually has no phosphate added. Personally, all phosphate additives in commercially processed meats make me ill. Unfortunately, this along with the excess of fats, and added pepper means that sausages and sausage rolls are bad for you for multiple reasons, and I have resigned myself to having to quit them altogether.
Aspartame and other sweeteners definitely have a negative role to play in IBS for many people. As with the other toxins above, your ability to cope with them varies on a spectrum. If you look at some of the work of K.J. Mielke, many of these additives can be allergens or “pseudoallergens” and with time you can develop a colonic reaction to them. The best sweetener for IBS is normal table sugar (sucrose), otherwise, it’s “Stevia” which is quite a new plant based sweetener and seems to be safe for IBS.
Other points...
There is a lot of support for L-glutamine to help with repair of your small-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. I don’t think this is a permanent requirement, but I think it may help you recover more quickly from long term issues.
Excessive burping which starts a couple of hours after eating can be due to excessive acid being neutralized by the sodium bicarbonate that is released by your pancreas, releasing more CO2 than you can cope with re-adsorbing. The short-term remedy for this is to take a couple of ant-acid tablets, Ranitidine or omeprazole. The reason for excess acidity could indicate gastritis or an ulcer, but more likely in the first instance is to look at foods we know activate your stomach to produce excess acid. These are fatty foods, spicy foods, tomatoes (particularly concentrated), garlic, milk, caffeinated and de-caff coffee and tea, cola, peppermint, chocolate and aspirin.
Pro-biotics - there is evidence to show that they help to re-establish good bacteria following anti-biotic treatment. However, in long term use they become insignificant compared to other things. I have had more success with pre-biotics like Bimuno, which are basically food for your large intestine good bacteria. These help to strengthen the lining of your colon, and further improve your resilience to potential trigger foods and inflammation, and deal with the remaining nutrients in your food. Again, I would only use these periodically for a few weeks to help you back to a good state which you can then manage with the other good behaviours. They can give a noticeable improvement in your GI comfort and performance, but don’t depend on them alone - it won’t last. You cannot get away with routinely having poorly digested food getting to your large intestine. These contain galacto-oligosaccharides, about 0.7 g per tablet. Your normal source of these are the galactans which are banned on the FODMAP diet (and also in normal bread). You need these to feed the good bacteria in your colon, not just add tiny quantities of them in pro-biotics. After you have initially starved the bacteria with several weeks of strict FODMAP diet and fasting, the key to long-term good gut health is regularly eating natural pre-biotics. You cannot get this on the FODMAP diet and need to break away from it in order to get to a state of “fairly robust” control. So there is a need to be eating normal bread, baked beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, or lentils etc. on a regular basis. This means two or three normal portions of baked beans per week, and you’ll be liberated from having to be excessively careful all the time.
I should also mention hormone changes in women can be connected with IBS, affecting serotonin and the brain-gut nervous system, but being male I have no personal experience in this!
Similarly, hypnosis is actually recommended by NICE as the best alternative therapy, again trying to get a grip on the nervous dysfunction. I have tried this, but for me it was just about being very relaxed with your eyes shut for half an hour, and not spoiling the fun for everybody and pretending you actually are “hypnotized”! Unfortunately, I was £75 worse off for the privilege. However, like other psychotherapies it concentrates on repeatedly putting lots of positive thoughts in your mind, boosting your self-confidence and giving strategies for dealing with negativity, so I’d say it is a good complement for your psychology and anxiety, although it will not address fundamental organic issues like SIBO and most of the other things discussed here.
Dealing with Flare-ups
First thing is, fix your SIBO as described above. If you still have SIBO symptoms, oregano oil capsules are very good, it is bactericidal, anti-inflammatory and can help with acute SIBO problems. Peppermint oil is similarly used but is a potent trigger for excess stomach acid and burping. Take some digestive enzymes, to ensure your digestion is complete. Fixing your SIBO has got to be your priority.
