IBS anyone?

I was diagnosed with IBS a long time ago, but I think that is a diagnosis they throw at a lot of people when they just can't figure out what is wrong. After years of "stomach virus'" 2-3x/month which had me in the bathroom throwing up, cramping, etc. they said well, you must just have IBS. No, it hit me when taking a physiology class that what I had was anxiety. I was hyperventilating without knowing it, throwing off my O2/CO2 ratios in my blood and stimulating my parasympathetic nervous system. Guess what happens when you do that?

"Sometimes called the rest and digest system, the parasympathetic system conserves energy as it slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in the gastrointestinal tract."

Stress has been shown to trigger IBS symptoms in many studies. I think in reality, IBS for a large majority of people is a direct result of stress/anxiety and if you can control that, your IBS issues go away. Not to say that for other people there aren't dietary triggers as well.

All I'm saying is that if you have high levels of stress/anxiety (or you may not even be fully aware), try to incorporate some stress management techniques and see if that helps your symptoms. Learning square breathing was a life saver for me as I could re-balance my 02/CO2 levels.

try2again wrote: »

mom23mangos wrote: »

I was diagnosed with IBS a long time ago, but I think that is a diagnosis they throw at a lot of people when they just can't figure out what is wrong. After years of "stomach virus'" 2-3x/month which had me in the bathroom throwing up, cramping, etc. they said well, you must just have IBS. No, it hit me when taking a physiology class that what I had was anxiety. I was hyperventilating without knowing it, throwing off my O2/CO2 ratios in my blood and stimulating my parasympathetic nervous system. Guess what happens when you do that?

"Sometimes called the rest and digest system, the parasympathetic system conserves energy as it slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in the gastrointestinal tract."

Stress has been shown to trigger IBS symptoms in many studies. I think in reality, IBS for a large majority of people is a direct result of stress/anxiety and if you can control that, your IBS issues go away. Not to say that for other people there aren't dietary triggers as well.

All I'm saying is that if you have high levels of stress/anxiety (or you may not even be fully aware), try to incorporate some stress management techniques and see if that helps your symptoms. Learning square breathing was a life saver for me as I could re-balance my 02/CO2 levels.

I was diagnosed with IBS in my early 20s (I'm 50 now), and hadn't had much problem with it since then, though I am clearly sensitive to too much fat & dairy. This past winter has been incredibly stressful and I ended up in the Dr's office with a mind-boggling array of digestive symptoms, but anything serious was ruled out. I'm quite sure the stress & worry literally made me sick, and I think you just provided the scientific explanation of it. One thing I noticed during this time period is that I didn't seem to be breathing much or deeply, almost like the stress was causing me to hold my breath. I've always been fascinated by the fact that our gut actually acts as a "second brain", with more neurons than the rest of the nervous system.

The older I get, the more sensitive to fat I am.

jen112081 wrote: »

I was diagnosed with IBS a few months ago after almost 2 years of not knowing what was going digestive system. I had to have a colonoscopy done last year and I was 36 at the time. They found nothing, Then had to have x-ray done so had to drink that nasty barium crap. GAG!!!!! And they found nothing. Had blood work to check thyroid, and other things like to see if I had celiac disease. All came back fine. Went to a 2nd specialist and they gave me a pill that I place under my tongue. It dissolves and it helps whenever I feel my stomach starting to bother me. They said I had IBS. It sucks. But thank god I can still eat meat cause I loooooove steak.

Another example of an IBS diagnosis because they can’t figure out what’s going on. What symptoms does the pill get rid of and how quickly does it work?

Oh yes, I know what you mean. Not only dieting, but also being a student on a budget. I feel like all my money go to my rent and food. But anyway, I’ve struggled with IBS-C since 2011/2 up until now. In fact, for the first time in my life I’ve been symptom free for a month. (yay, I still can’t believe it)

Although I have no idea what precisely changed it, there were several things that I did almost simultaneously:

1. anxiety - I used to be extremely anxious and just afraid of life, of future etc. Then once I went through a very rough day that made me realize that the anxiety is not worth it as I will never be good enough or please everyone. So I adopted what I call a “f*** it” attitude. Since then my confidence sky-rocketed, meaning finally I’m a person with a relatively healthy self-confidence (instead of zero). Subsequently, many things improved in my life, I started to have a social life and especially my relationships improved massively. I’m stating this because according to numerous therapists/doctors this was the main cause of my IBS - that I was never relaxed, enjoying life etc.

