I've been having loose BMs on and off for about a week now, mainly in a morning. Normally, my IBS steers towards the constipation side, but this is predominantly loose and this morning the second BM was more like diarrhea. Had to take Imodium. In between all this was a BM a few days ago that was twisted like barley sugar, anyone else had this? I've had IBS for 15 years and normally it will last 2 or 3 days, on occasion I'll get a bad flare up like this that lasts a week. Can't think of anything I've eaten or taken different apart from a little ginger which is supposed to be good for IBS. I have however had several stressful weeks. I always start worrying that it's something else and the more I worry the worse it goes, it's hard to break the cycle.
I'm afraid to eat anything 😔 I'm fed up with it.
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Misspomfrey
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Hi I keep seeing references to the Rescue remedy on posts so I just ordered 60 gummies. I can't see any info about how many or when to take which I hope will be on the bottle. Any advice would be appreciated thank you.
I suck on two at a time until gone. I also use the fluid drops but of late have been causing reflux immediately taken, so for the moment pastilles for me. There is a non alcohol fluid drop as well. I started off with the pet one for a seriously abused cat I rescued and found that it worked very well for him. So tried some for myself, no not the pet version!
Awww 😺 that's brilliant you taking in an abused cat, poor thing, these people who do this to animals want stringing up and given 50 lashes of the cat o nine tails 🤨, let them see what it's like. Take care x
Cat of nine tails would be too good for them. He was a Seal point Siamese pure breed. Found him through an advert to rehouse only to discover he was 3 houses along our street. Petrified of work boots, scared of most people and had to compete with 2 Alsatians for food. He never ever ventured down that end of the street while we had him. Sadly after 6 years he started stroking and we reluctantly had to put him down. Hopefully the 6 years made up for the 2 of hell he went through.
Gummies: chew two before bed. There appears to be an updated web site with a lot of detail and far more products.
I use ginger to aid motility i.e. speed things up for my IBS-C. If ginger is the only change maybe it has sped things up for you too much. Plus there's the stress on top. You could try the Nerva gut directed hypnotherapy app for stress.
Yes, I thought of the ginger but I was reading it's good for IBS. I've not taken any for a couple of days, I'll try Cinnamon instead, supposed to have good properties and keeps blood glucose low.
you could try asafoetida with any food that you try and eat not for sweet foods I put it on things like salads and most of my cooked food like pasta OK!!!
I understand that things which calm the stomach (like peppermint and ginger) can have the opposite effect on the bowel - fine if you have IBS-C, but not so good with IBS-D.
Right, I never use peppermint as it seems to make me worse. I'll leave the ginger for for the IBS C times, thanks. There's always something to learn isn't there 😉
My symptoms were fairly well managed at the time, so it would have been hard to say. However, stress is a known factor with IBS, so anything that makes a person more relaxed could help. Things like yoga, Pilates, meditation etc. may also be of some assistance.
We all know that stress exasperates IBS symptoms but stress is difficult to avoid in the real world! From my experience, just go 'white/beige diet' for a week or two. You may only need a few days of bland foods as you said your flares usually last only a week. Peppermint tea/capsules and Buscopan IBS may help if you also have gut pain, wind, bloating etc too. I also have mild IBD yet my flares are very consistent with typical IBS symptoms. The vast majority of people who have IBS never get anything else but IBS - please do remember that. You would need a lot of blood or weight loss in a short space of time for other alarm bells to ring in which case you would be fast tracked for other tests. Hope it settles for you.
Yes, your right, I'm going to try and stop worrying. There's no blood and weight isn't dropping off, just lost a few pounds. I've just done one of those FIT tests that you do when your older, like me 🥴 and I'm waiting for the results. It might be that that's on my mind a bit, I've done several of these and they've always been normal.
My FIT was normal and I am mid sixties. FIT looks for blood traces. In my case it was dropping a stone in a month that prompted further investigation two years ago and even then my GP refused to send me to gastro so I ended up paying to see someone in the first instance! Almost all with IBS just have IBS - it does not progress to anything else. In my case there may or may not be a link between IBS and IBD but my IBD is controlled with meds and my flares are possibly more IBS ones than IBD ones! I hope this helps and please do not worry.
I think a lot of people can sometimes get alternating symptoms with IBS even if they have one predominant type.
I was diagnosed with IBS D (with main symptom too-loose stool normal in every other way except too loose for no reason, I do maybe 3 times a year get an awful flare up but that's much rarer), but have at times suddenly got constipated for no apparent reason which usually resolves in a couple of days quite naturally.
There may be a lot of people who do experience alternating symptoms at times. I know I do.
There never seems an obvious cause, unless extreme stress of course.
Then there's another thing: Sometimes IBS can change shape. I swear it's the devils invention! Some people always one type CAN change to the other so I hear, but that hasn't happened to me yet.
I am not sure about ginger root. For certain it's good healthy stuff, brilliant to help nausea., brilliant to aid circulation when eaten regularly, and very tasty in recipes. But I think it can stimulate gut contractions if eaten too often or too much at once? I think it's a slight laxative, based on my own experiments with it. It is also quite fibrous apart from its stimulating properties.
Even with stress as a trigger, it's possible adapting your diet for now, until maybe this passes might help? Maybe stay away from high fibre foods for a couple of days and see if that helps quiet your tum. I know that for me that would be the solution but we are all so different I know.
So, with really too-loose stool, I usually go onto my mean old bland diet which consists of plain steamed white fish (chicken if you eat meat), hard boiled eggs, white basmati rice, some gentle veggies which suit me (in my case spinach, those thin green beans, nettle tops, and maybe a tiny bit of broccoli. That suits me and I must be the only IBS person it does!!) Then white bread toast, honey, butter, peeled boiled potatoes, white pasta. No seasonings except salt, and I use pink Himalayan in a grinder.
With the exception of the veggies, they are pretty "binding" foods.
Your foods might be different of course, but aim for something slightly "binding". Hopefully your gut will steady out. Keep an eye on the balance factor, as it would be unhelpful if you got constipated again. Adjust foods day by day according to the "morning results" ! lol. That's what I do anyway, and it mostly does help a lot.
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