If you are on top of your SIBO, then a bowel toxin might hit you 5 to 8 hours after a meal as the food gets to your large intestine. The first line of attack in this case is ibuprofen which is far more effective than paracetamol for bowel pain, and I find that 200 mg alone is enough. Second, a couple of 10 mg Buscopan will stop the cramps. If you have IBS, always have available advance some linseed (the seeds) and natural aniseed (Star Anise), and when you are bad make the following tea: in a saucepan, add 1/2 teaspoon of linseed, ½ to 1 anise star, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a squirt of lemon juice (bottled is fine), and one full mug of water. Boil to simmer, with stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes, then sieve off the hot liquid back into the mug. This is a very effective remedy that I have used countless times, and it really does help. The reason that it helps (anecdotally) is that the “gooey” linseed extract coats the intestinal lining. There may be some truth to this, as some propose that the mechanism of intestinal inflammation is a chemical attack on the mucus lining of the intestine which then allows food particles be exposed to the more delicate tissues underneath, causing inflammation. The linseed goo would provide a temporary replacement to the mucus lining, preventing further inflammation. In fact, NICE recommends oats and linseeds for daily consumption for IBS patients.
A few of my most appreciated references…
“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”.
Wow, as an IBS c suffering consistently for several years and looking down many avenues this has been the most informative and interesting. I have dabbled with blindly correcting SIBO . I have also done the low FODMAP but my re introduction somehow went haywire! The dieticians are so busy and I didn’t feel I was in confident hands somehow. Some folk say it’s not SIBO but bloating comes from somewhere! I’ve been religiously snacking believing it was helping me so I will address that thanks. Any further help you have will be so appreciated, it’s such a lonesome journey.
Yes, stop snacking between meals. I used to feel that my digestion was so poor that I feared that I needed to eat almost constantly in order to keep myself alive. But this was wrong, and snacking was actually driving my illness and making me worse. Coming out of IBS is complicated which is why I wrote some much, but you can get over the hill and get repaired. Cover all the bases and keep researching. I can't speak with confidence over IBS C as that wasn't my condition, but certainly addressing SIBO is the same, and it's horrible. If that doesn't resolve you fully then gently increasing your gut motility would be the way to go to avoid yoyoing between C and D. I hope it works out for you.
This has been so helpful thank you! Like Meeowla, I too have been snacking between meals believing that I was doing the right thing. I will also invest in some prebiotics I think too. Currently under investigation for ibd but am thinking that it's likely they will come to the conclusion of ibs d. Thanks again for this valuable information.
I'm sorry you are going thru this... I know the feeling. Most of the time I feel like someone is trying to push pills down my throat. I do understand that most of the people are getting better with them or at least that's what they say. I think it's true that stress is making things worse. However I still don't believe in taking pills for depression when I haven't been depressed. I'm sending you and your husband lots of love and hugs. Hope that your symptoms will improve.
Thank you for your kind response. I may try the anti-depressants but I don't think I will continue with them unless a miracle happens. I have put a general response about my symptoms at the bottom of this page.
Thank you for your reponse. I have tried lots of things over the years but nothing has ever helped. FODMAP would be no good for me as they are the foods that I steer clear of. My husband is my best friend, so we have no secrets, we can talk about anything. You may be interested in my general reply at the botttom of this page.
Hello Maureen I'm really sorry to hear this as you have been so supportive of many of us on here over the years. I agree maybe a 2nd opinion is worth a shot also isnt there a professor whorwell at Manchester university who specialises in IBS they may be running some trials? I've heard good things about him. There's also IBS.com a website I find very useful. Good luck Maureen let us know how you get on.
Me again just looked Prof Whorwell he's at Wythenshawe hospital here in manchester and runs clinics. Don't know where you live but if close perhaps you could ask for a referral? If not he may be worth contacting to see if there's help nearer to you.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I'm in Surrey so a bit too far for me, considering most of the time I don't leave the house. You may be interesting in my general reply at the bottom of this page.
