How many have IBS?

[surlymel]

I'm quite a bit of a newbie here... but do have a question to ask:
How many of you have had IBS or IBS-like symptoms which cleared up somewhat on a low-carb diet?

I'm curious because I had problems for years (which the docs either thought I was making up, or were caused by "stress"), and found out they were being caused by something called Celiac Disease (though Celiac "condition" is more accurate). It's a sort of multi-system reaction to the protiens in wheat, barley, rye and oats. I've been completely free of these grains for about 7 months, and am still recovering from the damage done - but for the first time in my life I feel very much alive! I still can't handle some types of carbs very well, and have chosen to follow a low-carb (though not induction-level!) lifestyle permanently. It feels so much better.

Just wondering how many of you have been helped by eliminating these grains...

[Harley]

hello
Ive had IBS for 13 years and am also plagued with food intolerances to most things.
I have also felt so much better low carbing. Physically and mentally.
I have found that I am most comfortable eating something really small every 2 hours.
It sounds weird perhaps and is a pain but if I dont I get very bad bloating and pains, even if the food is low carb.
I also found that I get hungry/cranky/crabby/nervous/whatever every 2 hours. I have timed it and its unbeleiveable. I think it might have something to do with blood sugar. I have to eat protein though, 0ther stuff doesnt work.
Glad to hear you feel better. Bowel problems make life so difficult, miserable and it can be embarassing too.
Lots of luck

[surlymel]

I do know how you feel. Several months ago I started to react badly (red eyes, swollen tummy) to any high-carb meal. Decided to experiment a little with a low-carb lifestyle and it worked out great. Thought the carb reaction was just an effect of the Celiac trouble, but after seeing so many others with the same problem I've had to re-think that a little...

Have to add that I chuckle when anyone complains about how "restrictive" low-carb diets can be... having allergies or intolerances (besides wheat grains and oats, it's also soy, nuts, potatoes and plums - plus Celiac made me lactose intolerant for months) makes the daily menu much more challenging.

LOL, I can sympathize with the crankiness too... I'd become an expert at it without knowing why! Luckily it's getting better with time and diet.

[Harley]

Hi Surlymel,
Wow, you are going through the same as me. It makes me feel better that i am not alone in food intolerance hell. It's sooo awful. I am lactose intolerant, plus all the grains (including rice - all types - which shocked a macrobiologist who was trying to help me) most vegetables, tofu, garlic onions and prawns/shrimps.

I dont eat meat, fish makes me feel sick and I make myself eat chicken and turkey.

Well I think that about covers it :daze:

Glad that you are feeling better. What is the diet you are following?
Good luck

[surlymel]

I'm on the Schwarzbein Principle. It's been great so far... though any weight loss from the plan has been second to the concern I've had about developing diabetes (it's in my family, and 5% of Celiacs are or become diabetic). Prevention of D. and maintenance of blood sugar levels (by cutting out those naughty starches and refined sugar) is the whole mindset of the book.

Did try the Atkins plan a few years ago, but the induction period made me really sick, with hindsight it was probably all the soy, nuts and artificial sweeteners I was eating - not the diet itself. Haven't gotten up the courage yet to try it again ;)

[LCasa90125]

memememe!
Diagnosed IBS shortly after I had my gall bladder out about 18 years ago. Most symptoms cleared up as soon as I started the LC WOL last January. I also had GERD for the past 8 years, severe acid reflux and I had (read HAD) to stop taking the meds for that (prilosec) shortly after starting this WOL because I started having severe stomach pains. Stopped taking the meds and pains went away.

Amazing... simply amazing...
Laurie

[surlymel]

Makes me wonder what these fine doctors get paid for sometimes. Seems like they'd rather pop a pill into you than try to fix what's wrong. Ugh :rolleyes:

[Heeligan2]

I've had IBS for years and this WOE has helped to some degree, although stress can still set it off, as can alcohol, or not getting enough fiber. I don't think mine is related solely to food allergies or intolerances. I think I have read that unlike Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, etc., IBS is neurologically based -- not an inflammation or disorder of the bowel itself. Does that make sense?

[YogaBuff]

Haha!! Like LaCasa, I've been going memememememe, too!
I was never really diagnosed as IBS, but shortly after I started lc-ing I had an AHA moment. I'd never realized that all the bloat, and misery I felt after eating and for hours later was associated with the supposedly 'normal' foods everybody else seemed to eat.

I, like surlymel, started on Atkins, but never felt quite right. I read Dr. Schwarzbein's book and it was like she had the right answers to my still-nagging questions. I like, too, how she talks about healing the metabolism. After 24 yrs. of yo-yo dieting , my metab. really needed that. And she's honest, too. She tells you up front that it may take a yr. to heal you.

Anyway, my problem doesn't seem to be one food that I have pinpointed. Just more like what Dr. S. says about too many carbs can't be handled by the small intestine, and they go into the large intestine, which is not designed to handle carbs, so it turns all of them into gas, and diarrhea. I had been eating so many carbs in an effort to lose weight (almost vegetarianism) that I'm sure that was my problem.

Well, it's been good to talk to another Schwarzbein-ite. I think she has the right idea, at least for some of us. If I lose weight, it will be so much icing on the cake (no pun) 'cause I just do this WOE to feel better!

Hope to hear more of you, surlymel, on this board. I think we're two of the few Dr. S fans.

YB

[allerfree]

I am afflicted too.

