# Potassium chloride



## 13677 (Dec 29, 2006)

We're grasping at straws. ALL of my tests are coming back totally normal.. I'm going in for the capsule camera next. But as I said we're grasping here, so bear with me. I went away for a long weekend (5 days) and guess what? My IBS symptoms went away. I came home..... MY daughter had the thought, because it all started back up again this morning right after I had coffee , is it our water. We have a water softener that uses potassium chloride because it drains into a planting bed. Could it really be the water??? Can potassium chloride actually CAUSE diarrhea??? Of course because I have so much D I do drink a LOT of water, none of the anti-spasmotic drugs are working. The probiotics aren't working. I'm living in fear of spending the rest of my life tied to the toilet and going mad.CC


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Were you less stressed on the long weekend?Potassium usually isn't a problem. If you had a lot of magnesium in the water I would be more likely to blame it, but a lot of people get much better on vacation than they are in their normal day to day life even if they drink the same bottled water in both places.Did you have coffee on vacation, or were your mornings as rushed as they usually are?


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## 13677 (Dec 29, 2006)

Well there goes that theory. But,no it was a pretty stressful. Had to go to a funeral, that was OK but had to deal with all the family drama etc.







Yes, drank lots of coffee. I would like to get my water tested but not sure where to go. Maybe it's the water softener itself, maybe it has bacteria in it? But my husband isn't sick. Like I said, we're starting to grasp at straws. Claudia


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## TanaG (Jul 11, 2009)

I don't want to be a nag but....if you have IBS drinking coffee is not the best idea. It makes even people without IBS have a BM. It's a well known irritating stimuli for the bowel! I myself feel better when I am at home than when I go on vacation. It is possible that changing places would cause a change in the bowel habits. For example, before I had this IBS problem I was always very constipated while on vacation or anywhere else but home. I just couldn't go out! If you think there's something in your water maybe a cheaper idea than paying for a water test would be to buy and drink water from the supermarket and see how you feel for a couple of weeks.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

One thing about IBS is often we are over-responding, mis-responding to our OWN internal signals.It doesn't have to be some outside force that if we could just find that thing and get rid of it all would be well.Caffeine adds to the "speed it up" signal that all humans have in the morning when the colon is at its most active. You speed it up/move it out a little too much and then add in some additional speed it up/move it out and all heck can break loose down there.The colon is normally most active around the time we get up and then again after meals. So a lot of IBSers have problems with those times. The other cycle is when food gets to the colon and starts producing gas, so a lot of the people with gas issues often find evening (when breakfast and/or lunch are just getting fermented by the first of the colon bacteria) to be a bad time and they mis-respond to normal increases in gas volumes.Knowing your own bodies over/mis reponses can help you control it even if you can't just stop eating one thing or two and have everything be OK.Small, frequent, lower fat meals cause a smaller after meal increase in activity than a large fatty meal you eat only when you are so starving you can't take it anymore. Lots of coffee in the morning when things are in overdrive anyway is never going to be a good thing, etc.


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