So sorry to hear this don't know what to say to you. One thing I do know I would worry that the GP broke down, is there anyway you could seek another opinion and start afresh?
Or as you try and help us on this site can we now help you, what particular symptoms were getting worse? Sending big hug🤗
I agree with what others have said. Have you seen a GI dr recently? They
May have more ideas. Saying it’s just IBS was s minimizing your problems. It may be
That but IBS is very difficult to deal with. Sometimes antidepressants are used not just for depression, but they often may help pain. I would try antispasmodic medication if you haven’t. Make appointments with different Drs, especially a GI dr.
Has your doctor discussed food intolerances with you? Lactose/dairy intolerance is often over looked as a majorcause. Other intolerances may be a factor as well. I knew I was lactose intolerant and knew various other things caused problems which for me were soya, oats, sunflower oils and dextrose/Malta dextrin. For some people it could be fructose. I had a York test done, very expensive but worth it I think. It pointed out an intolerance to yeast and not only the lactose in milk but the protein too. So no milk of any kind.
If you are already following a low Fodmaps diet you will know to avoid fuzzy drinks of any kind, alcohol, onion and garlic. Even some of the foods on the fodmap diet may not be suitable. I was told by a dietician to stop eating fruit as its too acidic. The only veg I can tolerate is carrots and spinach. Potatoes are a no no for me. Porridge is often recommended but it has far to much roughage. But, everyone is different. You have to keep a food diary and do exclusion dieting. Leaky gut can be a problem too. (Look that one up).
It's difficult with yeast and dairy intolerances as they are in so many things. Dextrose for me is a killer! That is in practically everything. So, I am on a very limited diet but I don't get stomach pain and bloating like I used to or the runs. It's hard not eating out what you want but if it gives you back your life its worth it.
One thing to note, some medications cause stomach pain and upsets. I have found that with indigestion medicines like Omeprazole (and similar drugs). For me, also killers! I think that may be the same with some anti deprassants. IBS can be worse with stress but food is the biggest trigger.
Doctors don't really know what to do for IBS as it covers a wide variety of symptoms and every patient is different. Keep a diary, try exclusions, drop dairy from your diet and be careful what you drink.
I hope my advice is helpful. Let me know how you get on.
Thanks for your reply but I really don't think it is what I am eating. I don't take any medications except for betablockers for high blood pressure. See my general response at the bottom of this page.
So sorry to hear about what you've been through Maureen1958. The SSRIs have become more sophisticated since the early days of Prozac. I have heard that Sertraline has worked wonders for some people - working on both depression & anxiety. I've asked a friend about it and they said that the main side effect was tiredness which wore off after a couple of months. They are much calmer and upbeat as individuals and they sleep better. Any improvement in mental state could be beneficial for IBS. Just wondering if it's worth giving it a go from 1 day or 1 week and see how you get on? Though best effects might be more than that.
It just goes to show that we need far more coordinated research into IBS, to find the root causes of all the different nuances of the syndrome and tailored treatments for each. There are too many people suffering out there and not enough progress being made unfortunately.
Thank for that xjrs, that's useful to know about the Sertraline. I will probably give it a go just to see. You may be interested in my general reply at the bottom of the page,
I think when she became tearful and asking you to make an official complaint about it . She should take anti-depressants for herself first. People know they have probles with their stomach etc... not in their head.
Your husband did the right thing to come to the appointment with you.
Please ask to see the second opinion as other members say. Good Luck!
Wow, I am blown away by all your lovely responses. I will reply to you all individually but I'm in a lot of pain again today so it may take me a while. There are some truly kind people on this site. Thank you again, I am really touched.
As a few of you have asked about my symptoms, here goes, I will try to make this as brief as possible.