2. food - I eat no gluten & no rice, no added sugar, no additives. But a big big change - when I actually became symptom free - came when I stopped overdoing protein and cut out all dairy (which is a pity since I live in France and cheese is just too good here). It is pretty possible that dairy is the main problem for me (but I have no allergy) - it is likely that the root of the problem is the A1 protein (if I remember it right it is casein). I assume that based on the fact that when I cut out “all” dairy, I was still eating whey protein powder for a while which does not contain the A1 protein. So now I have the following diet: meat (mostly fish), some eggs, loads of vegetables (in fact I eat lots of beans, chickpeas, lentils etc. - I got used to high fiber diet (~70g) so I have zero bloating on it), oats + chia seeds in the morning, and lots of warm water. So far I have been having great results.

3. laxatives - In 2018, there were only 2 days when I didn’t take any laxative. Over Christmas I decided to stop taking them cold turkey. So far, I haven’t taken any laxative ever since. I threw them out a week ago, so I hope I will never need to buy them again.

4. stressing over a toilet pattern - I used to overanalyze everything. I made several attempts to go lax-free in 2018 but stupidly believed that if I don’t have a BM the next day after I stop taking laxatives it means that no improvement is happening. I know, stupid me. Anyway, when I stopped with laxatives, I decided to adopt an attitude “let the body show me how long it can take it”. In the past, I remember days when I was constipated for 10 days in a row, which I feared the most. However, once I allowed my body to do whatever it wanted I saw massive improvements within two days. Now, I’m having a BM once a day or every other day. The most important thing for me is, however, not to be stressed and panicky (“what if it’s back??”), if I don’t have a BM for a day or even two.

5. supplements - I don’t think it changed much, but I’ve started taking supplements, mainly because of weightlifting (carnitine, creatine, fish oil, multivitamin, L-glutamine, magnesium). I used to take some them the past and I saw no changes so I don’t think it played any role. Similarly, I went to Russia last year and my friend who is Russian and also suffers from IBS, recommended me to buy Trimedat that her doctor prescribed to her. At that time I did not see any change so I stopped taking it but in the past month or two I started to take it again as I simply wanted to get rid of it and I didn’t want to throw it away since I invested money into it, haha. But again, I don't know if it helped.


Ups, sorry for such an essay. I don’t know if it’s of any help but hopefully it can give some insights.

Best of luck!

Hi I’ve had IBS D 24 years it’s given me travel anxiety so I dropped sugar eat healthy carbs I eat a lot veg at first it was awful but after 2-3 weeks my ibs was 90% better and I mean it was so bad I couldn’t even leave the house at times

I eat porridge
Chicken salad
Egg on 1 alive wholemeal bread
Fruit
0% Greek fat yoghurt
Also exercise is a great relief for ibs

Ibs is usually caused by stress and anxiety which will cause our stomachs to spasm and want to reject all the food ASAP or hold on to food causing constipation

Adrenalin will make this happen

Meditation
Exercise
Cutting unhealthy carbs and added sugar foods
Drinking water
Limit sweetness
All help

goldthistime wrote: »

Has anyone tried the IBS-D antibiotic treatment rifaximin? (Zaxine in Canada, I think Xifaxan in US).

https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5582649/

Thanks for this info @goldthistime .

With intestinal microbiota being in the news so often now I expect it was the changes in my intestinal microbiota that led Keto to help reverse my 40 years of serious IBS in just six months. That was over 4 years ago and still not the first day of IBS issues these past 4 years. My main changes were to add daily use of coconut oil and stopped eating foods that contains added sugars and or any form of any grains.

If you learn more about this IBS med please share.