Ibs

[redneck diaper boy]

I have been having colon-rectal problems again. The last time it was tumors on bowells.

It the colonoscopy is negative, the doctor is saying I may have irritable bowel syndrome. This was the thought until they found out that I was really sick years ago.

There is no blood now but the chronic case of the shits is getting to me. Is anyone else fighting this?

[dprtodd]

I have IBS, runs in the family (No Pun) on my Moms side. I have a very mild case and don't do anything special to control it aside from diet. I have had a couple of accidents in the last 5-6 years, my problem got worse when I turned 30 and the severity has gotten worse incrementally. But even worsening mine is still relatively mild compared to some, I have an Aunt who has severe symptoms and my mom has terrible flare ups sometimes keeping her home (We think there might be a combination of trigger foods - so it's nothing we have figured out yet).

I know my own trigger foods that can (not always) cause a incident; bell pepper (Sad cause I love em), ice berg lettuce, artificial cheeses (cheeze whiz, velveta, low/reduced fat cheese), Oily foods (unlike a lot of IBS sufferers I'm okay with most fried meat - ala chicken tenders, fish sticks, etc), sugar alcohol is particularly hard on me. - the thing I have found at least about trigger foods is that they are not guarunteed to cuase a problem. Pizza is a food that will often do it too me, the processed cheese, bell peppers, etc. I can eat Pizza from the same restaurant 4 different times and only have a problem once or twice, but if I am going to have problems I usually know before we have paid the check.

If your GI doc doesn't have you doing so, keep a food journal for a month or so and you might be able to figure out some of the things that affect you.

Stress is also a contributing factor, and worrying about having a problem can cause it - for instance I don't like to sit on the inside of a booth in case I need to go real quick, so when opportunities come up and I am sitting on the inside my worry will almost always bring an incident on.

[dmavn]

For me it is anything tomato based, the acid just gets to me, I even have problems with orange juice it times, literally burns the inside of my mouth and esophagus as it goes down.

[babytommy1981]

i have it also, along with full time wetting, and it sucks. at least if i cant get to a bath room intime for my bowls i already have a diaper on.

MY IBS is triggers by fats that my body has a hard time breaking down. find out what makes you go. and limit your self to it. dont abuse the anti crapping meds. they make things worse over time let it get out of your system. your body thinks something is a poison and wants to get rid of it.

[KittenAB]

These kind of "diagnosis" anger me, almost every time there is something else seriously wrong with you and the doctors are either being too lazy to pin point the real problem or too ignorant. They had me pegged as having IBS, in the mean time my gallbladder was dying and about to take my other organs with it, if not for a bright young doctor who just happened to have been paying attention and cared enough, it would have sent me to a painful death. Seriously, this is more of a symptom than an actual problem, if you look up information on it the most common phrase found is "no one knows exactly what causes it." That kind of phrase should send up red flags all over the place. BabyTommy, with you I would recommend they check on your gallbladder to, just in case, or pancreas. There may be other issues that have not been found and those two organs manage the breaking down of fat.

Another cause for this symptom is acid reflux, though the name of that is misleading. The stomach simply contains too much acid so it goes up the throat. This can theoretically cause your whole digestion system to be out of synch.

Above all things, always get a second and third opinion.

[sarah_ab]

i was diagnosed with IBS, i take a subtherapeutic level of an SSRi and have had no IBS symptoms for the past year and a half. I had teh kind that gave me the runs, so bad i couldn't make a five mile drive form home to work without having to stop twice to use the bathroom. Since taking this low level SSRI i have had no problems whatsoever.. apparently like 90% of your seratonin receptors are in your GI track and sometimes if you have the IBS that causes diarrhea, yuou just need a little bit of an SSRI to balance that seratonin back.

[KittenAB]

i was diagnosed with IBS, i take a subtherapeutic level of an SSRi and have had no IBS symptoms for the past year and a half. I had teh kind that gave me the runs, so bad i couldn't make a five mile drive form home to work without having to stop twice to use the bathroom. Since taking this low level SSRI i have had no problems whatsoever.. apparently like 90% of your seratonin receptors are in your GI track and sometimes if you have the IBS that causes diarrhea, yuou just need a little bit of an SSRI to balance that seratonin back.

