# Chronic Diarrhea After meals



## Alexa77

Hi All.. Anyone who can shed some light, on intestinal digestive problems, would be greatly appreciated. About 10 years, i started w/ chronic flatulence, episodic bouts of diarrhea, sharp awful abdominal cramps right before the diahrrea, & constant belching...Thru the years I have sufferred thru it all, & saw my gneral Md, he said you have IBS, gave me some lil pill Hycosimine, I believe and said take this when an inflammation occurs...Well years later, it has gotten much worse, now after having maybe only 3 ounces of red meat, any dairy, any fatty meal, the food goes right thru me, & I'm in the bathroom for an hour, expereincing "Irritable bowel". It's horrible, I almost can not enjoy most foods anymore, & it's quite embarrassing &&& Exhausting. I Did some research & thought my symptoms were similiar to parasites & tested had my stool tested cam be back negative. I started taking Paragon, & have seen the "unfriendly" parastes in my stool. but low & behold I had a piece of 3 ounce steak & ran to the restroom 20 mins later, with explosive dirrhea & my stomach is now so bloated it's uncomfortable.Can anyone at all shed some light, or does this sound familiar to anyone out there....signed so frusterated with Digestion!!


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## overitnow

I have no opinion about parasites and what you saw; but the very act of eating can set this off for all of us. My bowels were more sensitive in the morning and at lunch, than at dinner time; but I would have several bms each morning and a couple after each lunch and occasional ones after dinner. This was a daily feature of my life for 10 years while I pointlessly fooled around with my diet. Meats, dairy, spices and acidics were killers for me. The time span also sound right.Mark


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## Kathleen M.

Diarrhea after meals is also extremely common in IBSers.After/during a meal the stomach sends signals that say "I ate" and that gets the intestines moving. In every human, not just IBSers.For IBSers that often makes the colon go into "flush" mode.Fatty foods tend to set off a bigger amount of activity after a meal than leaner meals.Some people find an antispasmodic (like you were prescribe) or a small dose of Immodium 20-30 minutes before a meal will damp this reaction down so they aren't running to the bathroom.Most of the time infections will cause diarrhea at any time rather than just when the colon is more active (mornings and after meals). IBS tends to cause diarrhea or pain when the colon is most active for a lot of people (not universal, but quite common). This is why IBS rarely causes symptoms at night because the colon is least active when we are asleep.K.


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## mysteri1229

You may want to look into cholestrymine or Colostipol. It is a bile salt binding agent and works good when the gut goes into "flush" mode, especially with meat and high fat meals. I take it 1x or 2x a day as well as Lotrenex and have found that it makes a great difference with the aspects of my IBS that are related to eating.ty


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## mdonbru

Your symptoms sound a lot like what I used to experience before I had my gallbladder checked and removed. Is your pain sort of high up and on the right side? If so, it could be a sign of a malfunctioning gallbladder. Once I had mine removed, the diarrhea didn't completely stop, but the pain did and the diarrhea did improve. Fatty meals can still set me off, though. Might be something to ask your doctor about. The test I had to determine that my gallbladder was not functioning properly is called a HIDA scan.


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## sunspot19

Your gut is definitely a complex organ (or organs depending who you talk with), and frankly without first going and getting proper medical treatment you can't be sure if this is IBS or some other disorder (such as a gall bladder problem, etc).I have found myself waxing and waning thru numerous symptoms (albeit all generally without pain), and have found relief from questran (cholestyramine) when it appears to be more related to overproduction of bile salts as well as from probiotics (with or without questran when the bile salt problem doesn't seem to be dominating).I would think going to your doctor (a proper GI who understands IBS and other illnesses that can mimic IBS and of course who is caring) plus experimenting with diet and perhaps even trying some of the remedies (natural) that others have attempted including probiotics, calcium, etc., may be helpful.At this moment after my doc claims to have found a parasite, I am taking a few months of easy road for my stomach at his suggestion, eating plain foods, having calcium in the morning with a multivitamin and having my probiotics along with Kefir. Not saying this will work for you and frankly I am better but still not 100% and with some breakdowns here and there (one of which had me running back to questran though I don't think it helped).Anyway, all of this is to say first go back to your doc (or get a new doc that is a proper GI) and work thru things with them first. As for diarrhea from parasites happening anytime versus just after meals, I am not sure I agree with this. Certain parasites that are irritating your bowels will cause you to have diarrhea post-prandial. Not saying from your description this is your case - again, only a proper doc with proper testing can evaluate this.When you did your stool sample, was it just one or did you do 3 or more? My internist just did one sample which always came back negative, but the doc I am seeing now made clear that such stool samples are not necessarily good enough and you should have at least 3 samples. In his case he doesn't even trust stool samples and thinks there are a lot of false negatives.I feel your pain and hope you do find a solution to calm things down. Not a fun situation and I was just in your boat this last summer where I had diarrhea immediately after every meal in the morning and afternoon (but not the evening meal).


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## julie b

If you have D after you eat, check out Habba Syndrome. That is the main characteristic. It is a gall bladder problem. See a GI, have the test done and if that's it, you can take a pill before you eat and your D will be gone. www.habbasyndrome.com Good luck. I hope you are having a good day.


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## sunspot19

Yes, exactly, Habba Syndrome (essentially malfunctioning GB) is one potential cause. But there could be SO MANY OTHERS. That is exactly why you need a GI to do a full analysis.I was having post-prandial diarrhea this summer and strongly suggested (my own self-diag) Habbas. I even started questran and it helped immensely. But quite frankly those symptoms are now gone and I only very infrequently have post-prandial diarrhea like i had in the summer.So is it Habbas? Perhaps, intermittently. But Habba suggests a symptom I think and there could still be other causes, including plain old straight IBS.If you haven't had all the tests done (colonoscopy, sonogram, Hidascan, upper GI, etc), then I don't know if you can rule in or out any particular cause yet. You need an experienced GI to walk thru all the steps (and pick one that has some compassion for what is certainly a horrible lifestyle issue - I know!!!!).My first GI did a colonoscopy/endoscopy, didn't find anything, and immediately without further investigation put me on amitriptyline which did nothing. I was really pissed because being an engineer/scientist I expected him to do a full analysis before triangulating the issue. But at least here in NYC it is hard to find (for me anyway) a doctor who really wants to take the time to evaluate. They have all joined the quick fix pill club - ridiculous.Personally I have done a lot better on my own testing out probiotics, diet, and changing lifestyle (more exercise, relaxation, listening to calming music and the hypo 100 program, etc).


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## LNAPE

Sounds like a bad gall bladder to me.Linda


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