# Help Auz & NZ!



## 14248 (Oct 8, 2005)

Having recently being diagnosed with IBS-D am still trying to find helpful 'health food stuff' - was asking NZ & Australia as many products are similar in brand name/product - is it possible anyone can suggest anything that may help?


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## Screamer (Aug 16, 2005)

Hey are you from Aus or NZ? I don't know about brands from NZ but can help with some aussie one's. What are you after exactly? Foods, supplements, meds? I'll do what I can to help


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## 14248 (Oct 8, 2005)

I'm from NZ - any advice on supplements and/or food would be good. I was told by the specialtist that i wasn't 'bad enough' to be given meds and as i do hope to get pregnant one day he said it would be better not to get reliant on drugs yet anyway and they are no good when you are pregnant, i was just told to "eat lots of vegies" (a direct quote). Any help would be apprieciated.


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## Screamer (Aug 16, 2005)

Okay, a good place to start for diet is ... It is american but there is a list of aussie foods on the diet bulletin board there. It's helpful if your ibs is quite food related. Acidopholous is a good place to start. I take the Inner Health Plus IBS support. I can't take fibre supplements as they make my D worse but Benefibre and metamucil are the most common one's. Umm one that comes directly from NZ is Lifestream Biogenic Aloe Vera juice. You can take it twice a day (some of these are not suitable for a pregnant woman but until you are will be fine). Slippery Elm Powder is also good and you can just buy bags of it at the health food store for a lot cheaper than in the big containers. If you're after soy products Vitasoy so milky is great. It tastes very similar to regular milk, comes in low fat and normal and also long life and fresh. Woolies usually stock it over here. They also make Vitasoy Lush which really are lush and come in chocolate, caramel and tropical flavours. Umm there's heaps more stuff but kids are screaming in background and brain has fried







If I come up with anything else. Oh calcium. If you want to try calcium for your IBS you can find a sticky thread about it in the diarreah section here. Just stop taking it if you fall pregnant! Finally don't start all these at once. You need to leave at least a month on the acidopholous, 3 for aloe vera and about 3 for slippery elm too. If you start it all at once you won't know what is helping and what's not. Unfortunately IBS is a SSSLLLLOOOOWWW process







Good luck and if I can help with anything else let me know







(If I knew what sorts of foods you were after it might be a little easier to pinpoint certain brands that are good







)


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## 14248 (Oct 8, 2005)

Thanks for the info - i found Heathers site a couple of weeks ago and have started taking Metamucil however am reluctant to overdose from what the packet advises - is it safe to up the amount as she advises of this product? and i tend to develop gas when on this







Also i have found a product called 'Crystal Clear fibre' by Nutra-life, not as much gas produced and has no warnings about preg people only that too much creates a laxitive effect (I think it is in Auz). As for Aloe Vera have been taking this for near on a year (when symptoms started) and thought things were getting better then came off the pill and all hell broke loose!!







then went to specalist and was diagnosed and now it doesn't really do much. Was told by dr that Aloe is ok if i want to take it when preg. As for foods red meat/eggs/milk - have reduced these majorly and have been slightly better however it is trying to figure out the 'safe' veges and fruit that has me baffled - any suggestions besides potatoes and bananas?


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## Screamer (Aug 16, 2005)

Umm Heather has a list of soluble fibre fruits. From what I can remember applesauce is the best one to try (you can either buy the baby's one's or I think Goulbourn Valley make apple puree or you can just get the big jars of it. Or if you are energetic you can make your own.Basically most fruits are fine if you blend them up and peel them. Her top one's were applesauce, mangoes and papaya's (or pawpaws, sorry it's been about a year since I was on the diet). Veges are the same. You can eat most veges, just make sure you have potatoes or pasta before hand and always boil the daylights out of the veg (to be honest the diet didn't do a whole lot for me, I got much worse on it so kinda tried to forget about it.) You might be better off asking on those boards about diet stuff, there's one lady called Kinoz who's from Australia and another one called thepurple lolly who is from NZ and she's on the diet as far as I know. There's lot's of lovely people over there though, I do miss them







Umm if you are a D I'd avoid any fibre supp that says it may cause diarreah. Metamucil is a bit of a harsh one. Have you tried the benefibre? Hope this helps some more. If the Metamucil doesn't agree already I'd be a bit wary of taking any more of it.


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## 14248 (Oct 8, 2005)

Thanks for the advice - i'm not on the diet as such but trying to sort out what i can and cannot eat all the time not just for a short period.


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