Visceral hypersensitivity

[XDjames]

You know those films where someone is strapped to a chair and the torturer is holding a syringe and says: 'I'm just going to give you something to enhance the pain; you'll feel everything much more'.

No wait! I already have IBS, thanks all the same.

I feel everything in my guts, multiplied. Solids are like an alien leaking acid blood, wind is like a bicycle pump inflating a tyre.

So I need to keep things moving any way I can, have used regular small doses of Senna, going back to Laxido since although that seemed to cause wind it was better than this.

Nights are a joy: every night is sleep, wakeup, pain, painkillers, repeat up to 3 times, finally wake up to intense discomfort and a few loo trips later I'm OK to do stuff, walk and maybe drive.

Afternoons are a buildup of high pressure gas worsened by eating almost anything until I can blow that out and hopefully by evening, with a bit of a push after dinner, minimise the discomfort to improve sleep and so on.

Some days are almost normal apart from morning and night, many are trashed, I'm signed off work for months.

Anyone else have this and found a fix?

[xjrs]

You are probably right about visceral hypersensitivity (functional abdominal pain) - there is info about it here:

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

It is where the brain interprets the normal activity of the bowel as pain - this is due to a wearing down of neurons in pain control centres of the brain which can be caused by PTSD, neglect or abuse in childhood, extreme stressful events etc. The first line treatment is nerve pain agents such as low dose amitriptyline. There is a theory that being on something like amitriptyline for 6-12 months can help the pain control centre neurons to regenerate. Note that amitriptyline can cause constipation, but this can be helpful in people who are diarrhea dominant.

Unfortunately I couldn't tolerate these. Linaclotide (for IBS-C only) & Alflorex have helped me with this intestinal pain.

The reason why Alflorex helped me is that my IBS started with a bout of holiday food poisoning. This led to a gut bacterial imbalance, which is true for many IBS sufferers. This imbalance can also be caused by other things such as restricted or unhealthy diets and stress. When bad bugs dominate the system, they can oversensitise the nerves in the gut too. When put together with visceral hypersensitivity, with the brain incorrectly interpreting signals and then the gut sending even more signals than it should, it ends up being a double whammy effect. If this is true in your case, something like Alflorex might help to bring things back in balance. When I took Linaclotide, it reduced my pain by 50%-60%. After taking Alflorex my pain reduced to zero and only comes back when I am challenging with new foods and before my body gets used to them (or I have to continue to give them up). Alflorex which has been scientifically studied for IBS has made me more tolerant to a much wider range of foods. Having a more diverse diet increases bacterial diversity in the gut. Bacterial diversity helps to additionally keep bad bugs away, in turn helping IBS symptoms. There is also the Nerva gut directed hypnotherapy app to consider. This helps to calm intestinal nerves.

Alflorex may make you more tolerant to different foods and the increases in fibre necessary to manage the 'C'.

[XDjames in reply to xjrs]

Thanks for that, very interesting.

I have tried amitriptyline a few times; it left me zonked for a good part of the next day with little benefit. so that's out: my head is awful after quite a lot of stuff and I don't need that with the fatigue and discomfort.

I also tried Alflorex once, and instantly regretted it. I still have some maybe I should give it another go. See there's quite a lot of literature on it, I'll take a look at that.

It's not easy to figure out what I'm intolerant to and it seems to vary by day and by hour but after a recent experience I will never touch sweet corn in any shape.

Linaclotide .... hmm. I'm starting on Tim Spector's Zoe deal soon, maybe that will give me some answers.

And I did buy some kimchi and found it not to be disgusting, apparently the helps. There is hope that this will tail off; it comes in cycles for me.

[artisticmum]

I think xjrs sums it up really. I have been diagnosed with VH which happened after a bout of vary mild campylobactor food poisoning and the pain is there all the time and gets worse if I try a new food. I am afraid to try and widen my very meagre diet, but I must do so as recently told I am anaemic and other problems to which I think are linked to me not eating properly. What is Linaclotide pls? Hope you find some relief. I was told yoga, taking up hobbies such as art or even colouring books and pencils, hypnotherapy etc, helps calm the mind and hopefully the pain. It is a cycle of pain worry, worry pain and it has to be broken.

[XDjames in reply to artisticmum]

Thanks; CBT is really helpful in shaping the way you think about things; won't reduce the physical issues but rationalising them works.

My weight is the lowest in the last 40 years and on the worst days I struggle to eat so try to stuff my face on the good ones. I got on he FODMAP diet as far as possible but never got to the bit of systematically reintroducing foods to see if they were OK. Complan is always a very low risk option.

And what helps me a lot is going for walks. Lots of nice places to go local to me thankfully.

[Jackie1612]

sorry to hear you are going through this XDjames. I too have hypersensitivity so every BM is painful and so is gas. Unfortunately I haven’t found anything to help yet.

[Tigerlilly81]

I must have this. Eating is such an unpleasant experience for me anymore. I'm and anxious painful mess after ingesting anything. Miserable stuff.