So your IBS is a symptom of a serotonin imbalance. As I said before, IBS is the symptom of something else, it's too broad of a diagnosis to be the actual problem.

[sarah_ab]

they aren't sure on the relationship completely... i totally agree ibs is a bullshit diagnosis for when they can't come up with anything else... and if could be the seratonin imbalance is caused by something else.... thats the thing...

but either way, i really don't care what the diagnoses is... what i care is that a doctor was able to find a treatment that works for me and only involves taking one little pill a day.

[KittenAB]

they aren't sure on the relationship completely... i totally agree ibs is a bullshit diagnosis for when they can't come up with anything else... and if could be the seratonin imbalance is caused by something else.... thats the thing...

but either way, i really don't care what the diagnoses is... what i care is that a doctor was able to find a treatment that works for me and only involves taking one little pill a day.

That is the important thing, finding a treatment that works. Trial and error though is a dangerous method, and often it's what people do. Though you may want to have them look into what could be causing the seratonin problem eventually, you never know. My gallbladder problem actually manifested itself early as a high fat and cholesterol content in my blood, the doc didn't catch on and just thought it was diet or something else stupid like that. Funny thing, I normally eat very healthy anyway, and never gain weight. So if I had been a little more suspicious of the doctors at the time I probably would have found the real problem sooner. Hindsight and all, just be aware of what your body tells you, that's the key, if something changes have them run tests.

[diaperedcaniac]

I have crohns disese escuse the spelling my phone won't let me spell check........ But at any rate its kinda like ibs

[Daddy Fred]

Trigger foods -- reminded me about my migraine attacks. No doctor ever really knew what caused them, I don't think they have the time to spend on ordinary ailments like this and IBS and such. I had to find out what was causing migraines myself; it took me about 10 years as the attacks are extremely hard to pin down since there's a time delay between ingesting something and an attack, of anything from 24 to 48hours. There's also the "variable trigger level" problem to make diagnosis even harder, meaning of variable trigger level is that your likelihood of getting an attack varies (due to weight, blood pressure, cholesterol level etc.). So you don't always know if NOT getting an attack is due to personal trigger level AT THE TIME, or a food substance you think is 'safe'.

With this one, keeping weight and cholesterol level down = good. No alcohol = good. No veggie oil, esp. transfats = good. Nothing baked = good. Plenty fish oil = good.

Maybe some of this will help with irritable bowel syndrome??? Hope it does.

Daddy Fred.

[KittenAB]

Trigger foods -- reminded me about my migraine attacks. No doctor ever really knew what caused them, I don't think they have the time to spend on ordinary ailments like this and IBS and such. I had to find out what was causing migraines myself; it took me about 10 years as the attacks are extremely hard to pin down since there's a time delay between ingesting something and an attack, of anything from 24 to 48hours. There's also the "variable trigger level" problem to make diagnosis even harder, meaning of variable trigger level is that your likelihood of getting an attack varies (due to weight, blood pressure, cholesterol level etc.). So you don't always know if NOT getting an attack is due to personal trigger level AT THE TIME, or a food substance you think is 'safe'.

With this one, keeping weight and cholesterol level down = good. No alcohol = good. No veggie oil, esp. transfats = good. Nothing baked = good. Plenty fish oil = good.

Maybe some of this will help with irritable bowel syndrome??? Hope it does.

Daddy Fred.

The problem with this is that everyone's body is different, many people are healthier when they have more fat, some people's bodied need lots of oils and fat in their food because they don't store any, some need lots of carbs, some are allergic to fish anything. There is no cure all and no perfect diet or body, it's just not possible, one of the challenges of being a living organism. Also a change in diet doesn't mean the problem really goes away, especially if it's a symptom like IBS, so it's always better to find the real problem first because the problem can still progress even if you manage to get rid of such symptoms, thus the many people who die each year without any known cause.