# 8 years of IBS-D and i've found what works for me so hoping it helps someone else



## unklebuk (Sep 17, 2015)

i've been on this forum on and off for years when the IBS got bad but never joined just looked for anything that might help. i'll give a little background, which i know most peole will relate with.

at around 29 i used to love travelling, going out etc then the big D hit after coming back from Italy one year. i ignored it as before this i had a cast iron stomach and just thought it would go away but needless to say it didn't. i have BUPA health insurance so eventually went and got the colonoscopy to rule out anything more serious and then was given anti-depressents which just seemed wrong to me but i tried them and hated them. went back to the specialist a few times but he was worse than useless and pretty much knew nothing about IBS, this may be different now as there seems to be more awareness of it but 8 uears ago it was pointless other than rulling out cancer etc.

so i lived with it for a while then it started getting worse, the urgency was a big problem for me, one minute you feel ok the next minute it's all hands abandon ship. this pretty much destroyed my social life and i started getting very anxious if i would get stuck in a traffic jam or had to go anywhere that i didn't know where the toilets were, had the occasional panic attack during these years as well, not nice.

So i started on the internet and i must have tried everything i could find on this forum and others, my kitchen cupboards looked like holland and barrat and i wasted a fortune. the odd thing would work for a while like calcium, i thought that was my cure for about 2 weeks but then it came back.

i then convinced myself that it must be bacteria related, that i picked up a bug in Italy and just never got it seen to in time and now my stomach was out of wack. so i went to the doctor who at this point i'm pretty much on first name terms with and asked for a strong course of metronizadole. he humoured me and gave me a course and i felt ok.......for about 6 weeks then it came back . however it meant i was onto something so i then looked at ways to balance my stomach through my diet and the first one i tried was the fodmap diet. this seemed to work ok but not perfect as i still had flare ups and that nervous feeling in my stomach that i could go at any moment however at least i was on the right track.

i won't bore you any longer as the next few years was me experimenting with food to varying degrees of success until i found what worked for me.

i was working out with a personal trainer (as exercise is a big help) when i was talking to him about everything i was doing and all the research i had done into foods and bacteria and he asked me if i had ever actually truly stuck to anything for 90 days and my reply was probably not that long no. he said that if you have had a stomach problem for this long then you probably need to give whatever works best for you time to do its job.

At that point the paleo diet had given me the most release from my symptoms but it was such a restrictive diet that i could never go more than a month or so on it before i would start cheating. i resolved to give my stomach 90 days on the paleo diet and the trainer had said to throw in a 24 hour fast once a week to let the stomach have a complete rest and only to drink lots of water during these 24 hours. so basically once a week i would have my dinner at 18:30 and then not eat again until 18:30 the next day, i chose to do it on a Friday night through to Saturday night as i have two kids and we are busy on a saturday afternoon so it helped me take my mind of the hunger.

after the 90 days i felt brilliant, solid bowel movements every time, urgency was a lot better and i had much more energy. during this 90 days i stuck to a paleo diet but minimised the fruit to almost nothing because of the sugars and limited the nuts as well because of the high calories and the fact some just didn't sit well with me like peanuts and cashews. and i drank tons of water, at least 3 litres of water a day minimum.

i then started re-introducing foods again to see if i could have a normal life and it was all rosy for a couple of months and it started back slipping, i love food so i probably did go a bit mental however it let me see which foods caused the most upset, before my stomach was always bad to varying degrees so it was hard to tell which food caused it as sometimes i would feel ok eating a certain food and others not and it was incredibly frustrating but i now know that this was because the bacteria in my stomach was all over the place. now with my stomach relatively healthy i could see straight away which foods caused the most upset.

