I am new here and have found the posts very helpful.
Does anyone else feel the same about the recommended diets?
I have had IBS, mostly D, for 16 years. The low Fodmap foods make me want to laugh! I wish I could eat them. I preferred a vegetarian diet before IBS; now I can rarely eat any vegetables. As for fruit - maybe a small piece of banana and a few dried fruits.
On a positive note, when I was first diagnosed, the GP actually said that "fruit and vegetables often make IBS worse" and prescribed Imodium syrup which did help. I discovered lactofree cheese a few months ago and slowly introduced it. I had my first cheese sandwich for 13 years - yay!
The evidence for Symprove and the other probiotics seems very inconclusive and all the posts here show that it works for some and not for others.
Has anyone with similar problems found a good solution?
Thanks
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Jackie1612
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You might try working with a trained dietician on the FODMAP diet. I. have found it helps me a lot. Also, dried fruit is supposed to be one of the worst things. Try a moderate portion of fresh blueberry or strawberries. At least some fruits & vegetables are important for your general health. See if there are a few you can eat. Try zucchini, spinach or red peppers, all cooked. Wait a day or two and see if they help. I know it is very difficult.
Thanks very much b1b1b1. I forgot that I have actually introduced a small portion of blueberries! I used to love strawberries but now they taste foul to me.
I was referred to a dietician but didn't get much help. I will take your advice and try to introduce some new ones in small portions; I am so aware that my diet is not healthy.
I never got a grip on the fodmap stuff even with dietitian help. I have been IBS for about the same time as you and in that time have tried many different ideas and suggestions all with little or no success. I'm generally C but switch into D every other week. I think one or the other exclusively would be better and easier to handle. Just ended up with a crap diet, no pun intended. A year ago I switched to a kidney friendly and diabetic diet. Kind of means you don't have a lot of fun with food. But when you are dealing with CKD, diabetes and IBS there isn't a lot of choice. By accident or as a consequence of my diet the IBS has improved and I'm able to eat more fruit and vegetables than before. Surprisingly it has even dropped my cholesterol levels. My former diet was appropriate for the extreme cholesterol levels I lived with for over 20 years. So the cholesterol wasn't from poor eating.I warn people my diet is not one that offers any frills or fun with food, it is born out of frustration and the attempt to save my kidney function.
I'm now salt and sugar, 99% free and don't use man made substitutes either, they kill kidneys! I eat little red meat and stick with fish, chicken or white meats. I do not eat pre mixed/made foods off the shelf or man made rubbish, preferring to stick with fresh and natural. I do eat a reasonable amount of wholemeal bread though, more than when I first started with IBS. I only drink water or a good old cuppa tea. Now that the IBS is not as violent as before I'm able to slip off the diet with the odd, no no and get away with it. But to do it more than occasionally is to invite disaster back. I guess I'll always be like an alcoholic, one drink away from disaster. One item I can now eat is raw onion, in limited amounts and definitely not every day. Incidentally raw onion is a prebiotic and a digestive enzyme, beneficial when using pro biotics, being the food for the pro biotics to live on as they repopulate the gut flora. Pro biotics can not survive in the gut if there is nothing for them to live on, this is different for every case. In my case they tended to make the yeast based enzymes in the gut stronger. This makes it very difficult to break the flora mix in future with the yeast digesting the probiotics before it has a chance to fight back. I had some success with pro biotics until it was all undone again. But that was in the early days when just a cup of tea would make me feel 9 months pregnant. I starved in the early days which is what you have to do in the worst case scenario, this weakens the yeast and allows the pre and pro biotics to do their thing before the yeast can over power them. I was on the mends until the gut was corrupted yet again. Never managed to replicate the process as I couldn't do the starve as well as when I had no choice.
It took some determination to stick with the diet initially but now the brain recognises it doesn't need the sugar or salt and the craving diminishes to where it can be an overload on the taste buds when eaten in "normal"amounts.
