# Eat Sugar too late=Nighttime cramps/morning D?



## 23470 (Apr 18, 2005)

So I've been pretty good at figuring out what foods jack with my IBS-D: milk, certain preservatives, some greases/oils, high fructose corn syrup, etc. I have found that at certain times, either periodically based or time of day based, I have or don't have the ability to eat certain foods. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are one of those foods. I figured out that if I eat the PB&J (or sugary food in general) too late, or right before going to bed, I'll either have cramps around 2-4 hours later (usually around 3am in the morning) and have D, or have the cramps and then have D when I get up the next morning. I also notice a nasty "fermented" after taste in my mouth when I wake up....like something didn't digest right. However, there have been other times in the past that if I ate the sandwich or sugar during the daytime, I was fine. Sadly, as of late, it tends to be that it will at least give me cramps no matter what. I know that they say that if you have IBS-D that you *don't* have problems at night....but unless my diagnosis of 3 years is completely wrong, then you *can* have them at night....but it's solely based on me eating sugar too late or right before bed it seems. Anyone else have this experience or have any insight? Best,Adam


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## 23470 (Apr 18, 2005)

I forgot to add that I have wondered if it is possibly Fructose Malabsorption? I found this link....thoughts?Fructose Malabsorption


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

IBS is not you cannot ever have something happen between 11pm and 4 am and if you have any symptoms during that time you have something much much worse.Really.It is just some other GI illnesses, especially GERD, are more likely than IBS to cause symptoms that wake you up from a sound sleep. If your "middle of sleep" is after the sun comes up (as a lot of us don't get up at dawn) you may get symptoms after dawn because the body gets enough clues to know when dawn is even if you sleep until much later.In the studies where that whole "nothing at night" got pulled from they found normal people have GI symptoms at night at a rather low rate. IBSers have symptoms at night more often, but less often than other GI illnesses. Mostly because the colon generally is "asleep" when you are asleep and times of high activity tend to track with IBS symptoms, but you can have them at other times.Eating close to bed time is generally not good for a lot of things (I took a Traditional Chinese Medicine and Nutrition course recently and most of the things that tend to be bad in IBSers all say don't eat late at night).I think a lot of that is GERD causes symptoms at night particularly if you eat late, and if you eat right before bed you will also prevent the GI tract from going into the sleep mode properly as you gave it a job to do right when it should be shutting down so it will keep going to get that new food dealt with.A weird taste in the mouth could be some reflux issues and reflux definitely gets worse when you lay down, especially if you ate close to bed time.If you can eat fructose at all other times without having problems it probably isn't fructose malabsorption, but it may be worth trying a low fructose diet to see if it help.All the clinical data shows (even if *mistakenly* interpreted as no symptoms of any kind during sleep at all) that IBSers (of any kind, not just D) *can indeed and often do* have symptoms at night and have symptoms at night *more often* than people who do not have GI illnesses. IBSer have symptoms at night *less often* than people with other GI illnesses so sometimes symptoms at night may need some additional testing before being sure it is IBS and not IBS and something or something other than IBS.If you have periods of watery diarrhea only at night (or mostly at night) that can be microscopic colitis. But this is NOT what you are describing. You aren't going 4-5 times every night for a period of time even if it comes and goes.I keep having to answer this question, but I don't think anyone ever believes me. I could go find the paper with the exact numbers, but I know I've posted it a few times because this particular red flag is what people love to freak themselves out about. Especially since it is the least red of all the red flags so is the most common in people with *just* IBS.


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## 23470 (Apr 18, 2005)

I believe you about the night thing and IBS, and posing my question was more about investigating the avenue of Fructose Malabsorption, which I read often accompanies IBS and lactose intolerance. Depending on how you want to look at it, I've been "lucky" enough to not have had to get a colonoscopy. I got diagnosed 3 years ago at 27, all kinds of poo tests and blood tests and nothing ever came back off....except for a pancreatic enzyme whose normal on that particular test was 0-60 and mine was 63. The doc didn't seem concerned and said that "normal" values fluctuate based on who is making the test. I mostly have ok to good periods now, with a short flare up every other month or three.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Usually with fructose malabsoption fructose will bother you every single meal you have it, not just a late night snack.The diet is pretty strenuous and if you only have symptoms once in a while you probably tolerate a pretty large amount of fructose as it is really hard to avoid it completely all day long almost every day other than an occasional sandwich at night. I think the meal/snack timing is more the issue. Eating right before bed never really makes anything go well.


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