# I suffered with terrible cramping and diarrhea



## Debbie A. (Jun 13, 1999)

For six years, I suffered with terrible cramping and diarrhea. Since I am ateacher, every day was stressful. The frequent trips to the bathroominterfered with my work and caused me a great deal of stress andembarrassment. I tried every medication available, and my doctor and Ifinally found a combination of four prescription meds that kept my "baddays" to a couple per week. It was about two years ago, while I was on thiscombination of meds, that I discovered and joined the IBS Self-Help BB underthe name of Debbie A. The IBS BB and The Meeting Place BB provided me withmuch-needed support and understanding and made living with my IBS easier.On the BB I also learned about the importance of probiotics, which I stilltake today.In the fall of 1999, I was experiencing constant severe fatigue, and my IBSseemed out of control. The fatigue and some other symptoms led my doctorsto believe that I could have MS. I went through testing and the resultswere negative, leaving my doctors baffled about the source of the fatigue.A couple of months later, in an attempt to lose weight, I happened to go ona fad diet that consisted of only meats, vegetables, and fruits for twoweeks. After three days on the diet, my IBS symptoms disappeared. A coupleof days later, I stopped taking all of my meds. At the end of the two-weekdiet, I was thrilled that the fatigue and the IBS were gone. I didn't wantto go back to my former diet, which was heavy on the sweets andcarbohydrates. For another month, I did not eat sugar, wheat, or corn.Gradually, I reintroduced wheat and corn to my diet with no ill effects.After being diarrhea-free for six weeks, I decided to try a candy bar. Iwas sick for two days. After experimenting a few more times, I found thatsugar was my trigger.For the past year, I have had only a handful of IBS incidents, all relatedto sugar consumption. I have drastically cut my sugar intake. Ioccasionally have a soda or a cookie, but if I have more than one smallserving of sweets per day, I suffer the consequences.It was not easy to cut sugar from my diet. I truly believe I was addictedto sugar as strongly as a person can be addicted to a drug. The withdrawalfrom sugar was very unpleasant, but once I had purged the sugar from mybody, I felt SO much better. The bone-weariness that I felt for months onend disappeared, as did the constant cramping and diarrhea. I no longertake any IBS medications. The only thing I take is a daily probioticcapsule and a multivitamin.I truly hope that my story will inspire at least one person to tryeliminating sugar from their diet. It made a world of difference for me.Debbie A.


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