Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Normal Bowel Movement

Question:
I was just diagnosed with IBS and find myself going several times (8-10) per day and alternate between constipation and diarrhea. is this normal or is it different for each person. I can not get any information from my dr. and I don't even know where to go to start looking. I don't know if i should be seeing a gastro specialist, with that comes the problem that I have no medical insurance and can't afford prescriptions. When I asked my family gp about antispasmodics, she told me that I don't need them, that there is nothing wrong physically, that it is just stress and basically I should just live with it. Please help! what kind of Medication could or should i be taking. I am clueless and am getting no help from my gp.

Answer:
My gastro doc said up to five times daily was acceptable, but in the same breath he talked about the people overseas who have a very low meat diet; guess they would be heavy veggie, grain, fruit (and fiber) consumers.  I had the impression he expected everyone to eat like that. A doctor should not say a person has IBS unless rule-out tests have been performed for things like colon problems, celiac disease, parasites, malabsorption, etc., etc., etc.  Even common disorders like diabetes have to be considered.  Yup, all these tests cost lots of bucks. You will have to persist with your complaints.  It took me years of persistent complaining about this problem to get my doctors to investigate it deeply, and I am so glad they did.  They found one cause that was contributing to my chronic diarrhea, but apparently I still have IBS on top of that. The closest over-the-counter medication you can get to a prescription antispasmotic would be Imodium, which my primary physician said was very safe and could be used for the long term.  Calcium seems to help me control diarrhea (I use calcium citrate because I need it also for osteoporosis in my spine). Actually, for me digestive enzymes seem to be the best solution (prescription, cost lots of bucks) followed by calcium for control of diarrhea for me. Imodium used to help me but it kind of pooped out over the years.  I've got to mention something about the calcium; I have to take it because my diet has been chronically low, and I only take enough of the supplement (when I remember) to get my daily requirement to a normal level. Foods that seem to be helpful to me include plain old white rice, and oatmeal (hot cereal).  Any kind of fat is bad for me because I don't produce enough of the lipase enzyme to digest that stuff.  I recently tried pearl rice, the long cooking variety, and it doesn't seem to work nearly as well as the quick-cooking Minute Rice or its equivalent store or generic brand. For the normal average person the # of BM's ranges from 3 a day to 3 a week. People with IBS commonly fall outside this range.  More than 3 a day or less than 3 a week. Refuses to listen to my symptoms just tells me it is stress. I guess what I am wondering is I have had all the tests and they have ruled everything else out. Is 8-10 bm's a day indicative of a more serious problem then IBS i.e. IBD or Crohn's? or is this fairly normal for IBS. Last series of tests was in August. Any feedback, advice, etc would be greatly appreciated and thanks for all the great advice I have gotten here, it gives me a good place to start learning about this damn disorder. There is no specific # of BM's that indicates IBD. The symptoms like # of episodes of diarrhea a day significantly overlap.  So things like amount of diarrhea or amount of pain for some IBSers is more than for some IBDers. Things that indicate it is IBD vs IBS. Bloody stools Inexplicable weight loss (this is eat plenty and still lose weight consistently, not the do not eat and lose weight that some IBSers do to try to control symptoms) Anemia Elevated Sedimentation Rate (a fairly sensitive blood test for inflammation somewhere in the body) Other autoimmune diseases or symptoms that could be autoimmune problems, often skin or joint problems. Concerned because i read somewhere that someone with IBS should have no more than 5 stools per day and since I have significantly more than that, was worried that there is more going on than IBS. Sorry for my lack of knowledge but I am new at this. I used to transcribe pediatric gastro where some of the kids had what was thought to be chronic diarrhea (and also a lot of involuntary leakage) but on physical examination these kids were found to be severely constipated (discovered usually by externally palpating the bowel).  When any of the patients had more serious gastro problems, like active Crohn's, they just didn't talk very much about the number of movements per day.  With things like Crohn's, there was a lot of pain and general unwellness (failure to thrive I guess you would say). My own situation consists of a combination of IBS plus malabsorption so I was going many, many times a day (diarrhea only).  I don't know what it is like to have only IBS without the pancreatic insufficiency. The only other impression I have gotten from a doctor, and this had to do with the small polyps they removed from me, is that even something like that could trigger the colon to try to dump itself to get rid of whatever is foreign in there. One thing I forgot to ask you is whether this stuff wakes you from sleep (either pain or need to use the bathroom). that I have to get up and try to go, scares the hell out of my boyfriend because I usually wake up either crying or my boyfriend will wake me up because I am really restless when that happens and it wakes him up. Usually the nights that I sleep through the night, I have had a rough day and am just plain exhausted and taken a pain med before I go to med or have been in the bathroom just before going to bed. There is really no certain pattern to this. 2 weeks ago I was wakened every night with pain. Usually when the pain happens during the night my boyfriend tells me that I act like I am fighting someone off and that is what wakes him up. I don't know what to think of this. Based on this information that you've added, I would feel more comfortable if you sought out another opinion from a different gastro doctor.  First, when sleep is frequently disrupted by discomfort, that cause needs to be checked out.  Lastly, you seem to be having too much pain at the time of the day, nighttime, when normally things slow/calm down.  A lot of health problems get significantly worse at night (how many of us have been up during the night with sick children). For the next doctor, make a list of every symptom, even the ones that seem insignificant.  You definitely need to mention your interrupted sleep.  I think you should also start taking your temperature and recording those findings. Take your temperature upon waking, at several points during the day, and before retiring for the night.  Normally, your temperature will be below 98.6 upon waking and gradually increase during the day.  A normal temperature is not necessarily 98.6 as some people run a bit higher or a bit lower, but if it consistently runs above 99 degrees (for example, every evening it runs 99 degrees), that could be a sign of inflammation.  The temperature records will have to be taken for a long period of time to get a good picture. I can't recall, but did they do any imaging of your abdomen (CT or CAT scan or MRI for example)? An article in the local paper reported eating two Archway Coconut Macaroon cookies a day helped control chronic diarrhea. The coconut seems to be the key. Biochemist Mary G. Enig suggested that lauric acid found in coconut might be partially responsible. Lauric acid has antibacterial activity which in some way may counteract the inflammation behind the condition. Only tried it for four days and so far so good. B.C. Be careful with that...I'm deathly allergic to coconut and palm products, sends my IBS on a spin!