So I have stabilised my kidneys for the most part. Progressed to one and a half meals per day. This is because eating too much does stuff up the stomach and bloats severely. So everything in moderation, kind of. Sorted my cholesterol "problem". Have my diabetes in control orally and generally feel a lot better. But there is still very little fun with food. For me it hasn't been particularly difficult to go on my diet as there was only the option to save my kidneys as best I could or lose them, made the choice a no brainer for me. The one thing it hasn't changed is my high BP, a work in progress. It is fare to say I have been through the ringer, but now I see the light at the end of the tunnel with a little bit of self satisfaction creeping in.
Something I almost missed, anxiety can be a major part of IBS stirring up the gut causing flare ups. Simple answer, don't worry. Reality, sure, just flick the switch. Good luck with that.
My theory is that we were not designed to be eating all the man adulterated food in the first place, so why do it. Just because we are told it is save to eat doesn't make it so. Tomorrow it could be deemed unsafe and you can't give it back!
Sorry that's a bit long to emphasise a simple message, make wise choices with what you eat because what we eat is what we are.
IBS being a general term used to diagnose what there is no diagnoses for, but what is left when every other names have been discarded, means by definition, IBS is a hugely wide catch all. So don't be misled into thinking we with IBS are all the same. You need to try and figure out what works for you. That will entail trying options and suggestions that make sense for you, or maybe not, but keep trying non the less. What is the alternative?
The above is only what I have discovered of myself for myself through trial, error and by accident. My hope is it might be of help to others.
Dear Cheyne thank you very much for your excellent reply. It must be very hard to have multiple conditions and you sound really positive in all your coping strategies.
I, too, used to be C before 2006 and after that I was D. The last few months I have been both, partly I think because of different meds. I agree that fish, chicken and white meats seem much better and red meat and ready meals often have dire effects so I usually avoid them. I would love to eat wholemeal bread!
When I first got IBS D, I started to remove certain foods from my diet and found that the IBS went away for a few days but then it always returned. I realised in the end that if I continued removing foods I would not be able to eat anything at all. So I rather lost heart and just carried on very much trial and error, as you mention.
What you have said about pro biotics, onion and yeast and your struggles with trying to stabilise your gut flora was very interesting. I had no idea about raw onion; it's always been something I have been unable to eat, because I have gastritis from time to time and avoid anything acidic or which 'repeats'. I had a very bad bout of gastritis a couple of years ago and couldn't really eat anything and lost 2 stone in weight. Anxiety triggered the gastritis and I agree that it also doesn't help the IBS.
Yes I agree - IBS is the term used when everything more serious has been eliminated. We seem to be rather stuck with it and have to carry on as best we can!
I haven't heard of many people who have ended up with IBS as I did. Sadly mine was repairable but as it is dangerous and expensive I was not deemed bad enough. I can only surmise one has to be dead in order to get fecal transfer done down here. I had a severe bout of Campylobacter leaving me hours to live, my kidneys gave out in the midst of it all. I took the wrong option, I think, of a massive dose of antibiotics to stay alive. I think the cure has been worse than the disease. Just my opinion in hindsight. Being left unable to eat or drink without a full on flare up wasn't going to go well. When Gastrology told me I had to live with it the crap hit the fan, figuratively! I have little wonder they signed me out! Anyway desperate measures and tons of research on Dr google gave me the idea of hitting the gut with as much pre and pro biotic as I could stomach. Seven weeks on problem solved, I could eat although very little. I was doing well until the following year I decided to throw myself from the roof. Shattered my heel and spent 7 months on my rear end contemplating life, as you do. Trouble is I had another hit of antibiotics over that year. The surgery had to be undone as the wrong size plate had been inserted and I couldn't walk as it rubbed on my ankle. Anyway back to square one and a half, I could eat, but just. There was hope, not a lot, but hope none the less.I have learnt to manage my own health issues to the point of refusing all meds but vitamin D as we cannot live without it. I'm an expert at putting up with pain although I do get grumpy at times when it gets the better of me. Mind you some claim they don't see the difference! I have had little or no help from the medical fraternity, but in taking care of my health I have been able to stabilize it for the most part and improve it marginally in some areas. That lets me believe I'm doing OK, my Dr's can't dispute the improved results. However the day will come when I have to mitigate some of my health in favour of a shorter but better quality of life. Until then I delight in being a pain to the medical facilities backside and a contradiction of medicine practices. I wonder when they will figure it out that I will not take no for an answer and I do bite back, harder. I don't know any other way than to fight for what I want. At the end of the day we each have to do what we need to do to stay alive and it doesn't need to be by the book. Hell I understand sugar pills can work for some people.
