I've had it confirmed in the last week, but had suspected for a few years that it was the case. From what I can tell it's mostly stress related & I can't pinpoint any certain foods that trigger an attack. My Dr has suggested daily Metamucil (which I have each morning in a Juice Shot) and reducing stress. I wondered what everyone else does to prevent their attacks?
Mine is def triggered by to much soft drink and fruit juice and junk foods. I have tablets that I take if I start to get an attack but I have found Mintec work very well too.
Its terribe when I have an attack - I can be on the toilet for hours and hours and in tears!!
I had it really bad in my early 20's - really bad - like needing to go to the toilet no less than 12 times a day.
I found that the thing that helped the most - the IBS Inner Health that you get. That helped keep it under control - and also since having babies mine has gotten heaps better. I think having the OB play with my bowel shocked it back to normal or something
My naturopath and I believe that I have a mild form of it. She has been giving me some digestion tonics to help out. I find if I minimise my wheat intake and overall carb intake thing radically improve. Foods often promoted for good bowel habits such as All bran and Sultana bran are just plain evil for me. I am much better off with oats based cereals, good old porridge works wonders and if I can't be bothered cooking it then I have Carman's fruit free muesli.
DH was diagnosed with IBS about 18 months ago. His trigger was pork fat - and being the carnivore he was it was a big blow. Giving up his pork ribs nearly killed him!
He now has a lot less stressful lifestyle (quit his job and now at uni), is taking fish oil and probiotics daily and is eating a high vege and fruit diet. We also have cut out a lot of dairy in our house and everyone is getting more exercise.
It was very much a trial and error at the beginning, and he kept trying to have pork, but everytime he got very sick. We also kept a food diary (kind of) and when he had an attack we looked at all the foods he ate in the last 36 hrs. That is how we were able to narrow it down to pork.
Try the food diary idea as we found that it normally took over 18 hrs for the food to affect him and by that stage we had often forgotten what he had eaten. A bad attack would have an effect within 30-40 mins, but that was usually if he had eaten the food twice in one day.
Good luck with finding the triggers. I just asked DH and he said changing diet was the best thing he could have done.
I have it too and its mainly stress/anxiety related, although i do have certain 'trigger' foods which i try to avoid. I always carry around with me tablets to take if i have an episode and need to. I make sure that i eat really healthy and also take inner health plus tablets from the chemist to keep by bowels in check. I have found that when i was pg i didnt have 1 episode nor have i since. Sometimes i still get the anxiety feeling but its definately not like anything before being pg. My Ob mentioned that alot of ladies find it gets better with pregnancy.
My triggers are coke, pepsi and the likes, tomatoes, grapes and other fruit/vegies with edible skin. SOme days I am fine, other days I am awful. I am yet to find out if it is certain foods together which trigger me off... oh, some days I can't tolerate milk either. My IBS usually lessens during pregnancy which is great.
stress is a HUGE trigger - i can feel perfectly fine and something happen now to distress me and within 20 minutes i'm in trouble. DH has made a habit of letting me know where he's at with work and stuff cos if i try calling and can't get him for more than half an hour (generally overnight when i know he should be driving) i'm in terrible pain and needing to go.
i also find any fatty foods trigger an attack - and in particular, macca's nuggets!
i've found a low GI diet has helped a lot - i guess it's the eating of the whole foods rather than the processed crap. if i eat white bread instead of multigrain, i'm in trouble.
i kept a food diet for a while and found things like KFC or anything cooked in oil would trigger it - until KFC came out with their breast fillet pieces - so now i can still have a treat now and again! i am able to almost completely control it now with diet, and being pg, i haven't had a lot of the issues some have with constipation cos when i get uncomfy, i do the norty thing and have something bad to get stuff moving!
ooh, the other thing that triggered REALLY bad episodes was the Pregnyl shots with the IUI/IVF! i got the most horrific attacks - i'm guessing that i may have had a weird reaction to the progesterone level changing cos i'd get a flare everytime AF arrived, and then when pg, i had nasties for about four or five weeks... weird....
Silly me forgot about stress. I remember back when I was working fulltime and if things got stressful I was on the toilet most of the morning. Whilst life has its stresses now, I find it to not be as bad when I was working.
Up an Go is also terrible for me as a food, if you can call it that.
i've had it since i was a little kid, it runs in my family, anything can trigger mine really, if i hven't eaten a lot of veges in a day, i am severely constipated. i have actually been in hospital with it 3 times, each time, i hadn't been to the loo in over 2 weeks. basically, i have to drink heaps of water and lots of veges, but i too haven't found it as bad since the kids. that said, i didn't go for 2 weeks after matilda was born, and got the worst case of piles when i finally went, thanks to a bourbon and ciggie!
I think i have it, i kept waking up at like 1-2am with the WORST cramps and (warning TMI) the runs i went to an after hours medical centre and they said it may be that. I've tried to narrow it down and i think its just too much junk or something but i havent had it for a little while now...fingers crossed it stays away. My chiro adjustments may be contributing to it staying away too, apparently that can help
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Irritable Bowel (IBS) Anyone?
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