did anybody’s IBS start around Covid/ vaccines?

[Fybogellover]

as a full time carer myself and daughter have not had any illness/ cold/ flu/ covid nothing since 2016 (fact), we live on the NW coast of Ireland in a remote location (recent storm), I often think that this IBS-C started because of this Covid vaccination programme, messing around with the bodies auto immune system can’t be good!, I do not believe heavily in conspiracy's & I am NOT anti vaccination, I’m just interested if there’s a pattern?, any topic or angle on the subject is acceptable tnx.

[Luisa22]

It's hard for me to know if Covid started my IBS or not.

I'd felt very unwell in Spring 2018. Not sure what that was, and in the 4th week got an upset gut for 8 days. Then it all disappeared until Spring 2020. It was 7th March 2020 when I woke up one morning with au upset lower gut which came and went for the next 3 weeks. Then suddenly April 2nd I came down with Covid. During the actual Covid infection my gut was OK, and was good for 6 weeks following!

So I don't know . The start of IBS could have been coincidental, as it started 3 weeks before I got Covid, and I don't even think the incubation period was that long (?)

And I don't understand why my gut was perfect all through the infection and for some time after, Covid was quite a challenge and I lost a lot of strength and weight even though I was eating well. I was weak as a kitten for a while after recovery, and had to build up my stamina gradually.

I have never had one of those injections and I never caught Covid again since. But I do live quite remotely and don't go to highly populated places by choice, and get my groceries delivered and more or less everything else for convenience.

[Fybogellover in reply to Luisa22]

I remember being extremely stressed with the governments lack of interest for carers, we wasn’t prioritised for anything, a chest infection would kill my daughter and like yourself we are pretty well isolated out next to the sea and was already self reliant, but I was very stressed, my stomach and bowel just exploded, it’s awful really and even reading other people’s experiences, thanks for your reply and take care

[CryptoKid in reply to Fybogellover]

Hello. Stress is a factor in IBS being triggered / started. All the latest findings are linking the gut biome with the brain biome communication. So rather than it being the vaccination it's more likely tied to the stress you experienced during that time.

My IBS is PI-IBS, as in post infection. I had just finished two rounds of antibiotics for an infection wiping out my gut flora when I picked up Cryptosporidium, which lasted 6 weeks rather than the normal 2-4 weeks.

All this took place while I was going through the motions of my wife being diagnosed and beating cancer.

Through exploring it, for me, pain is caused by Tomatoes which I have now eliminated from my diet. Any bloating is managed with charcoal tablets (Holland & barratt). What I'm left with is slight constipation and frequency of urgent need to urinate, particularly when bowel getting ready for a movement. When I eat and the food is passing through I get anxiety / restless legs and sometimes with larger meals feeling of panic attack. This is then managed with beta blockers.

Fun times!

[TedsMum247 in reply to CryptoKid]

My IBS is triggered by stress only, I can eat everything but when I know I'm having to go away from home, early start in the morning it sets me off. The nurses that did my colonoscopy many years ago said the gut is the body's second brain. Can't disagree with that. With some it's a food trigger, but with me it's stress mainly. Like you I'm now getting a feeling of anxiety when I feel I need to go to the loo, I'm worried about whether it's going to be normal or another episode of 3 or 4 bouts of diarrhoea. It's hellish.

[Starfush in reply to TedsMum247]

Magnesium, calcium deficiency. Vitamin D levels needed for calcium absorption

[Fybogellover in reply to CryptoKid]

Our sewer pipe was getting bunged regular, it was rats eating the food in my stools, one of the foods that was being passed was tomato skins and bell pepper skins, I find I can eat tinned tomatoes, peas, cabbage,kale, mushrooms are lethal, tnx for your comment, bearing stress is difficult, I won’t lie either I did drink heavily and often for a good stretch, I hope everything works out well for you,Sligo Ireland

[Sofaqueen21 in reply to CryptoKid]

Hi there. I had cryptosporidian from a local swimming pool. Total wipe out. Had to have blood tests so often, made me laugh cos the Bio hazard markings pushed the blood test to 5 minutes waiting time in a separate area. That was the only positive. Then the nasty.. ....4 years later diagnosed with divertular disease. Dr's said that the cryptosporidian had weakened my system now live in fear of flare ups some 15 years on Having been hospitalised on aA few occasions now, I really feel worried what can happen in the future.

Take regular acidophilus to assist gut microbiombe.

Take care and learn your own flare ups xx

[CryptoKid in reply to Sofaqueen21]

Aye i know there's a Welsh clinic looking at long term affects of crypto exposure. Currently it's just seen as diarrhea and the body deals with it. In reality it compromises your system and increases risk of developing IBS.

