# looking for some input from others suffering from ibs-d



## vanwilder692 (Aug 25, 2012)

hello all. I have been to three gastro-docs and all think I have regular IBS-(d) however I am afraid it is something else. you are looking at a 32 year old man who up until last summer (2011) could eat a dozen fried hot wings and drink 4 or 5 tall draft beers and still be constipated the next morning. However, in late august of last summer(2011) my cardiac- doc put me on atenolol 25 mg bid for my svt-tachycardia. almost immediately i began having diarrhea. so, first they thought I may have c-diff because I had dental work done around the same time and because of my cardiac condition i had to take amoxicillian 1000mg (yes 1000 mgs) 1 hour before my dental work. they ordered c-diff, parasite, occult blood, fecal fat, and a few others, all were negative. Than blood test with sed rate to check for inflammation,. all blood work was normal. than around january i had a colonscopy, with biopsy, negative for any autoimmune bowel disorders such as ulcerative colitis, or chrons disease. right after that i had a cardiac ablation done so i no longer take antenolol but the diarrhea continues. on to the next g.i. doc, and he ordered more stool samples, more blood work and a hydrogen glucose breath test to check for overgrowth of bacteria in the gi tract. again all test were normal. from what i have read no 32 year old man wakes up one morning with ibs! i am thinking (and all three docs disagree) but atenolol is a beta blocker and targets nerve cells, so i am thinking the atenolol has altered my nerve endings in my bowel. plus i did drink while i was taking the atenolol so i dont know if i damaged my intestinal cells (in my colon) ability to absorb water, (however all three docs disagree) and thats why i am having diarrhea. I take Elivil 10 mgs every night along with Bentyl 20 mgs four times a day to have any kind of control. And hot wings or beer?...well it seems if I even take one bite of anything spicey its in the bathroom all day and nothing stops it except for good old fashion Imodium. Not even the expensive Lomotil works for me. Has anyone else experienced this after being on a cardiac medication such as a beta blocker like atneolol?


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## clareuk (Feb 7, 2006)

Hi, I actually found that when I started taking propranolol it actually helped me and made things improve. I take propranolol to help with anxiety and around the time I started to take them things did improve for me although I only have a small dose. I'm not really sure what heart problems you have now but I thought a rapid heart rate could cause too much adrenalin to be released into the body causing diarrhea? I get terrible anxiety and when I am really worried about something I have diarrhea very quickly and it can go from rock hard to water in a short space of time. I guess though, it sounds like you had that sorted out. I have to say though, I was in my mid 20's, never had any problems before, ate what I liked, drank what I liked and I was total extrovert - the life and soul of the party, didn't even really worry about much. Out of the blue I started getting bouts of explosive diarrhea at any time. It gradually got worse and worse from there. To this day I don't really know what made it so bad at that time although things are improving now. I know from experience that you can simply be fine one minute and then suddenly not be, I'm afraid that it is possible.Hope things get better for you.


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Could just be the bacterial balance in your gut is out of whack.. but not SO out of whack to cause C-Diff. So try taking a good probiotic (Align, Culturelle, Sustenex, Florastor are some...) and give it a coulple weeks to see if you improve.


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## vanwilder692 (Aug 25, 2012)

Thank you both for your input. I did forget to mention, I did try probiotics, and after a few days of treatment I begin having diarrhea. Especially those containing acidophilus. And I mean not soft stools, watery diarrhea like that of which looks and smells of that which is drained from a ileostomy.I am a nurse and have emptied and cared for 100's of colostomys and ileostomys, and I have to say that when I get diarrhea from probiotics it smells just like that of an ileostomy. Sorry for being so forthcoming but even that kind of made my gastro-doc do a double take....But, on the other hand, Yogurt that contains active cultures I can handle very well and does not affect my lower GI as probiotic capsules. I have tried cheap probiotics and expensive 50.00 flurastor and both give diarrhea. So idk, back to the drawing board i guess.......


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## maitland (Dec 23, 2011)

hi vw692...i am thinking that you did not mention diet and if you are taking in too many sugars you are going to have problems until your intestines get back to normal after the antibiotics...knock off the dairy and fruit for a time..stay away from fibre and raw foods and stick to well cooked food like homemade soup and the like and see if that might help stabalize the d problem...also try kefir....a few ounces each morning and night...each tablespoon contains 5 billion good bacteria...hope this is of some assistance....maitland


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

VW692 Ask if you can switch the atenolol with something else to see if it is indeed an allergy????


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

While it can cause some diarrhea while you are on it, I dunno if it would cause permanent damage like you are suggesting.Lots of people get IBS for a lot of environmental triggers that are very common (like a bout of GI flu) so it could be conincidence it started when you were taking the drug. Alcoholism doesn't seem to be a big trigger for IBS, although heavy drinking can increase diarrhea, while you are drinking. Again generally not a permanent effect. I dunno, I think a lot of people wake up one day with IBS as often the experience is "I had diarrhea one day (usually start of a GI illness) and it just never stopped". It doesn't take years of trauma or anything really major, obvious, and prolonged to get it going. I just think if this med or a bit of drinking really caused a lot of IBS we'd see a lot more people with this, and I could see getting a GI bug at the dentists or being prone to it because of the antibioitic even if it wasn't C. diff and a virus or something they may not have tested for or could have been gone by the time they did more testing.Surprisingly Imodium can be more effective for diarrhea than the prescription Lomotil for a lot of people. It isn't prescription because it is stronger or better, it is just has a slight addiction risk that you don't see with Imodium. (did you mean Lotronex, which is the really expensive prescription and it generally doesn't work for a lot of men, it will for a few of them whose guts happen to react the way a woman's does, but it is a small percentage of men).The antibiotics could have mucked up the gut flora (and you can get C. diff and have it hard to detect, although it could have been a different bug picked up at that time).Sometimes with IBS the colon does go into "flush mode" so there isn't a lot of time for stool processesing so it can come out pretty much the way it went into the colon.I know it is hard to deal with something that can be so disruptive, but hopefully you'll find the combination that works for you. Have you considered Calcium supplements or a bile binder? Sometimes those can really help with diarrhea (and with something spicy like wings it can be the fat that gets things going as much as the spice).


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## cooldude (Mar 6, 2011)

antibiotics cause ibs....some treat ibs...but beta locker never cause IBS.....they help improve IBS symptoms...give some relief...if you are lactose intolerant and atenolol / propranolol has lactose in its formulation the you are in trouble because of lactose and not because of beta blockers


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