# Spicy food IBS-C and lethargy



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

Hi - so glad to find this site! I was diagnosed with IBS-C, severe lactose intolorance and GERD all within the last 2 years. I've eliminated all milk products from my diet, and 99% of the spicy food I had been eating, I take a stool softener every day and I've increased my soluable fiber intake significantly. I'm still riding a rollercoaster though. It can be really hard to know what's going on, what triggered a flare up and which thing set the other off. Last night I had just a taste of someone else's spicy Indian curry dish at dinner, and I was on the toilet literally every 1-2 hours all night. Normal consistency, but almost no involuntary movement pushing things out. I had painful gas that would not pass, my characteristic backache, mucous in the stool, and a constant full feeling (not surprising, since I was only eliminating a little at a time). The symptoms did not let up until almost noon today. The back pain was on one side and came in spasm like waves. The worst symptom however was a feeling I can never explain adequetely. I felt sick in a way that I don't feel with other things, very different than when I've had the flu or a virus. It feels like something is really very wrong. I get so lethargic I don't even want to move. The doctor thinks that's just my anxiety, but I disagree. It's a real physical sensation that I only react to with anxiety. Any of this familiar to any of you?


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## azzuri (May 2, 2003)

Hmmmmmmm, well i am from Mexico and just like most of you, the Doctor has prohibited me the consumption of spicy foods, i have cut down but not entirely, i do eat and add spicy salsas to my meals, i simply don't over indulge, and i haven't noticed any side effects ot discomfort in my stomach after this.In my case dairy products and processed foods are the ones that do a number on my colon.


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## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

I've always loved spicy foods, but knowing what could happen the last couple of years usually keeps me in line. It was only a bite, way too high a price to pay for just a little taste. I'm still not back to normal (well, as normal as I was before). I still have the back pain and my stomach is very bloated, but it doesn't feel like gas. I do look like I'm pregnant though. I've often wondered if IBS is any more or less prevelant outside the US, in areas like Mexico where the traditional diet has always included very spicy food...


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## trbell (Nov 1, 2000)

I don't understand what you mean by anxiety. anxiety is a normal response to something and ibs is something to be angry about. You might want to check Heather's bb about soluble fiber. It's thought by many as being very good for constipation.


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## azzuri (May 2, 2003)

> quote:I don't understand what you mean by anxiety. anxiety is a normal response to something and ibs is something to be angry about. You might want to check Heather's bb about soluble fiber. It's thought by many as being very good for constipation.


Anxiety is a normal response to a difficult or uncertain situation, but an Anxiety disorder means you feel Anxious for nothing, ALL THE TIME, if this persist for many years and its not taken care of, will have a direct effect on many organs of the body, Heart,Liver,Colon, etc.


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## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

Yes, it does rattle me when I feel that bad and don't know how to make it better. What I was trying to describe though isn't anxiety. It's something I rarely feel. I think it happens when my motility goes way way down, it's when there is no involuntary urge to push things out at all, as if those muscles are paralyzed instead of having the usual spasms. It's just a sense that something is very wrong, and it occurs together with an overwhealmingly lethargic feeling, The doctor thought it sounded like anxiety about feeling lethargic. I don't think one causes the other, but I believe they are both caused by the same thing. I just wondered if anyone else here has experienced anything like that.I'm eating lots of soluable fiber, it worked in the beginning but has been less effective lately. It seems any adjustment or new thing I try is only effective for a limited amount of time, I was on Citrucel for a while, then it stopped working, I increased the dose and it worked again, several months later it stopped working. Stool softeners still work, but are also less effective then when I began taking them. Almost everything I've tried is like that. I'm gonna run out of things to try! Does anyone else have this problem? I now have a bowl of oat bran cereal with dates and flaxseed meal just about every morning. That still works ok after about 6 months, but if I'm running late or just don't want it once in a while, I'll be in trouble that evening.


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## roger (Mar 26, 2003)

Hi Isis1:I have something like what you are describing from time to time. Usually, it comes on if I don't pay close attention to low fat (I love fat







), high fiber, and lots of water.It feels like everything just shuts down, I am very lethargic, and I am enveloped by the evil "brain fog"







. I avoid making any important decisions until it passes but sometimes it can take days or weeks to pass.I hate it! I usually fast or limit my food intake and then just try to 'ride it out' while drinking lots of water.Good luck.


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## Mayaguez (Jan 23, 2003)

Hi Isis1. I experienced something similar when I started to take Magnesium Oxide for my IBS-C problem. I took too much and this is a side effect;I read it on the Whole Foods website (that's where I shop also). I had heard about a similar effect only by a couple of people on this BB. I stopped taking the mag and it went away. It was a lethargic feeling, spaced-out like, very weird. By the way, the pooping was great though. I stopped taking the magnesium, and now take one tablespoon of Chlorophyl with water at night. I found out about the Chlorophyl from Stars&Stripes on this BB. It's been working great for sometime now, but if I don't eat what am supposed to, u know, veggies with olive oil, fruits, water, etc., it doesn't work as well. Just to add, I have experienced Anxiety attacks (totally irrational behaviour), as well as just feeling anxious (the stuff that we feel when we have too much in our plate) but this feeling that I describe has nothing to do with anxiety. For me the cause was the magnesium which works wonders for a lot of people, unfortunately I couldn't take it. good luck.


