Improvement with Aflorex

[jerak]

I started taking Aflorex after reading about it on this site last year. I take it religiously and my IBSD is better than it’s been since symptoms started over 6 years ago. I haven’t had a flare up in months and actually can go on road trips and out to eat without that constant fear of when and where IT might hit me. I know longer have diarrhea all day every day but never have a formed stool. I feel great and everything seems normal other than bowel movements being loose. I can certainly live with this but just wondering if others that have found an end to the constant diarrhea have the same issue.

[Luisa22]

What sort of foods do you generally eat, and is there any food that you think might aggravate it?

I had to go quite low fibre at first. It took me ages to recognise that it was fibre that had suddenly become a problem for me, as I'd had a high fibre diet before. To me, that was the food I was used to.

So I switched to a much lower intake, and it got things more under control generally. I also found some veggies that didn't seem to make things worse and seemed to be pretty gentle for me, so just ate those at first. I took a multivitamin-mineral A-Z tablet daily and a B complex too, because my diet had to change drastically.

As time has gone by I have now been able to tailor my diet to whatever my gut is up to generally. So if I'm too loose, I go really low fibre for a few days, until I see there's some improvement, then I gradually bring in some other foods until I'm back to pretty healthy meals (by IBS standards).

If I get a bit too much the other way, I have more fibre in my diet....and so forth. Keeping a balance like a see-saw.

Generally that helps me, and I often go through periods of pretty normal bowel movements. But sometimes everything flips, as IBS likes to do to us, and even those strategies won't work for a few days!

[jerak in reply to Luisa22]

Thank you for your reply and ideas on foods to eat. My IBS started so abruptly and was so bad for months. I completely cut out fiber and was nearly afraid to eat anything it was so bad. Then I kind of got a handle on what I could and shouldn’t eat. I don’t like taking prescription medications so I talked to our pharmacist who recommended I talk to their neurologist that was very well educated on more holistic approaches. She recommended several different things to try which helped back at the beginning and I tried several different probiotics and took Imodium. I would get better and then have a flare up and would go months thinking I’d never be better. Then early last year several people on here were talking about Aflorex Probiotic and how well they were doing on it. I started on it I’m better than I’ve been in years. I highly recommend it. I can eat pretty much what I want. I haven’t had diarrhea in months but just don’t have formed stools. I can easily live with loose stools I was just curious if others had the same problem. I can easily live with having loose stools I actually hesitated about asking because so many people have it so bad and have so much pain, I don’t and am feeling better than I have in years. I do appreciate your response and ideas on what to eat and hope that you continue to do well on your IBS journey!

[xjrs in reply to jerak]

Have you started to reintroduce fibre in your diet? Fibre is needed to bulk out stools. I eliminated fibre before taking Alflorex. After taking Alflorex I became much more tolerant to fibre.

[jerak in reply to xjrs]

I have but I remain very conscious of how much I eat because I’ve become so used to avoiding it in fear of starting a flare up with diarrhea. I will definitely start adding more fiber to my diet and see what if it helps. I am a believer in Alflorex and would never have known about it had I not joined this IBS thread. I live in the U.S. and we aren’t able to get Alflorex here, I live in fear of not being able to get it every time I order, I try to stay ahead by buying several at a time. Thank you so much for your reply and imput!

[xjrs in reply to jerak]

I think the equivalent to Alflorex in the US is called Align. It contains the same bacterial strain as Alflorex, which has been scientifically studied for IBS. In terms of fibre or introducing anything new I tend to start slowly and keep a food diary, only making changes (such as incrementing the amount by 1/3 or 1/4 of a normal portion size every couple of days). Your body needs to get used to the new food and the microbiome hopefully will adapt if you go gently. I've been able to reintroduce many new foods this way, though there are some that I couldn't tolerate no matter how gently I went (e.g. broccoli and mushrooms).

[jerak in reply to xjrs]

I have tried so many different probiotics since being on this IBS journey but can’t recall if I tried Align. I will certainly remember to try Align if I can’t get Alflorex. I will be sure to ease into trying foods with more fiber. I love both broccoli and especially mushrooms but like you, have avoided due to the fiber. Hopefully your thoughts will allow me more freedom in my diet!

[xjrs in reply to jerak]

Good luck.