so back to the doctor i went for some more metronizadole, this was probably my 4th time asking for it over the years but i assured him that this time i was going to be a good boy and hopefully not need it again, i didn't really need it at this point to be honest but i knew if i cleaned out my stomach and started following what i knew worked for me that i had the best chance of creating a healthy gut microbiota. So after taking the course i ate paleo for 30 days and took prescript assist once a day plus another couple of brands on and off to mix it up a bit and after 30 days i felt amazing, no urgency at all now. before if i smelled freshly made coffee i would be running to the toilet, now i have 3 cups in the morning followed by a healthy bowel movement. i know what my trigger foods are so now i follow paelo during the week and have what i want at the weekend (not my trigger foods obviously) i can enjoy pizzas and indian food again which i thought would never happen.

the mental side of IBS-D is the toughest to get over, after years of anxiety, of having to be near a toilet this is the hardest thing to get over. my stomach has been good for probably 6 months now and i'm only just starting to get over this side of it but it is a constant battle with your own mind to convince yourself that you feel better and that nothing messy is going to happen. i done a 4 hour drive the other week to somewhere i had never been, i seen it as a challenge for myself and although i never ate anything before i headed there just to be on the safe side i still seen it as a win. i stayed overnight and had a lovely meal at a great restuarant and drove back the next day, again i never ate before i left but i did have my morning three cups of coffee!

this isn't a drug, or supplement that will take away your pain but if like me you have suffered and tried them all and nothing works then it might be an option to try what eventually sorted it for me. i am 100% convinced that a lot of IBS sufferers have an unhealthy gut microbiota, it's just figuring out what works for you as there are hundreds or even thousands of different species of bacteria that could be living inside you and each person will have a different imbalance that causes them to have different intolerances and symptoms. there are a lot of companies now formed that believe your gut microbiome can both harm you and cure you of specific illnesses such as high cholestoral, heart disease, obesity, IBS and lots more and there are billions being invested in research with good results coming from it so one day we may get a magic pill with the right blend of bacteria to give everyone relief but unfortunately that time isn't here yet. some of the companies doing work in this field if you want a look at them are listed below and they are having promising results.

optibiotix

4d pharmaceuticals

rebiotix

vedanta

there is also the taymount clinic which i was going to try before i found what worked for me but if my symptoms ever come back i will probably give it a try.

So in a nutshell i cleared out my gut bacteria, ate paleo for 90 days and took a few high quality pro-biotics and after 8 years i feel much better. this won't work for everyone as we are all different but i'm hoping the process will help people and cut down their time with IBS and that they don't need to suffer as long as i did before finding something that works.


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

Thanks for sharing your story. I've eaten "paleo" for longer than 6 years. I also spent some three months eating only meat, fish and veggies. And I am still suffering.

However, I think that your approach will work for the large majority of patients.

And peanuts are not a nut. They are a legume and probably not allowed on the paleo diet.


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## Bitsmart (Oct 18, 2015)

You should start focusing on additives. I have suffered from severe type D for over 4 years. I began to notice that I had reactions to even bland meals like fish and white rice. I started looking at the additives and noted that disodium inosinate and calcium disodium EDTA were in salad dressing and the disodium inosinate was in the seasoning we used. I also had a reaction after eating an OH Henry bar and noted that it contains disodium phosphate. I believe that the disodium variations may be causing osmotic diarrhea. This knowledge has reduced my symptoms considerably. I also stay away from sulfites since I link them to the severe spasms. I now normally have one movement a day rather than many urgent trips to the toilet. I no longer have feelings of panic and I also had a tight upper back which relaxed after my gut settled down. The issue is bigger then these two types of additives but it will be a major relief to you if you stay away from them completely.


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## Linda Ridgway (Oct 31, 2015)

I am using imodium one in the morning and pedealite occasionally and that seems to help. Tried Bentyl but didn't help.


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## Desert Fox (Jul 24, 2017)

Sigh, I don't have the courage or motivation to undergo the same process as you to find what works best for me while searching for the real triggers of my daily D that fluctuates often......If I had done this earlier, perhaps not long after the start of IBS invasion of me, I might have been better right now, without having to also endure unbearable anxiety and unaccountable emotional distress. I just hope that my IBS would be wiped out completely one day that I don't need to live in both physical and psychological pain anymore.


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