# Daily Changes....



## mrsblount (Apr 20, 2014)

HI! So, I'm new here. Just found this forum and thought I would see if anyone had any good ideas before going back to my doc for more prescription changes. Here is my story:

I started with IBS-D 7 years ago. Initially, I lost a lot of weight without cause and the docs didn't figure out it was IBS-D until 3 years ago. (That's a long story short







.) At that point they started me on Bentyl. It worked great for me. Just not forever. In 2012, I had my 3rd child early because I was sick with asymptomatic HELLP for a month before being diagnosed. After that, it was like my whole body went nuts!! My IBS especially went crazy and I started gaining weight extremely fast. It has taken since then to get a doctor to understand but my GI has at least an idea. My morning usually starts with the cramps and diarrhea, which I'm used to. But, then there is nothing. Throughout the day, I have the feeling and bloating that I need to relieve but absolutely CAN NOT







. This causes extreme back pains and headaches among other things. After a stomach emptying test, my GI found that my stomach doesn't empty correctly. Basically, it is extremely slow and then just dumps and just gets slower. His explanation to my problems is that the Bentyl is slowing things at night to the point of my system (essentially) not working at all...... His remedy: stay on the Bentyl in the morning and eat protein but in the evening I need to lessen the Bentyl and eat only carbs/fats/veggies (foods that digest easily and quickly). I know how crazy that sounds.....

Well, implementing this Bentyl/diet changes has increased the pain I am in during the evening. I still suffer from D in the morning but only pain, bloating and constant feeling of having to go, in the evening, without relief. Has anyone else gone through this? Does anyone know of any tricks or remedies I can use to solve the nightly issues? Is there a good med remedy to help with this?

GI thinks that the HELLP (liver issues) messed up my IBS-D to the point of making it switch to IBS-C, I'm just in between right now.... I'm soooo confused and just want to NOT be in pain in the evening!!! Sorry this is soooo long, just wanted to make sure I got everything in....

I am open to any and ALL suggestions!! Thank you ahead of time!!


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## Nojokeibs (Apr 14, 2014)

mrsblount said:


> HI! So, I'm new here. Just found this forum and thought I would see if anyone had any good ideas before going back to my doc for more prescription changes. Here is my story:
> 
> I started with IBS-D 7 years ago. Initially, I lost a lot of weight without cause and the docs didn't figure out it was IBS-D until 3 years ago. (That's a long story short
> 
> ...


Hi and Welcome! 

My first thoughts are that having children puts a strain on anyone, but in particular it puts an oxidative stress / omega-3 type of strain on a person. I was severely malnourished as a child, and had some physical abdominal issues, so my ox-stress/omega-3 issues caught up even before I had a chance to have any kids. My PCOS, headaches, back pain and gut issues made me infertile before I had a chance to have any kids. If I can blame someone, well I won't go there, but it wasn't my family's fault. Let's just say I'm a grateful immigrant to the USA because I actually have nutritious food to eat now. My body though, didn't make it to semi-health until I figured out what to do about healing it. The trouble with being here, if there is a trouble, is that I have the freedom to choose food that hurts me. I started out behind the 8-ball and lost my chance to have kids. You succeeded in having kids and that's great, and something to be thankful for.

Now for healing your body. Obviously something's really upsetting your system, maybe a food allergy or just food that your body's bacteria are breaking down in such a way that it's irritating you. On the subject of foods, almost all foods that upset the systems of IBS sufferers are in the category of carbohydrates. On the Monash University website (australia), you will find a lot of info about the FODMAP diet, but there is also a book on Amazon you can buy and a booklet you can buy directly from the University (it translated to about $8 USD for me). That will help you identify problem carbohydrates and often will tell you how small of a portion you can have of carbohydrates before they become a problem. In effect, your doctors may have just told you, if they also support the FODMAP plan, to use a Ketogenic Diet, or an Atkins type of plan (note, Atkins isn't a high protein diet, it's a high fat diet).

