# constant bowel activity



## Guest (Oct 24, 2001)

I have Heathers book and I have some questions. I wake up every morning with very loose stools and incredible bowel action. Noise, jumping, guriling very uncomfortable, sometimes lasts all day, I also have pain most of the time. Any sugestions on what would be best for settling this?


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## Heather Van Vorous (Oct 2, 2001)

Hi Clyde - Very loose stools should be helped by adding soluble fiber supplements and basing your diet on soluble fiber foods. Avoiding the general triggers (fats, coffee, alcohol, red meat, dairy, egg yolks) and being careful with insoluble fiber foods should help too. Since mornings are your rough times try taking the soluble fiber supplements right before bedtime. You can have another glass first thing in the morning, too. Start with a low dose and build up if you're not taking supplements at all right now.You might also try strong peppermint, chamomile, anise, or fennel tea with dinner and after dinner, and again in the morning (or just drink the tea all day long). These herbs soothe and relax the GI tract, which should help with the pain, diarrhea and the rumbling.- Heather------------------Authorized Expert for IBS Association - Ask the Specialist forumHeather Van Vorous is a cookbook and dietary writer specializing in healthy gourmet recipes for IBS. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year:IBS. She has had the disorder since childhood, teaches classes on eating for IBS, and works with corporate HR departments to offer employee IBS education programs. She currently has an IBS cooking show in development for broadcast on both the web and cable access television.[This message has been edited by Heather Van Vorous (edited 10-24-2001).]


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Clyde....The symptoms you experience are very common among several IBS subpopulations. There are a number of possible precursor events which can lead to a loss of oral tolerance to specific foods or additives in the diet which would take all day to explain, but the chemical basis can be oversimplified.Assuming you have been properly worked up by a board certified GI doc and all other possible reversible conditions which can account for this chronic diarrhea and pain have been ruled out, there is a large body of work topped-off by recent studies in Sweden where the small intestine is "isolated" and examined in various ways which shows that, for whatever reason, these symptoms are consistent with an abnormal response of the various types of immunocytes (mast cells, lymphocytes, granulocytes, platelets) which are the managers of the immunoprotective mechanisms of the small bowel.They are provoked, in a pattern that is different from person to person, by various specific foods or a food additives, to respond to those specific foods or additives as if they are pathogens. This results in the cells releasing chemicals in the wall of the small bowel and the circulatory system which are designed to make the inestinal tract and related systems inhospitable, and to gear-up to evacuate the intestinal tract thus removing the pathogens (which in this case are actually foods which the immune syetm should normally tag as "safe" after seeing them).In this case, all else being ruled out, you (like me and many others) have foods or additives or both in your diet which you are consuming regularly which makes the normal patterns of bowel function 'exagerrated', including motor and sensory functions, hence your continuous discomfort.At this time the most effective way to reverse this is to isolate the offending foods and chemicals, thus removing them from the diet, and avoiding these reactions in the first place.This I have set forth as I said without expounding on the various possible etiologies some of which are proven some of which are theoretical. The bottom line though is to keep the horses from getting out of the barn...keep the mediating chemicals inside the immunocytes where they belong until a real pathogen comes along.Keep in mind these reactions are very different than "food allergy" reactions as the mechansisms are different and elude detection by food ALLERGY testing. They need to approached either with different technology or with diffrent dietary analysis methods than are used for food allergy.This is because, simply stated, food allergies are not dose related and are rapid-onset so they are easy to isolate with standard dietary and symptom logging methods. This is a comorbidity ins ome IBS patients, not the basis for the seemingly irreversible parts of the symptom set.These other aberrant reactions in the small intestine seen in patients like yourself are very hard to isolate, and usually cannot be isolated accuratlely with the same intake tracking procedures used for food allergies. Only the most obvious are found, and often the wrong foods are blamed.This is because these reactions are delayed-onset (up to 72 hours) and they are dose dependent in several complex ways. Bottom line is that what you eat and when you perceive the reaction are out-of-phase by up to 3 days, and since dose makes a difference as well, other means must be used to isolate them.Another good book for you to add to your reading list, which will help you understand the differences between food sensitivity and food allergy, thus how to approach them, isolate them, and rid yourself of them was written by the leading immunologist/allergist in this field:ï¿½FOOD ALLERGIES AND FOOD INTOLERANCE: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THEIR IDENTIFICTION AND TREATMENTï¿½, Professor Jonathan Brostoff (M.D.. Allergy, Immunology and Environmental Medicine, Kingsï¿½ College, London) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089...6487508-3420903 For persons with your symptom set especially, this is a way of increasing your understanding, thus making the tools available to you easier to evaluate and decide how to use more effectively.Applying the principals set forth by practitioners who are expert in this area has allowed many people who had symptoms similar to (or in my case way worse than)yours to enjoy remission.If you have any questions about anything in Professor Brostoffs book if you get it, let me know and I will be glad to try to explain. However, he does a pretty good job of speaking in plain english in this one (it was written for patients not doctors...his other books on immunology are quite "dense").Eat well. Think well. Be well.MNL_______________ www.leapallergy.com


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## Guest (Oct 26, 2001)

Mike, Thanks for your reply. I just got my results from LEAP MRT testing. It shows that some of my most common foods I am very reactive to. How long will it take before I could see some results from eliminating these from my diet?My intestinal activity has been much worse lately.Thanks


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

HI CLYDESorry, I don't get out as much as I used to and missed your question...I will email you that I answered.The rapidity with which people respond varies with the severity of the reactivity, how ofetna nd long you have been exposed to the reactive substances, how long it takes to clear all the antigen form the gut so you stop absorbing it, how long it takes the mediators present to be metabolized (that is quick), AND most improtantly WHICH cellular reactions have been involved.Certain mediators released from certain immunocytes will have had effects on other body systems. They can cross the blood brain barrier and affect area of the brain. This can reslt in stimuli which affect nerves which provoke the person to become habitual in consuming the reactive food and become dependent upon the reactive food to create thr release of neural mediators that can become, "habit forming" (endorphins and serotonin come to mind).Shoud you be a person who experiences this as part of your raction profile you wil feel bad during the early elimionationphase, and you will physically crave some of the reactive foods. if you eat alittle this will mask the symptoms you experience and lead you to beleive you have recovered your tolerance for that food.You will the eat more thinking the dietician is crazy and that this food does not bother you anymore...until you notice soon that the cravings and withdrawal which were replaced with feeling good are tehn slowly replace with all your symptoms coming back...sometimes worse.Other people go through the whole process with littel trouble except psychosocial...and tey must adjust to not going to the Country Club for lunch each Wednesadya with their Bridge Club since they alwasy serve pasta and you cannot eat wheat or oregano anymore.If you can overcome that scenario then progeress continues.Anyway I cannot paint all pictures but you see how progress can vary not only on your body but on your will?In general, though, a rule of thumb is that 3/4 of the patients experience substantial (70% or more) reduction in symptoms within 30-45 days. It will be directly dependent upon your diligence and self-directed ability to religiously avoid the test-postive. be sure to read the LEAP Book which tells you some of the secret names that things masquaerade under, cross-reactivity, etc. and become a label reader. Allow more time to shop as you MUST read the labels and keep your pocket card handy at all times!!!(jeez that guy is Bossie, huh? And a bad typist too)







Eat well, Think well, Feel well, Be well.MNL


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