Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Help For Ibs

Question:
Does anyone have any ideas on help for severe IBS?  I was in the hospital here I had tests, including endoscopy, colonoscopy and upper GI series.  I really had no food for 5 days.  After returning home, I have had the worst IBS attack that I ever had.  They found nothing on the tests so it must be the IBS.  The pains I have had are as bad as labor pains and I have had severe diarrhea.  They have me on a very low fiber diet but I really have not been able to eat much and I am losing a lot of weight

Answer:
Any chance you're in a new home, or one in which there's new carpeting, or paint, or even furniture to which you may be allergic (or that could be emitting toxic or noxious fumes?) Does it generally get better when you're away from home, or just on this trip to the horse piddle? Does Imodium or the like help? Can you get a Rx for morphine or another opioid? Or colestyramine, which really constipates me (used to lower cholesterol and possibly help eliminate fibro virus from body according to a doctor whose website I forget...) I think there are even organisms in the home (tiny, like dust mites) that can cause IBS reactions in those so susceptible... as can sprays used by exterminators, cleaning products, and other household chemicals. And pets, or wildlife outside that exerts its influence inside your home via windows, doors, etc. After I had my bad bowel experience (both stopped working completely and I was on nothing by mouth for two and a half weeks) it took ages for it to work 'properly' again.  In fact, it never really did and I got really bad hemorrhoids.  Oddly enough, THAT was what cured my IBS in a roundabout way. Years later, I had to have surgery on the hemmies and fissures twice (once for the internals, then again to clean up the externals) and was on a soft food diet supplemented with ProDiem and a stool softener for around four months total.  They wanted me 'normalized' but soft enough to pass, if you get my meaning. Have you tried to figure out which foods you may be sensitive to?  Does anything come out undigested (i.e. -- full corn kernels, spinach leaves, etc.)  Are there specific foods or food groups you know make it worse than others?  If it's all breads or fibers, maybe you're gluten sensitive and need gluten free diet.  Check out the Crohn's/Colitis sites. I find IBS kind of rebounds.  It's like a vicious circle that just gets worse and worse, but if something can break the cycle, things can get back on track sometimes.  It's a combination of a very sensitive stomach and bowels and the stress reactions associated with fibromyalgia.  Once the sensitive stomach gets upset, it causes stress, which makes the brain excrete too much fight or flight hormone (screwed up cortisol mechanism from FM), which causes the bowels and stomach to react badly, which makes you not want to eat, which causes the stomach to be upset, which causes the brain to stress, which causes excess excretions, which causes a flare, which causes IBS, and so on and so on and so on. So, the trick is -- how can you break that cycle?  Do you eat plain yoghurt or take Acidophilus?  You could have Candida overgrowth in your stomach. Maybe you need more probiotics.  I think pretty much anyone would benefit from eating plain yoghurt.  Add a little lemon juice if you can't stand the taste, but you get used to it. The important thing is, it's stress that causes the abnormal reactions. Scientists have proven that our brains release more than their share of various chemicals when we stress out.  I know.  Easier said than done.  But it's true.  Reduce the stress in your life and your stomach and bowels will relax more too.  When I was a teenager, before they knew much about fibromyalgia, I was diagnosed with abdominal epilepsy.  They thought my stomach was spasming like an epileptic's brain does.  It was IBS and I was on anti-epilepsy medication for two years -- which did nothing to help the IBS, thinking I had a weird form of epilepsy when I was 13.