IBS

For a month, avoid all foods you tested positive for on your allergy tests.

I have been trying that. I feel better but still have spells. I bought the enteric-coated peppermint oil yesterday to try when I start having spasms.

Hi I am new to this community and just got tested for food sensitivities by a registered allergist who validated some of my food items that I knew I could not have. My issue is that I have food sensitivities to some fibre's too so that makes it difficult for me. Sigh!!!

Thinking to go to the florida clinic to get diagnosed properly

Has anyone been to the mayo clinic?

Hi Sandra, I just posted with Mayo today. Nice to meet you. I have been suffering with IBS symptoms for about 3 years, had my Gallbladder out, colonoscopy, endo, all kinds of blood tests. I've been ignoring this since last Jan. it would come and go, just enduring it. Lately it has gotten worse. So, I'm going back to the Gastro Specialist to see if he would like to run any more tests. Then I plan to go to a Dietician with knows much about IBS. There are a couple websites that have good info. : look up IBS foods to avoid on google and Heathers web-site will come up. She has great info. to apply immediately, also myibssloution.com is good for supp. and info. Pray, read some and take some action, continue to ask questions. Take Care of yourself put your health first, Julie Rowe

Find the right dietician. Keep a food and symptom journal for the dietician as well as for yourself. Then go back and see if there are any specific foods triggering your symptoms. Also a good probiotic, not generic acidophilous on a shelf at the grocery store. Go to a health food store and the good probiotics are in a special refrigerated section. And lastly, exercise. Start a regular exercise routine and that should help. Oh, and avoid foods with lots of preservatives ... stick with the basics and do as much of your own cooking as possible. Whole grains, lean meats, and lots of fruits and veggies. I also found that restricting my lactose intake helps too. So I switched to Lactaid milk and rather than doing flavored yogurts I do Fage (it has no sugar and is loaded with protein, I add honey to sweeten it up). Good luck!

Check out FODMAPs diet ... it was too strict for me personally to be on full time but it helped me "regulate"

Learn what you can about SIBO, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, and about The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). When I learned about these two topics and tried a very careful adherence to the SCD, in as short as two weeks I began to understand the relationship between the foods that went in to me and the symptoms that resulted from eating what used to be a 'normal' diet.

I had tried a gluten free (GF) diet for two years, and in the first half year to a year I found great relief, until I started experimenting with various GF grains and starches to make bread and cookies. Ultimately, with symptoms advancing, I decided to read the labels on my supplement bottles and found one ingredient that was not recommended for people with bowel disorders. That ingredient, croscarmellose sodium, was the key for my discovering the SCD and about SIBO.

I eliminated ALL starches, sugars and grains as outlined in the four internet pages of the SCD Legal/Illegal foods list, and focused on fruit, vegetables, good lean meats, eggs, Fage 0% yogurt, aged hard cheeses, oils, and lots of nuts. Within two weeks I noticed an abatement of symptoms, and now six months later, still adhering to the SCD when I can control the food that I eat (eating out is akin to navigating a mine field) I am responding well to the regimen.

I have found that eating only cooked vegetables is better for me at this point, and that I cannot drink wine, and alcohol without feeling a response in my intestines a couple of days later.

The symptoms have mostly disappeared, but I do know that the sensitivity or responses to foods is still a problem if I "try" or am given a trigger food.

I feel so well eating this way. As soon as I started it, my cravings for bread and cookies ceased. I also lost ten pounds, slowly while not feeling starved or deprived.

My experience with understanding about what SIBO is, and how the SCD works, and how it works for me makes me want that everyone should, at the least, learn about this approach to helping their bowel disorders. With it, you begin to participate in an approach to your own wellness, rather than just suppressing the symptoms with medicines.

If you are under the care of a physician, discuss this approach. Not all physicians will know about it, others will have heard about it. I went to an evening presentation to hear a Gastro Intestinal Doctor and a GI Surgeon, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. The doctor did mention the approach by foods management, saying that some people do find relief this way, but without substantial clinical tests backing up the method, they may not be able to recommend it, also citing that it can be difficult for people to adhere to.

My thoughts when I heard this, and still now, is that once I felt better by eliminating the trigger foods and have been eating a very healthful diet, there is tremendous motivation to continue with this approach towards eating!

There are other web sites that take the SCD approach with more or less stringency for various and specific outcomes. The reading is fascinating once you get into it.

Best wishes to you, and all with bowel disorders. It is no fun to suffer with it.

Is your life stressful? If so that is a huge contributor. I cut lactose out of my diet completely and that helped a lot. Also my gastro guy suggested taking Metamucil which sounds counterintuitive but man did it help. I take one teaspoon everyday with water. You might need to take twice a day, but do it very slowly. Build up your intake. Like a quarter tsp for a couple days, then 1/2 for at least a week then one tsp a day and then see if that helps. Go from there. Be careful not to get the flavored one it actually has apertame in it. Which is awful for your gut among other things.