My IBS started when I was about 27, I didn’t make a note of the day as I didn’t think it would be a long term thing. I got up one morning with diarrhoea and have had IBS ever since. It used to be roughly every other day when I was working. But after I had my son, when I was 34, it was every day. It’s not actually diarrhoea or constipation as such but some is harder and some is softer. Sometimes the soft stuff pushes past the hard stuff I think. But basically it always feels like I want to go. Over the years, I have tried to pace myself by going three times a day, spacing it out through the day depending on what the situation was. It was softer when I was younger, so that was easier to do. Now it is not so soft, stuff gets stuck if I don’t get it out in time, (I think that is linked to getting older) then other stuff gets stuck behind it. I’m 62 now. Some days I just try to hold it after the first visit to the toilet but it’s a bit nerve racking and doesn’t necessarily work.
But I am finding the pain is getting more than I can cope with some days and the nausea can get too much and I am finding myself literally unable to do anything but sit still and do nothing, just trying to cope with the pain and/or nausea. I am not a person who sits around doing nothing, I like to be active and I feel I am losing any life that I had. The pain seems to be referred from my stomach/tummy to all around my body a bit like fibromyalgia type pain.
I really don’t think the medical profession can do anything about it. I think it is just the way it is and I think my husband thinks that too, except every now and again he gets worried that he should be doing something!
I have played about with foods over the years and have changed what I eat but again I don’t think it is down to food intolerances. Basically, if I go to the toilet in the morning and get everything out (like I did for the first 27 years of my life), then I wouldn’t have a problem, but if I have stuff left inside me then the new food seems to go straight down and starts pushing on anything that has been left behind. I can remember a few occasions as a child when I didn’t go properly in the morning and felt bad all day, and every time I ate I felt like I needed to go. Perhaps, it’s just how my body works.
I would stop trying to hold it and if you feel the need to go then try and go.
IBS symptoms do include nausea. You could try drinking mint tea/taking peppermint oil capsules (enteric coated) to help with this and other symptoms. Eating food naturally pushes things along that's how our bodies should work
I only hold it if I think it's the right thing to do. Some little voice or whatever inside my head says stop there. Sometimes it is right, sometimes it is wrong. But if I keep going it just never stops and I end up being sick and all my insides burning.
So sorry to hear you've had to go through all of this for so long. I understand about the BMs changing as you age. My IBS used to be 'D', but is definitely now 'C' as if the intestinal muscles lose tone as you age. So apart from the pain, it seems the main issue is needing to clear out first thing, perhaps having a bit of slow motility stopping you and the nausea. Have you ever tried ginger extract? I take 30 drops in water at night prior to bed time to help speed up motility for the morning. I believe that is meant to help with nausea too. I do wonder also if Linaclotide is worth a go, since that is meant to be a motility agent and has a calming effect on intestinal nerves, which reduces intestinal pain. It's one of those your body has to get used to though, maybe initially causing diarrhea, but after a while that settles. It doesn't help motility for me now, but certainly helps with the pain. I always think talking therapies should be the first port of call prior to antidepressants, but I assume you've been through this already? However, I have just been reading some positive posts about Sertraline helping some people with their IBS symptoms.
You're welcome Meeowla. In case of interest to you, the Linaclotide and also Alflorex probiotic which has been scientifically studied for IBS in combination have reduced the pain I am in considerably and I have been able to tolerate more foods so that I am able to consume the extra fibre I need to have a BM without laxatives including oatbran, wheat bran, 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed, 8 prunes, 2 tablespoon chia seeds and shredded wheat (or GF version: Nutribrex) for breakfast, plus quinoa, wholewheat bread and whole grain pastas at other meals. These fruits are particularly high fibre and can help with BMs: hard pears, dried apricots, raspberries, oranges (contain a natural laxative) & 2 kiwi. In some people the Linaclotide also helps a lot with BMs which is its primary purpose.
There is some good advice about constipation here:
Exercise can help with BMs. The government recommends 150 mins of moderate exercise (e.g. walking as if you are late for an appointment) or 75 of intense exercise (e.g. jogging) per week. I also have a bit of a walk around straight after breakfast to get things moving.
You need to ensure that you are drinking enough fluids (2 litres of fluid per day).