If you have headaches as well as many of these other problems, you might want to look into the Modified Atkins Diet in use at John's Hopkins Medical Center (currently investigated for Migraines, already in use for Epilepsy). The doctor's name is Kossof who is making this speech (in case the link doesn't work):






The Atkins diet was the first diet that stopped my symptoms in their tracks and quieted my body down totally. It was a miracle after feeling like I was riding a rollercoaster all my life. I have since added more carbs back, carefully, after understanding the FODMAPs, but I still go back to ketosis whenever I need to. Other good speakers about the modern Atkins diet (ignore the books, they're lost their way... find an old book in a library sale if you want to read Dr. Atkins' original thoughts)... other authors or speakers: Jeff Volek, Stephen Phinney, Dr. Westman. I also read the SCD diet book with great interest, "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" which you might find very useful since you have some Diarrhea type issues and that book focuses more on that kind of problem. It also talks a lot about carbohydrates and why they cause issues. It's written by an immunologist, but not a PhD. She does have hands-on experience with the diseases though and her explanations are very good.

There's one more person I should mention... the liver issues thing you said... There's a doctor who traveled a lot, India and other places, she eventually went to Australia I think. She championed LSA (linseed, sunflower seed, almond) as a health mixture. (Linseed is flax seed) It's Dr. Sandra Cabot and this is her website:

www (dot) liverdoctor.com/about-dr-sandra-cabot/

I have her book, so I didn't notice she had a website until just now. At first I thought her book was, well, unverifiable. But as I read more and learned more, I have to admit, I've verified a bunch of things in it. Not all of it, but I love unusual health theories from well traveled people and when it comes to the liver, doctors are like... oh well, wait till it fails then transplant it. Personally, I'd rather not use such blunt instruments. Anyway she makes a gestalt out of a lot of seemingly disconnected ideas and I wish she'd be better known.

Other good things for the liver are just absorptives like small amounts of psyllium that helps absorb bile acids and remove them, but it will also absorb fat soluble vitamins, so go easy. I know it's an old saw, but exercise is always good, and there's no need to run around jumping about if you're in pain. Bodyweight exercise works just as well, maybe better, as does stretching (especially stretching my legs when I have a headache). When pain is less, you can consider walking, running, biking, but swimming is always good if you can find a pool.

If there's one thing I'd suggest you take as a supplement, it would be Omega-3, preferably as a purified fish oil. As you're dealing with headaches too, I'd go for one of the xtra DHA's. Purified ensures that you're not getting mercury along with the fish oil. But I like whole foods, so I take a little cod liver oil with my DHA-balanced purified fish oil. To ensure that it doesn't denature in my body, I take 1000 IU Vitamin E and 2000 mg Vitamin C and a multivitamin when I take it. I also take Alpha-Lipoic Acid in a time release formula and Acetyl-L Carnitine (this is a formula called Juvenon, but I rarely pay for the name brand). The Juvenon formula reduces oxidative stress and gives me a lot of energy. Any biochemist would find that illogical until they researched it. Dr. Bruce Ames turned me on to that supplement, he's fun to watch on youtube also, but nothing to do with Atkins or diet, just nutrition.

Finally, there are 3 kinds of doctors...

1. Allopathic - Great if you're sick, they offer drugs and surgical treatments and most important, diagnosis of exactly which disease you have, I don't believe that they are always useless, though some of them seem to be walking in a fog. They can really save you if they are good and are really trying to help.

2. Naturopathic - These decided that it was silly to offer people valium but not tell them that vlerian would do the same, maybe better... prozac, but not st. john's wort, antivirals but not silymarin, etc... They filled in what was missing when herbals and alternative therapies were abandoned by allopaths. They can offer some awesome services such as show you, live, whether your platelets and red blood cells are "sticky," whether you're low in a specific nutritional factor (like magnesium? iron? zinc? selenium? Vitamin A?)... because they tend to check them ALL not just one at a time.

3. Functional - These look at your illness in terms of biochemistry. If you want to see a Functional Medicine Doctor in action, look for Terry Wahls MD on youtube. She suffers from MS and attacked her problem from a functional perspective. She looked at all the enzymes she needs to make myelin and asked herself, "What do I need to do to encourage my body to make this?" That's the key idea of functional medicine. These are MD's that are focused on your total whole body and what it needs to work right, or as right as possible.

All 3 types are MD's, sometimes Naturopaths are not MD's, just ND's but most of them are both. Only Allopaths are likely to be covered by insurance, but you can ask your insurance company for the names of Functional or ND doctors in your area that participate with them. In the long run, insurance companies will save money by covering the other types of doctors, but they haven't figured that out yet. In the meantime, you can use them as much as your budget allows and let your insurance co know that you want to use them to make yourself healthy so they don't have to cover heavier expenses than just office visits. If you're not sick because you've prevented it, then that's the point.


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