I'm very active on promoting my gut health. I drop live biotics into the system periodically, eat plenty of kefir and add fermented foods to my meals. Plenty of fibre and water too!

[Starfush in reply to CryptoKid]

Im not sure what this trend with water is, and any bowel issues are probiotics. Your bowels and digestive system is still essentially muscle, so is the heart.

Also drinking water doesn't really help anything, its very low on everything, there no real needs for it unless your not eating plenty of fruit.

As for fibre our colon shrunk as we evolved , colon size is needed for things to ferment, our shorter colon means we don't need loads of fibre , it will actually combined with lots of water just bloat out of system.

[RichaJ]

Yes mine seemed to start then. It does make you wonder

[Starfush]

that’s what I’m saying it’s a vitamin D defiency lack of sunlight, this can be made worse with low magnesium. Both will lead to low calcium too.

[Fybogellover in reply to Starfush]

Definitely white as a sheet, we don’t get much sun even in summer in the NW,also the HSE are very proactive with vitamin D

[Starfush]

It’s not out blue your body just reached a point in gut health and mineral/vitamin defiencies that it’s all triggered .

[TedsMum247]

No, I've had IBS for many years before "Covid". After some research my husband and I decided not to take the "vaccines" as they were untrialled and experimental. After everything that's now come to light we're glad we didn't take anything. I was diagnosed with IBS around 2005, so no connection to "Covid ". Other more serious health issues have come to light since then as a result of "vaccines" being rolled out. We take Zinc, vitamin C and D and haven't had a cold for 6 or 7 years. Our family took the jabs and have one cold virus, sore throat after another, they get everything going. It's like their immune systems have been compromised, they weren't like this before they took the jabs.

[Fybogellover in reply to TedsMum247]

I can’t see any pattern, not even genetic, don’t even run in the family, but I believe there’s something that causing it, tnx for your comment may you all stay bug free, Sligo Ireland

[Starfush in reply to TedsMum247]

How much of each do you take, no magnesium either?

[Fybogellover]

I was belching for years but I had no acid or discomfort or anything, bowel was perfect, tnx for your time Sligo Ireland

[Letsfixit1]

I personally don't believe my IBSD is in any way connected to either catching covid or having the vaccines. I haven't had any other symptoms, illnesses or problems that I think might have been caused by the jabs. I can imagine the stress caused by the pandemic itself could well have caused problems though.

Some interesting comments on this thread though. I was prescribed vitd by the doctor, min 1000, over a year ago, for osteoporosis. IBS got worse. A few months ago I started taking magnesium to improve sleep. My IBS has got much better recently.

And tomatoes/red peppers I eat every day. I wonder then if they're a trigger? I've eliminated so much stuff over the years I have no idea what the triggers are, I can't find a pattern.

[Fybogellover in reply to Letsfixit1]

I only recently realised that listerine has sorbitol in it, I get the link with stress but what came first?, is it a personality trait, or is it that the illness causes stress and makes it worse, I feel logically that there’s a specific cause, I think maybe that each individual has a similar but not identical issues and the medical community can’t address each person specifically exactly to fix it, so IBS/ type is an umbrella term for leave us alone once we rule out something life threatening none of this helps the next person so…the last generation used to blanch things like tomato’s ( 10secs in boiling water, peel then cut in half gently squeeze the seeds and insides out) wonder why they used to do that?

[Starfush in reply to Letsfixit1]

if thats 1000 IU this is a very low dose. Magnesium is need to ultizie vitamin D, also boron, K2. Supplementing pure vitamin D would really go anywhere or draw in whatever it needs you have left, magnesium is just as essential.

[Fybogellover]

did anybody try amitriptyline For their stomach ?

[TedsMum247 in reply to Fybogellover]

My GP prescribed Amitriptyline for my anxiety which is the main cause of my IBS-D. However, it gave me the shakes which made me even more stressed so I stopped it. This was over 6 years ago, so I've given up with the GP. I was prescribed Sertraline after this, that have me acute diahorrea unfortunately🙄

[Fybogellover in reply to TedsMum247]

I get 90 x 5ml Valium a year only, but it was never for the stomach though, 2003 I started them, instead of dealing with the anxiety growing up I would just initiate the what I perceived as what was going to happen, if I thought I was going to be attacked I would just attack first, but of course I was never going to be attacked to start with, again or there was other options, I understand the relationship with IBS & stress, but could it be a personality trait? some of us are more sensitive then others I take everything so personally, I thought they’d stopped using amitripyline for depression etc and I thought for muscle and nerve issues only, that’s why you got the shakes maybe?, take care TedsMum247 sligo Ireland

[Dollymae06]

I had Covid in November 2020 and I had bad diarrhea which lasted a while I was very weak and dehydrated. Since then I have had IBS with fecal accidents it has never gone I also had all the vaccines . So I do think it is connected. I take Sertraline and Propranolol to help me cope.