And I know I’m not getting nearly enough fibre, apart from porridge and 1 teaspoon of linseeds, oranges, kiwi, and a few berries.
Water I’m working hard on, and exercise three times a week. A walk after breakfast is a “ why couldn’t I think of that, duh!” Still gluten free, bloating still predominant. So still on Buscopan
You give me some light at the end of a very long tunnel! Ordered Alflorex, and my next visit to my doctor will be a discussion on Linaclotide. Constant pain is very waring isn’t it. Although IBS not life threatening it certainly is life challenging. Oh and Nutribix sounds a very welcome change!
By the way, as with anything, if you try the ginger extract if not done so already, it is worth working up to that dose, maybe starting on 7 or 14 drops and incrementing slowly on a nightly basis to see how your body responds.
Medications for high blood pressure (Calcium channel blockers)Interaction Rating: Minor Be cautious with this combination.Talk with your health provider.
Ginger might reduce blood pressure in a way that is similar to some medications for blood pressure and heart disease. Taking ginger along with these medications might cause your blood pressure to drop too low or cause an irregular heartbeat.
Some medications for high blood pressure and heart disease include nifedipine (Adalat, Procardia), verapamil (Calan, Isoptin, Verelan), diltiazem (Cardizem), isradipine (DynaCirc), felodipine (Plendil), amlodipine (Norvasc), and others.
Though it seems calcium channel blockers and beta blockers are different, but it's still worth clarifying this with the doctor. Ginger can help blood pressure by acting as an anti-coagulant (anti-clotting) agent.
You have quite similar symptoms to be Maureen as sometimes I am desperate to go and others I have to push it out but I don't hold it in unless of course I'm in the middle of a walk in the country and not near a toilet but it can be very difficult. I do drink quite a bit of water but I'm following the low fodmap diet and it's made a huge change to my life, we are very close in age as I'm 61. Whenever I see anything on IBS they never mention nausea and yet I was suffering with acute nausea and it was making my life hell, I only get it now if I eat the wrong food and the worst one is barley.
Have you tried travel sick tablets for the nausea as they are the thing that kept me reasonably sane. I have the Boots own Motion Sick tablets and find they work really well.
Hi Alicia, I don't hold it if I really think I need to go. I just feel like I want to go all the time. See my reply to Suecoo66 above.
Yes, I have tried motion sick tablets, it was you who suggested them if I recall correctly. The only thing is they are usually anti-histamine and I have to be careful about taking them because if it get bitten by anything I have to take anti-histamine immediately and I don't want to take too much.
Oh Maureen my heart goes out to you, this condition really is misunderstood and unfortunately there are still doctors out there that give a response 'oh, it's just IBS'. The only people that understand are fellow sufferers.
It's the nausea that I find the worst as it stops me from doing things I want to do. Fortunately the low fodmap diet has worked for me and I can honestly say has changed my life, I only get the nausea if I eat something that I can't tolerate. I have said to a few people on here that I've found that travel sick tablets work.
I really hope that eventually there's something out there that'll work for you.
Thanks for thanking everyone. So sorry your symptoms are ever present. They are for me too, although different than yours. My GI Dr has admitted to me that there aren’t any good treatments for IBS. Some people find things that work for them. I hope you do.
This is frustrating. I totally understand. But there has to be something they can do other than their trite response "it's just IBS and anxiety..live with it". Seriously?? These Gastro's are stupid and useless. I would just keep pushing for answers and better treatment. You are getting worse and anxiety has nothing to do with it. They just send you on your way with a large bill. So frustrating!! But don't give up..
P.S. The SSRI'S did not work for me. Turned me into a zombie. There are different classes of antidepressants such as SNRI's, Tricyclics, etc..I am on Wellbutrin, Seroquel and Remeron which are not SSRI's and they are amazing..
