Irritable Bowel Syndrome

[rich951 10]

Here's a cheery tale, vaguely related

 

Four years ago I came down quite suddenly with symptoms similar to IBS. After being diagnosed as having mild gastroenteritis and sent back to work, I struggled on for a couple of weeks and then was referred to a doctor via work who decided I may have ulcerative colitis. Less than six months later, during my third stay in hospital, things got so bad I had to have an emergency operation (my colon was within 24 hours of rupturing).

 

Three major operations later, I no longer have a large intestine (colon/bowel). It doesn't bother me too much now apart from making me tire a bit easily, but things could have been a lot worse! (and I had a pretty rough 18 months)

 

The moral of the story? Take these things seriously. I'm sure the vast majority of these cases are "plain old" IBS, but if you're relying on self-diagnosis then see a doctor! I never realised how ill I was until I got better... (blood transfusions are amazing things when you have very low iron levels ) And who knows, maybe it could have been kept under control without major surgery if diagnosed and treated earlier - although in my case, I doubt it tbh.

 

I've left a lot of gory details out here ( ), but google has plenty of stuff on ulcerative colitis, colectomy, ileostomy etc. If anyone needs any more info from my experiences (maybe you or a friend/relative is facing these ops), feel free to PM me.

[DanSumption 10]

IBS varies enormously in both symptoms and causes, it is not greatly understood and tends to be used as a catch-all for digestive problems with no other obvious cause.

 

That said, there are things which are often associated. I've suffered for nearly 30 years, although it's only in the last few years that I've realised it was IBS and have started to take steps to deal with it: still not entirely succesful, but that's mainly because I have zero willpower.

 

A big factor in IBS seems to be maladaptive stress responses (I'm using the term "stress" in the strict psychological sense here, rather than the more generally used "having a tough time" sense). The physiological responses to stress include changes to secretions within the stomach and a reduction in intestinal movement; these are associated with IBS. In the long-term, stress-reduction and relaxation techniques can help.

 

More immediately, working out what foods trigger the IBS can be a big help. It took me years to realise that my biggest trigger was wheat, and to a slightly lesser extent other grains (brown rice is best for me), which was also the biggest part of my diet. It's an abolute bugger to cut out (just imagine life with no bread, cakes, biscuits, pasta, cereal, ...). Second worst offender are beans and other legumes (especially peanuts). Also dodgy in any large quantities are potatoes. Garlic is a killer unless it's cooked long and slow, other alliums aren't as bad but can make me a bit uncomfortable. Any more than one cup of coffee over a period of a few hours is a bad idea. Oh, and recently most forms of alcohol (particularly beer) seem to have become a trigger if I have more than one or two drinks.

 

As you can imagine, there's not a great deal left that I can eat: fruit, veg, nuts and brown rice are very healthy, but I frequently stray off the path and almost always suffer the consequences.

 

To top it all, I have been vegetarian most of my life, so of course have been existing on a diet of mainly... wheat, beans and potatoes. These last two or three years I've started eating some meat, and it's actually been very good for my stomach.

 

About a year ago I heard about the paleolithic diet and suddenly everything started to make sense. Almost all the things that set my stomach on edge (grains, beans, potatoes) are actually poisonous, and have only been "edible" for humans in the few thousands of years since we learnt to cook. Unfortunately, the paleo diet doesn't take into account things such as spouses cooking toast in the morning, lunch-stops that only sell sandwiches, pasta salads and baked potatoes, or many other aspects of real life, so I doubt I'll ever become ascetic enough to follow the diet with any kind of regularity; but whenever I do so for any period of time, the symptoms of my IBS disappear completely.

[Kristian 11]

It sounds as though an excess of meat could be the likely cause Nick - let us know how he gets on!

[Twiglet 10]

Has anyone who has been diagnosed with IBS suffered very repetivive bouts of nausea as part of it?

[happychick 10]

IBS

 

 

Otherwise known as the I'm Baffled Syndrome !!.

 

 

Only joking guy's. The treatment does seem to be peppermint, my doctor prescribed them for me. After many more months of pain, bloatedness, vomiting etc,etc, it was decided to send me for tests. Result's; inconclusive, then ? hang on, they knew, yes you all guessed it , it's stress they say.

Take the peppermint and try Yoga. Six months later i look like a bleeding polo mint crossed with quasimodo's aunty cause of the sodding Yoga AND still got the dodgy tum.

 

Back to doctor's, scream at him that if he don't sort me out i'm gonna turn up every month , just as the PMT is at it's peak, and scream his surgery down. ANSWER, you definatly are stressed aren't you ?

 

Stressed, me stressed, whatever gave him that idea with the fantastic help & advice he had given me.

[DanSumption 10]

Originally posted by happychick

Back to doctor's, scream at him that if he don't sort me out i'm gonna turn up every month

Very helpful. AFAIK there's no cure for IBS, and not a lot your doctor can do except advise lifestyle changes (and they have varying results - peppermint does nothing for me). All you're going to end up doing is give your doctor IBS from the stress of you shouting at him

[tiffy 10]

Yes Twiglet, I get quite a bit of nausia and my IBS is connected to another condition known as AS or Ankylosing Spondylitis (a form of arthritis).

Just keep an eye on what you're eating and you may see a connection.

[metalman 21]

In my case it was the simple fact of not eating breakfast that brought it on. Occasionally it reoccurs but if I take some fibre supplement like Fybogel for a few days and make sure I eat breakfast, it goes away. Judging from some of the replies here I guess my bowel's not very irritable (or I'm not stressed enough).

[nick2 10]

Thanks for the advice guys.

 

I've managed to talk him in to not drinking for the next couple of weeks as I'm sure 1 bottle of red wine a day isn't realy helping and he is going to try cutting out certain things from his diet to see if that makes any difference. As he doesn't eat red meat anyway we though we'd jump straight to wheat and try a week without that, but when bread makes up a large part of your diet it's quite tough to give up.

 

I've told him to keep nagging the doctor if it doesn't get any better.

[cgksheff 44]

Try a daily probiotic drink such as Yakult.

[BoroughGal 10]

Originally posted by nick2

As he doesn't eat red meat anyway we though we'd jump straight to wheat and try a week without that, but when bread makes up a large part of your diet it's quite tough to give up.

 

I did Atkins for about 3 months really strictly a while ago and felt a lot better for it (in some ways, not all). I'm not going to go into detail, but when I started reintroducing wheat, I realised how much it disagrees with me. I'm not so bad on wholegrain pasta and bread, but white processed stuff does me no good. Try it, but be strict. It took me about 3 days to feel the benefit of stopping.

[DanSumption 10]

Originally posted by BoroughGal

I did Atkins for about 3 months really strictly a while ago and felt a lot better for it (in some ways, not all).

The paleolithic diet I mentioned has some similarities with Atkins - eating a fair bit of meat, no grains, beans or potatoes (in fact, if you're strict it even means eating relatively little fruit, and eating that only in summer/autumn) - and the science behind it, as far as I can see, explains pretty well why it would make you feel better and also get slimmer. The (or rather a) problem with Atkins, as I see it, is that it encourages people to look at food groups very generally, without much discrimination within those food groups, for example it tends to lead to the consumption of a lot of dairy products which probably isn't healthy.