I'm saying try anything and everything you can, we have but one life. You are, we are only fooling ourselves if we believe we can't. Yes I'm bloody minded and singularly focused on my health, but we can all do this, if we really want to. The options are a life or death. Yes I'm guilty of peeking a look at death but that is not an alternative I would cherish readily. I know there is no fun in it and I have tried it before. The gates were shut the day I arrived and I was sent back! Don't ask me if they were black or white, no comment. My Dr gave me until Feb this year to live and I can assure you all I'm not writing this from my grave, a fact I have reminded her of recently. Although I'm salt free I do like to rub it into wounds!
If you can't laugh at life what can you do, sit down and cry. Yep tried that and it didn't work either.
God I do waffle on, but if I can light a spark under people to spur them on to do better and feel more positive. Job done. I should tattoo this on the inside of my eyelids so I can remember it when I need a swift kick up the backside to wake me from my self pity and inaction! I still have my moments.
There are alternatives to raw onion by the way, I just love onion. Sadly when eaten to excess it doesn't love me and then no one else in the vicinity does either!
I have had IBS since I was 27, I am now 71. I suffered needlessly for the first 7 yrs with constant diahrea because I was actually lactose/dairy intolerant. I improved greatly after excluding it from my diet with just flare ups caused by eating anything undigestible like nuts, beans, lentils and pulses. About 17yrs ago it flared up and didn't settle. I have since followed the low Fodmap diet with the recomendation not to eat fruit, particularly banana and dried fruit or porridge. The only veg I can eat is carrots and spinach. No fruit. I also discovered I am also intolerant to yeast, duck, sunflower oil and extremely intolerant to dextrose. Intolerances are hard to discover because they are an ingredient of food and not the food itself. I have also found that medications like Omeprazole can make IBS worse. I can't take pain killers or medications for other conditions I have. I had a neighbour who took Symprove with a little improvement but it was an expensive course of treatment. Symprove I believe is a probiotic based on milk and if you are intolerant to dairy it could make symptoms worse.
Thanks very much for your reply Carlettejaque. So sorry to read that you have had IBS for so long. I am 71 too and at least I had many years of fairly 'normal' eating until my mid-fifities.
Yes - nuts, beans, lentils and pulses are murder. I used to love eggs and now I have found that for the last few months they have caused terrible diarrhea. You have discovered your intolerances which is helpful so that you can avoid them. I avoid the foods and ingredients that always cause me trouble. With other foods I can be fine sometimes and then sometimes not, so it's difficult to know why this happens. I guess stress might be the deciding factor there.
I have ordered a recommended probiotic to try but have not yet ordered Symprove as it's so expensive and doesn't help everyone. I am not sure if I am intolerant to dairy but I am definitely lactose intolerant.
Hi, yes, if you are lactose intolerant then it's highly likely that you are intolerant to the protein in milk. Do you think you might also be intolerant to yeast? I had tests done through York Laboratories which is how I discovered the yeast and dairy proteins. I knew I was lactose intolerant so used to have lacto free milk and yoghurts etc and didn't know why it was still a problem. IBS is such a debilitating, life disabling condition. Doctor don't really understand it.
I only eat dates, oats and bananas - all in moderation through out the day. Raspberry is not too bad but blueberry, grapes and watermelons, etc are a no.