The antidepressants may help your anxiety but not your IBS. My GP is just as useless as yours. I had to find things out for myself and after 10 years plus of suffering I am fine now but have to avoid a long list of foods. Grains for instance give me not only diarrhoea, tummy pain bloating but also brain fog and irritability. Have you tried to find the cause of your IBS?
Personally Ive found GPs to be a waste of time with IBS. They regard it as "dodgy guts" and advise over the counter meds for either C or D. I did get some fodmap info from one but he said it was still in the early stages and to "make sure you eat a healthy diet". So ive been through all things, some worked, some didnt. As an example some pro biotics didnt help me at all. If anything the expensive ones made me worse so after trial and error I found "quest" to be the best for me. I was sceptical but I tried "bimuno". I had heard a few things about it and it was even on the TV. For the life of me I cant remember the name but a Doctor who was also sceptical tried it and said it worked for him and helped him sleep?? Not sure its done that for me but I take Bimuno AND a pro biotic at the same time and it has made a difference. To the point I can start eating things I couldnt touch before. Its not expensive so maybe worth a shot. Certainly cant do any harm. Even my GP said to give it a try and if it works, stick with it and the ingredients are harmless. Best of luck with it all
Maureen - be strong and hang in there. I have had IBS for more than 30 years but it has become very managable in the past 10 years. In my experience its as much about your mental/mind health as it is physical. Doctors, generally were of very little help. I find there are very few doctors who admit they don't have all the answers. This is what turned the corner for me (keep in mind I went the entire work day without eating and then ate dinner and would be sick thru the night. I also used immodium constantly - sometimes 8 tablets per day - to get me thru the work day). Now I rarely have an IBS episode and when I do feel unwell I can use coping/mindfulness methods to get me thru the pain. First thing I did - I started taking a daily probiotic as the gut flora is wrong. Keep a food diary to see what sets you off - and then avoid those foods. I now eat yogurt on a daily basis. Then I read a lot about mindfulness and coping strategies - for example, If I feel unwell I gently rub my thigh as this distracts the mind and slowly you feel better. Take slow deep breaths to relax. I won't ramble on - but you've got this. You don't need antidepressants in my opinion (non-medical opinion) but you do need to strengthen your mind and learn relaxation methods. As you get thru more days without IBS instances you will start to feel more optimistic and it will all build on itself towards wellness. Self talk helps as well - just tell yourself you are strong and you've got this. Stay positive!
I do all that but it doesn't work. I'm constantly telling myself you can do this but sometimes I can and sometimes I can't. There are no triggers as such, it just there 24/7.
I have just read your post. It sounds like it is your GP who needs the anti depressants after she became tearful in a consultation!
I have had SSRIs in the past for anxiety/ depression but not for ibs. They didn’t do any good and I stopped taking anything like that after I had a very nasty reaction to serotonin which lasted days - which I believe was serotonin syndrome.
My opinion is that your GP is not being thorough with anything. Once I was referred to a hospital which happened because I ended up in A&E and the doctor there said I needed further investigation (and wrote telling my GP to refer me) I got a proper diagnosis and had all the relevant tests. I have been under their care since then.
If you feel you can, call your GP and ask for a referral for a colonoscopy, for example. If you ask for something specific it might help, but I would not let the GP just decide the ibs is simply all anxiety related.
Best wishes.
PS one last thought - are you in the age group to be eligible for bowel screening, done from age 55 in some areas? Even if your GP surgery doesn’t inform you of it, there is a main number you can ring to enquire about it (look up NHS bowel screening programme).You might get peace of mind if you are checked out through screening.
I had a colonoscopy about 25 years ago and things haven't really changed that much since then, and I had a SeHCAT test about 2 years ago to test for bile malabsorption but didn't meet the criteria. I recently had the fit test which I think is what you are referring to and that came back fine.
I am glad your colonoscopy and other tests were ok. Maybe consider ‘updating’ your colonoscopy - I have to have them every 5 years, things can change without necessarily having new symptoms.
In some areas they are rolling out sigmoidoscopy screening for 55 - 60 only age group. You get one sig screening in that time but after 60 you get the fit test, rather than sigmoidoscopy.
