# 15 years of being sick, but symptoms are getting worse



## Maxine Adams Lo (Jul 27, 2015)

I'm shooting in the dark here. Starting at least in high school, I would have diarrhea several times a month. Completely unexplained, and I never mentioned it to the doctor because it wasn't daily. It was once every two weeks, or once a week, or whatever. I knew there were certain foods that would send me running, in pain, within the hour, and I learned to avoid those (macaroni and cheese, donuts, and big, greasy muffins).

Last year, I (basically) did an elimination diet. It was part of a weight loss effort. It worked, I lost the baby weight, and felt fantastic...until I started adding foods back in. Since I wasn't sick ALL the time before, and I only did the weight loss portion of my diet for about 8 weeks, it didn't really occur to me to notice I wasn't sick for those 8 weeks. I would still get some gas, but I've always been gassy. (red flags right there, right?)

So, doing fine, until we get to the portion where I add grains back. I started getting sick again, and I realized the sickness felt familiar...like an old, and hated, friend. Darn it. I went to talk to a naturopath, and we agreed to cut gluten out for a while to see if things cleared up.

Well, they did, and I never saw a reason to add gluten back. The occasional slips (literally, licking a few drops of flour-thickened curry sauce off my finger) lead to incredibly odorous gas. As near as I can tell, that flour is hitting the large intestine completely whole.

I've been gluten free for almost a year, and I LOVE not having to run to the bathroom. There there are still more things, and trying to take care of them is like playing whack-a-mole with my daily menu. Still dealing with bloating, the resulting pain of gas stuck in all the wrong places, and also a kind of deep ache in my gut that comes and goes, usually coming for a few days, and then disappearing again for a few weeks.

My normal doctor suggested a Celiacs test, assuring me it would still be accurate. (I checked - there's no way it was accurate. Normal results are 0-13. My results were <1, but I haven't consumed more than a few tablespoons of flour in the past 10 months.) So, I guess Celiacs is still on the table...but who has time for that?! I so do not want to eat loaves and loaves of bread to take a test that may or may not be accurate.

As far as the bloating, sometimes it seems to come from tomatoes, always from yogurt and ice cream, and always from commercial ketchup/BBQ sauce. My best guess at this point is lactose intolerance, and an acid imbalance in my stomach? I don't know! ARGH. So happy to have found an ACTIVE forum!


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## Sgali (Aug 27, 2013)

Maxine ,

Glad to hear you are having success with healing your IBS. Wheat gluten and the asscociated Lectins and Gliadens likely play a huge part in this condition. Bear in mind though , that farming practices changed in the late '90's in a way that may be affecting you. Glyphosate , the active ingredient in Roundup , may be the real culpret which would explain the results of the ceoliac test. Previous to the shift in farming practice, Roundup was used solely as a pesticide. Now it is used to help separate the hulls from the berry ,BY SOAKING THE WHEAT IN ROUNDUP 2 WEEKS BEFORE HARVEST ! The wheat soaks up the Glyphosate and causes the hulls to fall off. Isn't that nice to know ?

Ketchup , BBQ sauce, commercial salad dressings etc are made with horrible ingredients such as GMO canola oil. Ugh ! I get a stomach ache just thinking about it.

Try drinking Aloe juice for stomach pain , it worked for me. Search this forum for ' How I cured my IBS' by Sgali, there is much more info there.

Best of luck to you , this is curable but you will have to find the cure yourself.


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