I've had IBS symptoms for about 15 years. At first I thought it was intolerance to a few foods, and cutting those out seemed to help. But the symptoms seem to get worse and more frequent as I age. I am now 42 and get scared to go out to eat or be in the office all day (thankfully I WFH 4 days a week).
I plan to see my GP and potentially a dietician but I live in London and the cost is a factor. I am also unsure how to find a really good dietician as I imagine there are lots of quacks out there.
I have been taking probiotic supplement tablets regularly for 6 months and things were feeling much better, but then this past week has been back to bloating, constipation and flatulence. I'm not sure what has triggered it. I also wonder whether it's OK to take them long term? My acid reflux and heartburn have subsided a lot since I started taking them.
I know that bananas, chickpeas & peanuts are huge triggers for me, but there are definitely other foods that I should avoid.
Any general advice would be hugely appreciated.
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Gaia_1
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Hi, having been diagnosed with IBS for 7 years, I know that there are certain foods that I shouldn't really eat but I do try to eat as healthy as I can and try not to worry too much if I get any kind of constipation or diarrhoea.
I am very aware that my IBS gets worse if I am particularly stressed or anxious about something. However, I over come this by spending plenty of time in nature, exercise reasonably regularly and spend time enjoying my hobbies and relaxing as much as possible!
I have also accepted that I have IBS, will have it for the rest of my life and on occasions know that it will flare up but I also know that it will pass and that I will feel a lot better in myself. Not always to manage but possible with the right mind set.
Thank you for your reply. You are right that eating healthy is important, and when I am in the safety and privacy of my own home, I can take risks with different foods! I do quite a lot of things to help my mental health and stress levels as I have noticed high stress levels definitely make it worse.
High fiber foods seem to make the symptoms much worse, like bananas, chickpeas and nuts. I also ate a cereal bar with chicory root fibre extract recently, which gave me a bad flare up.
It's a case of eliminating foods that you are sure trigger your IBS, which takes a long time to get to grips with. Stick to a natural diet, little or no processed foods, eat fruits and vegetables if possible, Flaxseed is good, Kiwi Fruit, drink plenty of still fresh water, probiotics. It sounds like stress could be a problem, anxiety? Try to relax as much as you can, get out walking amongst nature if you can, deep breathing whenever you feel anxious. Walking is good, it exercises your heart and lungs naturally and you will start to feel better. Accept you will have good days and bad days, make the most of the good ones and over time as you learn how to deal with this, the good days will outweigh the bad.
Thank you for your reply. Yes I got a dog last year so I'm always out for walks and agree walking in nature is a brilliant medicine.
I think the main problem is i don't know all of the triggers yet, so I'm going to go for a diagnosis through my GP and then speak to a dietician to work out what else I'm missing.
I was at a 3-day conference until yesterday, and I don't know exactly what was in the meals I was cooked so I have no way of knowing what caused the issue this week and that's going to happen when I go on holiday or to a restaurant, so I guess the first step is to find all the biggest triggers.
I can't even remember how many probiotics I've been through they've either made things worse or done nothing. I once read the probiotics need to include prebiotics. I've also done that. I too can have a flare up for no reason. I'm ibs C always have been for 30 ish years. Then I lost my brother to cancer I suddenly started with intolerancences. I put it down to stress but I'm still have intolerancences he passed away 4 years ago. Now all of a sudden for no reason I can think off will have awful gas and diarrhea. Then I'm constipated for around 3-4 days then slowly get back to pretty normal for me. It drives me crazy. I know what makes things worse for me but still mystery flare ups. Its hard to say if you should carry on with your probiotics. I'm not convinced they help ibs sufferers but I try in hope.
Hi there,i have had ibs for about 20 years,but i have always managed to control the symptoms over the yearsI massive flare up about a month ago,off i go to the docs again,prescribed mebeverine,not much help.
I am on workcover for stress abd bullying,it seems when im stressed out my ibs flares up,and very hard to control
Eventually my doc prescribed amitriptiline,oh wow what a difference i feel a 100% better.
Have you been diagnosed with IBS or have you self-diagnosed? If you haven't had the necessary tests to eliminate other things, then you won't know if you have IBS or not - info about getting diagnosed here which involve blood and stool sample tests:
If you live in the UK, you can see a GP for free. Similarly, you can ask for a referral from your GP to a dietitian for free. Dietitians are approved by the NHS. Note that nutritional therapists are not approved by the NHS and the pre-requisites for the courses they go on can be very limited, so are not advised.
If you have been diagnosed with IBS, good that you have been taking a probiotic supplement and this has helped. In terms of your current symptoms, the only way to know what might be affecting you is to keep a food diary and monitor for symptoms for 2-4 days depending on your turnaround time. I suppose the question is, have you introduced anything new into your diet or food products that contain ingredients that you haven't had before? Stress can also be a factor, so perhaps consider whether this has increased lately.
Regarding long term safety of probiotics, this is what I found:
Taking probiotics for IBS over an extended period of time is thought to be safe. There is no evidence that probiotics for IBS can cause any harm in the long term, although more research is needed on the effects of long-term use.
I've tried many probiotics over the years and Alflorex has worked best for me.
If you suffer from IBS-C, then fibre, hydration and exercise are important. If you need tips about increasing fibre for IBS-C I can post that too.
Thank you. I've booked an NHS appointment to get tested, so will go from there. The problem was being away from home for 3 days this week at a conference centre so I couldn't make my own food. I want to speak to someone who can help me eliminate everything that triggers, in case I accidently eat something when I'm out that I don't typically cook with.
I find that high fibre foods usually trigger the bloating and gas, so I'm not sure I want to increase Mt fibre! But I'd be grateful if you could post that info as good to educate myself.
Best thing is to see your GP as you'll need to see a Gastroenterologist to be diagnosed with IBS. In the meantime, keep a food and drink diary, that will help find any food triggers. I found that eating greek yogurt every day has helped, and I try to eat as healthy as I can (although I can't eat much green veg!), root vegetables seem to be the best. I also stopped drinking any carbonated drinks as that made my bloating worse. Try to avoid artificial sweetners especially sorbitol, it took me far too long to find out that it was a trigger for me!You could try hypnotherapy, it really helped with stress triggers, there are some good apps available or you could see a hypnotherapist.
Hi, general advice for someone with ibs is to follow a Mediterranean diet - one that uses lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, where you cook from scratch. Ibs is all about identifying you triggers but stress plays an important part too. This can be any stress from anywhere. Self massage and a hot water bottle are good for me. Massaging your abdomen from the right hip, up and under your ribcage, across the top of your stomach the down the left hand side could help - that and peppermint are my go to remedies.
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