I have recently had a SIBO test which came back positive, although follow up has been delayed due to the coronavirus situation.
I am 76 and having lots of gut problems, definitely started from traumas, fear and anxiety. I am on oxygen 24/7 now due to lung disease so can't exercise. Lack of muscle strength and pelvic floor weakness has caused constipation and slow motility. Some years ago an ultra sound scan showed a rectocele , which can hold a lot a lot of hardening waste causing incomplete evacuation.
Symptoms
A soft bulge of tissue in your vagina that might protrude through the vaginal opening.
Difficulty having a bowel movement.
Sensation of rectal pressure or fullness.
A feeling that the rectum has not completely emptied after a bowel movement.
Mine was caused from straining weak muscles but childbirth is often a cause.
Personally I now avoid Doctors because our NHS doesn't allow time for real diagnosis, it's just pills. Many Doctors become stressed and occasionally suicidal because the system doesn't give them the time or ability to attempt to heal. I suppose if they managed to cure all their patients. Drug companies would go out of business, and less Doctors would be needed. Would also stop millions of animals being cruelly used and killed. Hope this is of help. PS avoid the media and do your own research. Best wishes
Hi Kay, thank you for your reply. I have thought about a prolapse of some sort but then when I do get it right which isn't very often these days, it feels, well normal. But I'm grateful for you taking the time to reply to me, especially as you sound like you have enough to deal with yourself!
I haven't read through every comment so I'm sorry if I repeat anything. Firstly, the doctor should understand that if the problem has not been solved then you will keep coming back and they should give you the time and attention to try and help you for the long term. It would benefit them too if they actually gave you this attention because maybe then you wouldn't have to keep going back.
I don't think that doctor realizes how hard it must be for you to keep trying to speak to her with no real results and having to be so open about so many private problems. It can be soul crushing to keep putting yourself through it and not seeing improvement. If you had a broken arm and it never healed they would expect you to keep coming back. But don't let her response stop you. You've been dealing with this for so long and you're still trying. I think that shows how strong you are. And you're exactly the type of patient they should be helping because you're being very proactive about seeking help.
I'm pretty sure you know a lot more about your illness than me and I'm sure you feel like you've tried everything. Do you see a specialist? Or is there another doctor you can see? The best decision I ever made was getting a second opinion. I bet you've seen many doctors over the years but when something has been going on for so long I think they can get complacent.
I don't have any new tips because I'm sure you've tried them all but I just wanted to say that it isn't your fault and you shouldn't give up. Antidepressants could help relieve some of the anxiety and other feelings tat may exacerbate your problems but I think we all know its much more complex than that. Give it a go but keep pushing and if they try to deter you then push even harder. You've got this. I'm glad that your husband is supportive and I found it helps when I have someone with me when I see a doctor because they can sometimes talk over you.
I would say that I would get another colonoscopy. My colonoscopy results were different when I had two colonoscopies only a year apart from each other. I'd say start there. And then you know for sure there isn't anything else going on. I'm sure you've had stool samples and blood tests. Has there ever been abnormalities? Like you my symptoms are 24/7 and it can be that way no matter what I eat. I know some foods do make me worse but I only know I can be just as wrong and do or eat nothing "wrong". I'm not sure what medication your on too but again if you ever want to discuss it, I spend a lot of time with doctors and I've tried a lot of medication. I don't have the experience you do but I do have a different experience.
Good luck with everything,
don't give up. You deserve to get to a good place and it will happen.
What a lovely reply Katie, thank you. How are you doing now? I noticed your post last week, are you feeling a bit better now yourself? I wish I could wave magic wand and we would all feel well. There are all those people out there that get up each day feeling well and all they do is whinge about things that don't matter!
The good news is the pain is better, bad news symptoms are worse but for moment I'll take it! I have an appointment coming up with a gyno doctor to explore other explanations for some of the things that are happening and some gastro tests underway, so a little progress!