Hi, I have had IBS predominantly D for many years now. A few years ago I discovered Heather Van Vorous' diet which is basically soluble fibre foods and low fat. It has helped me tremendously. If you Google her you can read more or look on the website helpforibs.com To be honest I don't stick to it as rigidly as I should but then I reach for the imodium instants.
When I was first diagnosed I also found Heather Van Vorous and her website and I did find it very helpful too. Particularly the advice to eat soluble fibre at the start of each meal. So I used to start my meal with a piece of white bread. This helped for many years but now doesn't help much. I am going to try introducing small portions of low fodmap foods. It's interesting that white bread is not low fodmap so I wonder why it worked so well!
Hi, just read your reply. If I ate any of Heather Van Vorour's recipes it would literally kill me. Nuts, lentils, pulses and high fibre fruits that contain natural sorbitol and fruit skins are something IBS sufferers can't generally tolerate. I am yeast intolerant as well as dairy, dextrose and sunflower oils. Her recipes don't really take into account intolerances. The low Fodmap diet is far better but I was warned by a dietician not to eat fruit particularly banana. I am extremely surprised that as a sufferer she eats the things she does and gets away with it.
Hi - yes I did only a couple of her recipes. It was mostly her advice on soluble fibre and what to avoid that I found helpful. Many of her suggested recipes and ingredients - I pretty much knew that I wouldn't like anyway.
At the time it was good to find someone who had coped with IBS. I guess we have to take the parts from each website etc., and the advice given, which works for us personally and ignore the rest.
I agree lentils and nuts are a definite no-no for me too but there is also a lot of helpful advice such as soluble fibre foods on an empty stomach, never insoluble or fats.
I’m really surprised to read about bananas. I was told by a dietitian to eat bananas, dates and figs-small portions of figs are fine for me. When bananas are too ripped definitely a no.
Alflorex probiotic which has been scientifically studied for IBS has made me more tolerant to a wider range of foods including some FODMAPs, though I am still finding some vegetables a bit of a challenge. However, I am eating a much wider variety of foods than I have for a long time.
Hi I found the fodmap diet didn’t help me in is nutritionally very poor. It made me quite ill for well over a year with many different health issues.I now take soluble fibre in the form of 1tbsp chia seeds daily. I’m unable to take psyllium preparations as they give me gastritis.
The main improvement along with good vitamins and minerals and probiotic supplements has been following a low histamine diet. Histamine intolerance causes IBS type symptoms. Please google it. Many of the low fodmap food suggestions are high in histamine. An H2 blocker helped my IBSd greatly but then was withdrawn in the UK. You can get H2 blockers in the USA.
Hi vickilynne, thanks very much for your reply. Sorry to hear about the effect of the Fodmap diet for you. I had not heard of a low histamine diet or H2 blockers, this is interesting. I take Esomeprazole which works well for me and I have not had a reccurrence of gastritis, although I still have to be very careful. For me the recommendations for a diet to help with gastritis conflict with those for IBS D so I think I am a bit of a dietician's nightmare!
Is Ranitidine (Zantac) an H2 blocker? If so it seems to be available in the UK.
Hi yes Ranitidine is an H2 blocker; it’s more ‘natural’ to use than a PPI (omeprazole etc) but it has been withdrawn due to a stomach cancer risk I believe. I found that quite a few crossovers occur with diets for Tummy issues but certainly found that following a low histamine diet helped me. It has similarities to low fodmap like no lentils and beans but for completely different reasons. So things like spinach and tomatoes which are ok on fodmap diet, are not eaten on low histamine diet as they’re very high in histamine, as are many other foods and any ready meals. Shellfish is one of the worse offenders! If you reduce your histamine intake, you can slowly introduce a little back, over time so that your diet becomes more normal again. I’ll try and share a link here.
I have found intermittent fasting to be very helpful in controlling my ibs d/ collagenous colitis. There are still foods that can set me off -like peppers, alcohol, salad but the improvement is so great I will not be stopping. Try Gin Stephens 'Delay dont deny' or Dr Jason Fung. I feel so much better
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