# How I cured my IBS-D



## toastie (Nov 21, 2018)

Hello everyone!

Brand new to the forums but I've lurked here for a very long time and I wanted to share my own story. I'm really sorry for the long post but I wanted to be thorough.

*Background:*
I'm currently 19 and I suffered with IBS-D for a little over 4 years. It's been over 6 months since my last IBS-D symptom, so I'm confident in saying that I'm cured. During the time I had IBS-D, it was relentless. There were very few days that I didn't have to go constantly. I resorted to eating very small meals throughout the day and medicine to keep my symptoms down as much as possible when I had it, but I still woke up pretty much every morning with the sense of urgency followed with an hour or two in the bathroom. It was a terrible time. I personally love food, so it was an extremely hard time in my life.

*My cure:*
First off, I tried a lot of things and most things just didn't work for me. Imodium is an amazing product that really helped me over the years but it really just helped suppress some symptoms. I also tried pills with probiotics, yogurt, and a ton of other different things. Pretty much everything I could try, I tried it. Some provided a very temporary relief but it never lasted more than a week.

What worked for me was a combination of two things.
1.) A temporary liquid diet.
2.) Foods heavy in probiotics.

I think the reason why probiotics did not work for me before is because, even though I did take them a lot and regularly, they went through my system so fast that they were not able to create a strong foundation. They were pretty much washed away whenever I took them. With a liquid diet, they were able to settle in and propagate. Especially since about 2 weeks in, I could tell my belly was much more at ease and wasn't trying to push everything I ate through as fast as it could.

*My Diet/Routine:*
First off, I know this diet isn't super high in calories but you can drink more of the liquid diet if needed. I'm a slim short guy @ 110 lbs so I really don't need that much.

For my liquid diet, I went with Ensure/Boost. Two to three a day depending on how hungry I was. One in the morning, one at night, sometimes one around noon. I only drank water for my other liquids.
I initially started with ensure (normal kind) and ended up drinking more Boost (normal kind) because it was overall cheaper at the time. I mainly just wanted something to keep my general health up and it's not a bad idea to get the vitamins and nutrients. I know some people point out that they have fiber (and other things) and that can be bad for IBS-D but I had no good alternative that I know of and my belly has already been messed up for years. What else did I have to lose, really?

For my probiotics, I went with yogurt. Minimum 2 a day. I did 1 in the morning about 30 mins after Ensure/Boost and one at night 30 mins before or after Ensure/Boost. If I'm particularly hungry, I'd eat one or two more throughout the day.
I looked for something that had good cultures and ended up using Activia (solid / cup type) for my main yogurt. I did use others as the diet went on but I took Activia for the first full week.

*General timeline:*
1.) First few days: I could tell no difference. Same symptoms as always, but I did still have solid food in my system.
2.) First week in: My normal bowel movements have disappeared because of the liquid diet. I still had strong urgency in the mornings but thankfully it lead to nothing since I had nothing to pass.
3.) Two weeks in: My urgency symptoms are completely gone. I do have small solid rabbit pellet like passings. The yogurt has some solid food in it, so kind of expected. Passings were solid and no other symptoms were with them.

At three weeks in, I had no symptoms at all from my IBS-D. As I mentioned before, I love my food, so staying on a liquid based and yogurt diet was killer for me. I would drool at any mention of real food and the taste of yogurt got old by week 1. I was anxious but I decided to try solid foods again. I kept to my liquid and yogurt diet but I dded solid foods. I started with small meals for 3-4 days to see how I would do. To my surprise, I had a normal bowel movement. After that, I removed the liquid part of my diet and kept eating solid foods. The rest is pretty much history. I can go to buffets, which I always loved as a kid, and eat as much as I want without the fear and anxiety of what I know will happen to me eventually.

As a preventative measure and out of habit, I still include yogurt in my diet. I use those yogurt shots now (the ones you can drink) because I now hate solid yogurt with a passion and I only use it maybe one every other day. Again, only as a preventative measure. I'm not sure if I still need to keep eating yogurt but I rather be safe than sorry.

Overall, I really think the liquid diet helped the probiotics stick since my system slowed down quite a bit after I was on it for a good week. I would definitely recommend anyone try it. Compared to other cures out there, it seems extremely simple but it honestly worked for me when probiotics by themselves didn't.


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## mellosphere (Sep 22, 2015)

Hmmmm, wow, interesting and thanks for sharing what worked for you. So just to be clear, you did not take any type of pill probiotics or anything? Just the probiotics in the yogurt? Also, how long have you been able to eat solid food again?


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## mellosphere (Sep 22, 2015)

Also, were you lactose intolerant? Or could you drink milk with no problem prior to starting your liquid diet?


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## toastie (Nov 21, 2018)

mellosphere said:


> Hmmmm, wow, interesting and thanks for sharing what worked for you. So just to be clear, you did not take any type of pill probiotics or anything? Just the probiotics in the yogurt? Also, how long have you been able to eat solid food again?


I did take low dose Imodium for the first 2 days to help control my symptoms, but nothing after that. No pills at all. Only the probiotics in the yogurt. I think most yogurts only have 2 or three strains of probiotics but they definitely worked for me. I always read the packs to make sure what they included.

I'm sure probiotic pills could work. Like I mentioned in my post, I think the probiotics were only able to take hold since I was on the liquid diet as well which really helped slow down my system. I just preferred to go with the more direct route of yogurt since it was fresher and cheaper for me at the time.

I started eating solid foods on the third week of the diet with no problems. I'm obviously not a doctor or anything like that but I'm sure I could have started taking solid foods on the 2 week mark since I didn't have any IBS symptoms by then, but I was playing it cautious. I did introduce small meals slowly for the first 2-3 days and then started eating normally. Now, I can eat whatever I want with no problems.



mellosphere said:


> Also, were you lactose intolerant? Or could you drink milk with no problem prior to starting your liquid diet?


Before and after my IBS I have no problems with lactose at all.

I just realized Ensure/Boost has milk as an ingredient! I think a decent alternative to ensure for a liquid diet would be multi vitamin supplements (gummies or pills) and clear fluids. I'm sure juices (without fruit pulp or flesh) would work just fine too to increase your calorie intake.

I did a quick google search and Activia has lactose-free probiotic yogurt.


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## PD85 (Aug 19, 2010)

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us and I'm so glad to hear you are cured!

I'd actually like to hypothesize that another reason the liquid diet helped could be that you were no longer feeding the bad bacteria in your colon with all the solid food. In this way the old bad bacteria died off and the new good bacteria were able to set up shop in the newly vacant space.


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## Challibs (Oct 23, 2019)

Hey, I know its been a while since you posted this.

How are you doing now? Still good?


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## acureisoutthere (Jun 28, 2014)

Thanks for sharing your story. I am very glad for you that you found a solution that worked !

I like PD85's comment.


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## squeeshy3k (Jun 5, 2013)

Did anyone try this method with satisfactory results?


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## dbgirl (Dec 11, 2019)

Was it plain or flavored yogurt?


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## rajiv_gupta (Jul 16, 2014)

i have been taking probiotics like VSL#3, KEFIR , Yogurt for years, but no help at all.


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