I couldn't agree with you more, I feel so separate from people sometimes because they have no idea what its like to feel so badly all the time with little hope... Maybe we'll get there one day.
Maureen from what you are saying I would suggest that you find someone else as a support person other than your husband. He is too close to what is happening to be objective. A support person should be there to help you clarify & sort out what has been proposed & to help YOU make informed decisions. Good luck.
Ps beware of antidepressants they can have Nast side effects.
Thanks for your reply. My husband was just feeling like he should be doing something. He has only been retired for just over a year and used to working long hours so didn't see what I was going through on a daily basis and when he was home at weekends, he was still thinking about work. Plus I am used to having the house to myself and doing things as and when I want but now he is under my feet more, although he does help out with household chores. I guess adjusting to his retirement and COVID of course, it has been a difficult time like it is for everyone at the moment.
I'm still thinking about the antidepressants, she said I would have to come off them again, so I don't really see any point in taking them. I am not depressed, my husband and I have the same sense of humour and are always laughing, we always managed to see the funny side of things, and I am only anxious about coping with the IBS.
Hi there, I’ve had IBSd on and off for nearly 40 years. I’m almost 63 now. In my 40s I’d say my IBS was not so bad or verging on IBSc - to me there does seem to be a hormonal element but I’m not sure what! I’ve tried the low fodmap diet and it did work initially but then eventually even that stopped working. I tend to have the sensation of incomplete BMs quite often and my stool is usually mushy. I’ve phases of diarrhoea too which can be brought on by stress of anxiety but also definitely by certain food triggers, however as these can vary from day to day, it’s really difficult to pinpoint.
I now take a good quality multi vitamin daily and a probiotic. I was on Alflorex for 2 months but it did little. I’m now taking Bio-Kult - no change as yet!
I may try a prebiotic and I like the idea of fasting between meals - I’m a terrible snacker!
I do think SIBO is a ‘thing’ so the above action may make a difference.
I’m like you though, I like to be active and get out and about so when I’m going somewhere, I just rely on Imodium the day before to sort me out.
Best of luck with any solutions and forget your GP - mine have been pretty poor apart from one and she recently retired! It’s frustrating but we are awesome! We’ve got this far in life so I’m sure we can carry on achieving things, IBS or not!
Thanks for your understanding reply. I agree, if we have got through all these years with it we can just carrying on doing what we can. I try to take it as a challenge, one day I might win and the next day it might win. But at least now I can have days where I don't have to do anything.
I am on Sertraline and have been for a couple years. It literally gave me my life back. I couldn't leave the house without having massive panic attacks and made working very difficult. The downside is it takes 6-8 weeks to start working and makes your anxiety/depression a lot worse before you get better. All the best and hope it works well for you.
So when you say you couldn't leave the house without having panic attacks was that due to the IBS? I don't have panic attacks, I just feel too ill to leave the house.
No I’ve had anxiety for years and managed to keep it under control until an event in my home life took it out of my control and triggered the attacks. So I was put on it for that. My IBS started approx 8 months after I started sertraline but is not believed to be the cause. Long term use of Naproxen for my back condition is believed to have caused it.
Thank you for this reply, it makes me think, it's not worth bothering with them then. I was in an abusive marriage before my IBS started but I only started having IBS problems, after a bout of diarrhoea, as the marriage came to an end.
I think this is a case for hypnotherapy. I am a qualified hypnotherapist myself so I would say that. But I have had the treatment many times myself and it always brings about an improvement if not a cure. I can recommend a cd for ibs. You can play it whenever you like and the cost is minimal. Buona fortuna Bx
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Help! New Job Started Yesterday, IBS Flaring Up, Not Sure if I Can Go Back, Advise Please!!!
IBS and how to deal with it 
I am struggling with a bad flare up of ibs after trying the fodmap diet (on my own as my GP had not heard of it) for the last two weeks.
My cure after 15 years
Possible IBS but GP doesn’t know for sure…..
