Healthy changes, some progress

[Letsfixit1]

Hi, I know my IBSd is fortunately not as severe as many others, inconvenient but thankfully not painful. It affects my quality of life though. After cutting out so many foods, gluten, lactose etc without any improvement, and getting an osteoporosis diagnosis, I began to question whether I was depriving my body of essential nutrients.

I have cut out nearly all cakes and biscuits as I began to wonder whether there was a fat absorption problem. Hardly any alcohol. And tried to increase fruit and vegetables and good quality protein, milk, meat, fish and eggs. Lots of natural yoghurt. And gut powered immune tablets from Holland and Barrett.

And my stomach is much better! I don't feel any healthier, and I would have liked to lose some weight, but mentally I feel more positive in that my body is getting more nourishment. My bowels are much calmer and the diarrhea is less frequent. I am trying to eat a wider variety of foods in much smaller quantities to improve the gut bacteria. I could never pinpoint the trigger foods anyway. I take 1 loperamide when the stools become too loose and soft and I've read that it also tightens the canal sphincter which is reassuring!

[Pinkpop21]

Hi, that’s great you’re feeling better with these changes. What did you use from Holland & Barrett?

I too struggle with my IBS - urgency and frequency. I try to avoid certain foods but not really got to the bottom of it all. Tried FODMAP twice. I tried Alforex but it didn’t make much difference. It’s positive to hear the changes you made have helped. Yep it really does affect daily life. I don’t eat much when out or travelling.

Thank you,

[Letsfixit1 in reply to Pinkpop21]

They're called Gut Powered Immune tablets, I don't really think its the tablets that makes the difference. I've found smaller portions of everything and more variety of food seems to work better. I avoid onions and spicy food obviously, and high fat foods like cheese seem to be a problem. Less processed food, just a healthier diet really. I've just travelled 47 hours over 2 days to Canada, living on plane food and snacks, so I think I will pay for that! But I'm taking it easy, staying near my hotel for a couple of days, and just being sensible.

[Pinkpop21 in reply to Letsfixit1]

Thank you. Ok I will try the healthier eating and I do avoid garlic, onions, spices. Wow 47 hours!! Yes seems like a plan to wait until your stomach settles. Have a brilliant time in Canada!!

[LFHell]

Does loperamide have any side effects? Not that i need it right now.. I definately have trigger foods but after cutting them all out i now have the opposite problem C. arrrgh Can't win, eh!

[Letsfixit1 in reply to LFHell]

From what I've read, it only becomes a problem with large doses, e.g. 6 tablets a day, so I'm hoping not.

[LFHell]

Have you read my post on hydrogen sulphide gas? I think this could be why ibs people struggle with fat. But its particularly saturated fat like cheese and meat as it makes a type of SIBO bacteria called bilophila wadsworthia "bloom". Im feeling a lot better since cut cheese down to 10g twice a week but i became "allergic" to it few years ago. Im trying to increase it slowly now as cutting it out completely made me more C.

[Letsfixit1 in reply to LFHell]

Hi, no I don't think I have seen your post, I've almost completely cut out hard cheese, I know its a problem for me, but hadn't realised why. Could you re-post that please?

[LFHell in reply to Letsfixit1]

healthunlocked.com/theibsne...

Here you go. Its a lot to read but i had overgrowth of this, as far as i could tell as it was one of my most enriched bacteria at 3x normal level. I do notice the sulphur smell has mostly gone now if i only eat 10g of cheese per time. If i eat more than that i was getting colic/cramps again and diorrhea. The diorrhea would come in 3 lots at once & with colic pain (waves of pain) and felt like dumping entire intestine out! One of the papers says the worse the overgrowth, the more severe the diorrhea. And its favourite food is milk fat which just so happens to be the most common food allergy. I did read it may be a defense mechanism against pathogens that the body expands this bacteria though so maybe starving it of its food sources isn't a good idea completely, and i do need to keep a bit in my diet. And also hydrogen sulphide gas controls perastalsis.

There were some other papers on bile acids and how they get broken down by bacteria, and the bacteria that do it. I do wonder if its all important but the gastro doc just ignored my emails completely. I'm not sure whether to send him another message about it but nhs is in crisis and i'm worried i already emailed too much. Was thinking of maybe trying to explain why i was bringing it up and that i wasn't after antibiotics (even tho this is a SIBO bacteria). The reason its a SIBO bacteria is it "decongucated bile acids", i think all SIBO bacteria do this. So i wonder if that process happens in the small bowel. Bile acids are the deterrgent of the gut apparently (digest fats?). Anyway it must be relevant as its linked to IBS and IBS patients due have fat malabsorption issues. (I kept trying to ask the gastro docs if i had fat malabsoprtion as thats what other doc said but they just keep ignoring me, i'm not sure why! )

Thats a quick summary as the other post is long and academic.