I had mild constipation all my life, combined with wild diarhhea for a day every few weeks. When I was young the doc told my folks I had 'an emotional tummy'. I suppose that was 1960 for IBS-M. No real problems till a year ago. I had a terribly stressful year on top of many oral surgeries including bone and gum grafts which had me on steroids 3 different times. I also lost 50 lbs in the past couple years (on purpose). I got suddenly ill Christmas Eve with terrible bloating and constipation which somehow turned around and became months of vicious diarhea, lack of appetite, and abdominal pain. Without going through a laundry list of efforts to fix this, they put me on welchol and within days all my symptoms resolved. The welchol constipates me so I have to take miralax nightly but thats a simple fix. During the testing for my symptoms I had endoscopy and colonoscopy (my 3rd in 10 years. All my other colonoscopies were normal but this one diagnosed collaginous collitis and a tortuous colon- to the degree they said they had to use external pressure to advance the scope and advised against future colonoscopies. Weird that I would develope that but I suspect weight loss may have something to do with it. I guess I have reached a balance but it is tenuous, my gut can tip either way if I slip up. Good luck to all sufferers, my GE said collagenous collitis is not likely to get much research because it is more a problem for older women and gets ignored.