Gailoh here..check in..Irritable Bowel Syndrome help

Thanks for the update gailoh.

I'm sorry you've been poorly but pleased you have a diagnosis and the condition is manageable.


Sending you

Check out Whole 30. For 30 days, you eliminate ALL dairy, soy, wheat, pastas, any and all processed food and anything with added sugar (ketchup, barbecue sauce). You are not limited on amounts of meat, seafood, vegetables or fruit. After thirty days, they tell you how to reintroduce foods slowly. I had amazing results as do most other people. I had constant diahrreah which I attributed to my diabetes meds and after two months of back to back whole 30's, I no longer have it at all. For the seven months since then, I stick to a a mostly paleo diet and have not had any D since. I also lost weight! It may not completely correct your issue, but it wouldn't hurt to try.

Start reading labels; you will need to eliminate anything with whey, casinate, etc, which are milk products also. Dairy creamers, cool whip, etc., which we think of as non-dairy may have these items.

Also check out the FODMAP food diet. It lists other foods with sugars that are hard to digest.

I can not eat corn, peas or beets in addition. I can eat hard cheeses (small amounts) and greek yogurt that I make myself, using lactaid milk and a yogurt maker.

I am glad you got a diagnosis, so you can start on getting healthy again. It will be a long road. About every 5 years, I have massive issues, and get really really ill, and then its over. The last bout was three years ago, and I was ill for about 5 months. After some needed tests, they decided it was a flare, brought on by the stress of caring for my father, who soon passed away after the flare.

Best of luck, feel free to pm me.

Glad you are on the road to recovery.

My DH (and by association, me) was put on a low FODMAP diet. Basically it's an elimination diet to find out what the trigger is. When he originally went to the doctor, DH said he thought he was going to die. He actually made the appointment with out even telling me, so I knew it was something serious. His GP sent him to the gastro doc and that doc put him on the diet and scheduled him for a colonoscopy. I purchased this book Low FODMAP Diet. It's was very informative.

We started the diet on Jan 1st (he was put on it on dec31st). So after the 6 week elimination, you add back one food group for a few days each week, then back on the diet for a week, then try another food group. So far, in the adding back stage, nothing has triggered him. Looking back to when this all started three things stick out to me that were different from his normal food routine and I'm inclined to think it was one of those.

If you do go the Low FODMAP route, it seems daunting at first and gluten free stuff is really expensive, but it is do-able. We bought the King Arthur GF baking mix for things like oven "fried" chicken, snickerdoodles, blueberry muffins. Tag me or PM me if you want my created recipe for making pasta sauce or salad dressing.

P.S. When you start reading food labels, you'll be surprised at how many items contain high fructose corn syrup.

sorry this got long.

I hope they have arranged good follow up care for you.

IBS is really just a catch all diagnosis. For it to come on so strong from no where makes me think there's something else going on. I've had IBS for most of my life. I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance as an infant. The fructose malabsorption was only diagnosed about 2 years ago and that diagnosis was only made by history, but by the actual breath test. Looking back, there were foods that I always knew that I reacted to as if they had lactose in them- onions were a huge culprit and something I've always avoided. I do not follow a true FODMAP diet, but when I do, my symptoms are under total control. I know what affects me the worst and those are the foods that I avoid. I also know little things to make some foods more tolerable such as adding dextrose to foods with high fructose content (dextrose is a sugar that is in Smarties... the US version.. I always have some in my purse).

As far as milks, I guess because I grew up with this, I don't use milk very much at all. I do prefer almond milk to soy and lactose free cow's milk is now widely available. I usually prefer almond milk to cow's milk. It's amazing how easy it is to find these things today!

No advice, but I'm sorry to hear about your health issues.

No advice, but I'm glad you're back! 

Thanks for this tip.  I'll research it and ask his doc to see if it will work for DH if we find his trigger is HFCS.   Right now when we eat out he brings his own salad dressing and/or ketchup and always feels self conscious about. 

I would avoid HFCS anyway. I use it for things like fruits and veggies that have an excessive amount of fructose compared to other glucose. So apples, pears, watermelon, etc.

Haha, funny you mention apples.  Of course apples are one of the foods that he is supposed to avoid on the elimnation /low FODMAP diet.  When DH started with his gut pains it was the end of  apple season and we had been getting a huge bag of apples from a neighboring orchard stand, weekly.  For 3+ months!  DH was eating a LOT of apples.  Since the beginning of this journey I've repeatedly said "I bet it was the apples".   

An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but two or three a day does not!

Regarding HFCS, I've been wanting to reduce our intake, but DH was never on board because it's in a lot of prepared foods.  Prepared foods that are convenient and that he likes.  I think this will scare him reducing/eliminating it. 

Thanks again.

I have lived with IBS-D for 30 years.  My triggers are fats/fried food, gravy (even defatted), some wines, rum, raw cruciferous veggies, and sauerkraut.  I have never had trouble with dairy products, but my DD who also has IBS is lactose intolerant. The BEST thing I ever did was start taking a good probiotic daily combined with saccharomyces boulardii  (I use Jarrow brand from Amazon) which is highly recommended for IBS sufferers.  I won't go a day without my SB!  I also try to live a lower stress lifestyle.  I changed jobs which helped a lot. This combination has kept my flairs to a minimum for the last 10 years. I do not have to take any form of anti spasmodic or pain meds.  Finding your triggers is the first step, good luck.
 
Make sure you do not have hypothyroidism before drinking lots of soy milk, as soy is to be avoided if you do (as per my endocrinologist).

 

I can't tolerate dairy of any kind. I prefer soy milk. I use it to cook and DH can't tell the difference. I buy the vacuum packed quarts at Costco. There are 12 in a box.

I also find great sheep's milk and goat's milk cheese at Trader Joe's. They have a sliced version of sheep's milk that makes an awesome grilled cheese.

I only drank the almond milk for about a week. I've always used Lactaid 2%, but just switched to the skim- doesn't bother me at all.