[Fybogellover in reply to Dollymae06]

I see their pushing the link between covid and IBS more towards being long covid, I do hope for you that it is long covid as there’s the potential for it to go away, thanks for your comment and time, Sligo Ireland

[Dollymae06 in reply to Fybogellover]

Thank you for your caring reply wishing you well too.

[Starfush in reply to Dollymae06]

plenty of magnesium, potassium and vitamin D

[BabblingBrooks]

My IBS was well controlled since Covid, definitely not so since especially the last infection I had last summer.

Not going near any of those vaccines again either or the flu jab for that matter.

I’ve had it 3 times.

First time in the second lockdown and before the jabs were rolled out.

[Fybogellover in reply to BabblingBrooks]

People forget swine flu 2009, my daughters class mate died of it, every year we would get the flu+H1N1 vaccines, up until Covid , I think messing with the bodies immune system is ill advised, I was belching for years leading up to my digestive system breaking, so I understand stress can be un healthy, but messing with the bodies programming couldn’t be healthy, take care tnx for your angle on the subject, sligeach Eire

[Melon3]

I developed IBS from my first COVID infection. Literally my first symptom and it has only got worse. This was 3 years ago. As I understand it, all the COVID vaccines are "live" and quite a few people have developed long covid type symptoms from it, possibly because it's like having a mini COVID infection. And we do know that COVID lives in the digestive tract for many years, literally as long as it's been studied, so quite possibly a lot longer. Nobody truly knows the damage it causes there, but our bodies can't detect it which is really concerning IMO. COVID-19 is a lot more harmful than a lot of people think. So I wouldn't say it's crazy to consider that the vaccine could've triggered it. But equally, it's impossible for you to know if you've had a COVID-19 infection or not. Many people have been asymptomatic but research has showed permanent damage even when people don't have symptoms and many have still gone on to develop long covid symptoms. The people who developed long covid seem to have more significant damage throughout the body. And pretty much any viral or bacterial infection can disrupt the gut microbiome. COVID just seems to stay in the gut almost endlessly, but any illness can kill off the good bacteria in your gut.

It is also possible the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic could've triggered it. I mean, if IBS seems to run in families, then it's quite possible anything could set it off.

On this topic - have you ever tried probiotics? If not, they might possibly be helpful. So many things can upset our digestive system and all digestive symptoms have been linked to changes in the gut microbiome. I think the trouble is everyone's is different so nobody knows what an ideal gut microbiome looks like. But a good quality probiotic with as many strains in it as you can find (mine is 21), might make a difference. Personally it didn't help my symptoms but I also took it to help my gut recover from multiple rounds of antibiotics in recent years.

[Fybogellover]

yes I have tried thanks, keeping my stress under control (obsessed with that anyway living with my daughter), sticking to the fodmap list, minimal alcohol, no insoluble fibre & more soluble fibre, a lot of exercise and fiborgel,

On the topic of exercise I brought a bike (veloplus) that you can strap a wheelchair to, its great but expensive to buy, thanks for sharing your experience, respectfully Sligo Ireland

[XDjames]

my IBS pretty much descended into hell around the end of 2021 but I could not link to Covid. Anyway it is what it is…..

[Starfush in reply to XDjames]

Mine appeared partly after I started doing to gym, but it got bad and lead to 'diagnosis' after I was in hospital after vomitting,diarrhea from poisoning. Dehydration of essential minerals, magnesium, potassium.

[Starfush]

Yes not meeting the RDA of essential minerals and vitamins over course of time, if just has a tipping point.

[Starfush]

There no need for that, You said you agreed stress is a trigger, stress uses up certain minerals, especially magnesium. Point being if your not meeting at the very least RDA of these, your going slowly build up deficiency what eventually we'll 'overnight' lead to issues.

[Fybogellover in reply to Starfush]

I’ve read all your posts, I’ve been looking at RDA for magnesium and potassium, I’m onto your info, I also think you are right about the water, too much is weakening the stomach acid as well, I ordered a bag of Psyllium husk earlier as well, based on another users link ( great link), I thank you kindly and now am aware, can’t just spam my body with lots of new things, but don’t think I’ve disregarded your comments😀😀Sligo Eire

[niretro in reply to Starfush]

You misread my original comment,I politely told you this but unfortunately your follow-up comments keep arguing against a point I never made.

[niretro]

Hi - reposting my reply.

Correlation does not mean causation - a golden rule which applies to illness!

My stomach issues just seemed to come out of the blue (it felt like it was overnight that I developed multiple food intolerances), but in reality it was something that had built up slowly over time.

I agree with the other comments that stress can be a trigger.