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## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

Hi jrkatz,Hmmmmmm, I'm sure I'm not drinking enough water. I spend so much time in the bathroom as it is, I've been resisting anything that would have me in there even MORE often. I guess I'll just have to get over that. I've been having more fats than I want for at least a year - the good kind - because the nutritionist said I wasn't getting enough. I know I'm getting enough soluable fiber. I'll work on drinking more water, that makes a lot of sense. I finally figured out that when I'm blocked up like that, the worst thing I can do is to eat a meal. That would be like putting more gunk down a totally clogged drain. I get shaky when I don't eat, so I had a Boost for dinner last night. Helped a lot."Shutting down" is a good way to describe that feeling. I get so lethargic I have no desire to do anything at all, and it comes on very fast. Evil brain fog - haha! I like that. I've never had to deal with that awful feeling for more than several hours at a time - I don't know how you do it for days or weeks! Sounds awful....


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## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

Hi Andalucia,I never heard of using magnesium or chlorophyl before coming to this board. How are they supposed to work? Are there studies out there that show their effectiveness? I wonder if this feeling we're describing is actually dehydration, since jrkatz says water helps. Some medications will dehydrate you if you don't drink enough water - more than usual - while you're on it. Does your magnesium say anything on the label about drinking water ?Thanks for making the distinction between anxiety and this wierd feeling I keep trying to describe. It's frustrating that that's where the docs go first when they don't understand the real cause.


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## Mayaguez (Jan 23, 2003)

The magnesium works by attracting water to the colon (osmotic??) It has helped many people on this board. Magnesium Oxide is the one I took, which is less absorbed by the body, but for some reason this one works the best. I started with one pill a night, but all of sudden when it stopped working I increased to two pills a day; with a day or two, I started to feel really weird, like swimming under water. Thank God I had read about this side effect, otherwise I would thought I was loosing my marbles! I didn't take mag that day and the next day, the feeling was gone. As for the Chlorophyl, here is something I posted earlier on a different thread:"Since Chlorophyll has been working so great for me, I didn't stop to find out "how it works" in humans. I did a search on Google and here is one article."Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that harnesses the sun's energy in photosynthesis. Chlorophyll performs metabolic functions in plants such as respiration and growth. Interestingly, the chlorophyll molecule is chemically similar to human blood, except that it's central atom is magnesium, whereas that of human blood is iron."Perhaps, the fact that the chlorophyll molecule's central atom is magnesium is why it works so well, at least on me. I've read from a lot of people on this BB that all these supplements work if your taking care of the diet issue, u know, veggies, fruits etc, along with plenty water and exercise. So far, this is helping me and haven't had any side effects (yet).


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## Mayaguez (Jan 23, 2003)

Oh I forgot to add.. you may be right about dehydration and that lethargic feeling, but I haven't read about it. I drink 7 or more glasses of water a day, also fruits. That should keep me prety hydrated, but then again maybe the extra mag required a lot more water. I'll have to read up on it.


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## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

Hi slowtogo,I answered your post on the other thread too, I'm posting a copy here in case the exchange may be useful to someone else reading this thread... ------------------------------------------------------------------------I can really understand Isis1 and the horrible strange feelings he or she has. They are so hard to describe. They are not related to anything in the mind but are purely physical. Today I had an appointment to go walking and it was so unbearable as I could hardly take the steps but forced myself. It really is a shut down feeling, sort of yuk, something really bad is wrong. Terribly hard to explain to anyone which makes it worse. In my case I am sure it is caused by the slow motility and is caused when the stuff I take gives up the ghost and there is a shut down. With me it has not been caused by magnesium. When the magnesium is working well I don't have these attacks. You are not alone!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------Sorry, the previous post should have been under Isis1's other post about the strange feelings. I hope he or she can still get the message.------------------------------------------------------------------------slowtogo,Yes, that's exactly it! It is really very tough to explain, but it's so clear to me that it's a physical thing, not caused by anxiety. I suspected it was related to very low motility, your post seems to confirm that. It may be that things actually do grind to a halt completely for a few hours at a time, makes a lot of sense. Thanks for your post, maybe now I can be more articulate about this the next time I talk with the doctor. It's so frustrating that these tough to explain things sound so vague to them that they just call it anxiety.How long have you been taking the magnesium? What's your dosage been?


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## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

Hi Andalucia,Sounds like magnesium is a stool softener like Colase, which I take every day with no side effects. It does make sense to drink more water with it. Like everything else, the Colase was more effective when I first started taking it. Maybe the trick would be to keep switching from thing to another, in this case one type of stool softener to another. Maybe chlorophyl would be a third thing to switch off with, if it works the same way. What a pain! I would rather just establish a routine and be done with it, all this shifting things around and constantly changing everything in order for it to be effective drives me nuts. It makes all this so much more of a focus than I want it to be. I guess I have to tell myself that's just too bad, one more thing I don't want to get used to....


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## jenifer moor (Apr 14, 2002)

Hi Isis, thanks for straightening it all out for me. I was just plain too exhausted to sort things out the other night..Magnesium is a bit of a juggling thing. I don't take anything on a perfectly regular basis or my body gets too used to it and then it shuts down for a while and I have a bother getting back to square one. My schedule is something like this: 2 teaspoons of magnesium oxide powder last thing at night. ( they will all scream now and say that's too high a dose but I've been told by my practitioner its OK. ) I drink plenty of water through the day but only a glass with the magnesium at night. (else I'd be up half the night) the second night I take something like senna with softener or pills the doc gave me (a stimulant) They'll all scream about that too!! The next night I'll take nothing and if the shut down thing is too much to cope with I'll have half a teaspoon of magnesium powder and that will probably get me through that day. Then the third day I'll go back to the large dose of magnesium. I always take vitamin c with the magnesium and a multi vit and mineral tablet to balance out the minerals. My kidneys are OK so don't have a worry there. As well as this I take MSM powder and this has reduced bloating to almost zero and has made everything else so much more effective. With this regime I find I can live an almost normal life.LOL


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