I havent had much luck finding low carb celiac recipies

egg free soy free nut free, gluten free, corn free, rice free

any ideas

Ellen

[m1whowaits]

allerfree:

They have a great recipe forum here and it's mostly atkins so there is no wheat, but many do use eggs. I'm celiac and have used some of them. (Find a candida cookbook and most recipes don't use those ingredients) I've been gluten free since Feb and have had only one IBS attack since then and that was because I'd eatten something I shouldn't have. My doc wanted me to take meds for acid reflux and I said no. Turns out I had LOW stomach acid. Could you imagine if I'd taken the meds? The celaic and candida also made me have fibromyalgia for several years. It's mostly clear up now. I haven't felt this good in a long time.

[allerfree]

thank you for the reply

[leborland]

Low carbing definately starves candida yeast, but it can starve out various other types of pathogenic bacteria and parasites living in the intestines and colon. IBS can be related to a number of causes, most of which they don't find with standard tests. There's only one lab in the country that I've ever heard of that really does a good job of finding the buggers. Anyway, that explains why low carbers start to feel so much better bacause the bad intestinal population starts to die down.

[pmezak]

I have had IBS for many years now. Have been searching for answers and
it seems that no grain really helps. I recently had popcorn at the movies,
what a mistake....had pains the next day and was sick a few days after that
with a fever. I am left to believe that it was the popcorn in my gut...Am recently back to low carbing with an emphasis on the blood type diet. I am
an 0+. It seems we are almost naturally low carbers, with the only safe
grain being rice. But I can not eat rice without craving carbs... but this diet
makes sense for me. 0's don't do so well with dairy or wheat and can get the
candida type reactions to food. That's my current experience for what it's
worth!

[mollymom]

Three years ago I had my gall bladder out. Almost immediately I started suffering from what seemed to be IBS symptoms. My doc could suggest nothing, so I suffered. Urgent diarrhea (bad for a teacher to have) terrible abdominal pain, plus terrible itching all over my body especially if I got too warm or sweaty.

In an offhand comment to a surgeon, because I was going to require a hernia operation to repair a hernia (result of the laparoscopic gall bladder op) FOR THE THIRD TIME, I mentioned the IBS. Fortunately she took the time to listen to the symptoms and informed me I DIDN"T have IBS but what is called Bile -induced diarrhea. Results from too much bile being released into the body following a high fat meal, also irritated by coffee etc. Excess bile in my system was also the reason for the itching she explained.

She prescribed cholestyramine for me. Now this is AWFUL stuff...a powdered resin you mix into juice and drink ..up to six packets a day and I was warned I may have to be on it for forever. Fortunately though it cleared up my symptoms within two weeks. I thought they would recur when I stopped the meds, but I was symptom free more or less for nearly a year! When the symptoms did recur ( and much less violently), I took the meds again for a week, and again symptom free. I WAS SO MAD AT MY DOC< that I had suffered for three years and there was this simple solution!

Now I would think that eating such a high fat diet as Atkins would bring this back worse than ever. HOWEVER...if anything, I have had NONE of the symptoms since starting this WOE. THus I think there had to be a yeast/sugar/wheat connection in there somewhere. I can now actually go out and not worry if I am going to be too far from a bathroom. No tummy pain, actually having what looks like a real BM again (sorry maybe TMI but this is an IBS thread LOL), no reaction to my one morning coffee...ZIP. I think frankly this WOE is a miracle for more than just weight loss (read the results in the depression thread for example) and I intend it to be my WOL for a long long time!

[muweek]

I posted to Mollymom about my situation as I was so thankful that she told us about a drug you can get..I wish I had known earlier!!

[doreen T]

There have been a few discussions in the General Health section about post gallbladder removal bile-induced diarrhea ... and using cholestyramine to treat it.

• EXPERIENCE WITH QUESTRAN/Darvocet? ... bile problems after gallbladder removed (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=43851)

• Questions on Questran and low carb (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=44799)

There might be some information there which is helpful for you :rose:


Doreen

[hairpin]

I've had IBS problems off and on the past 6 years. Last year, it was really bad. I'd find myself leaving work because of it, or having to reschedule meetings. I tried cutting out all sorts of things from my diet. I went to a Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist. Which helped a bit, but did not work as well as just switching to the Atkins, low-carb style diet. I think how much better I would have been if I had known earlier on about the side effects of this way of eating. I love it!

Now I don't really feel the need to loose much more weight. I'm primarily coming back to this way of eating just to keep my tummy in shape.

[Jeanne Sch]

Hey SurlyMel and Harley:
Are you both Lactose intolerant (meaning, you take one of the pills and then you can consume dairy with no problem?) or are you both perhaps allergic to dairy (a condition a fungal infectin gives you until you are rid of the fungus in your gut - long story).
I was dairy allergic when my fungal infection was in full bloom but when I have it under control, I can have dairy with no problems :)

[Mitsy K]

I've been suffering with IBS ever since I was a child! I can remember the tummy aches, the sharp stabbing gas pains, then the diarrhea and excruciating cramping pains starting up as a young adult!

LC has seemed to really help me. I don't know if I am sensitive to anything in particular, since it seemed to come on for any old reason, but now I hardly ever have a bout.

I did have some Mandarin chicken chow mein bowl, (the hot stuff) though, a little over a week ago, and the misery THAT put me into for a whole week was awful. I hope that I don't have some other malady other than what I call 'Cranky Colon', a week is a bit too long to suffer like that.

My sympathies to all who suffer this retched problem!

[MissyOz]

I have just recently been diagnosed with IBS. After 2 years of symptoms and anguish it was finally diagnosed!. I have had sucess folowing a celiac, candida diet. It has required a lot of discipline but i am already feeling so much better. I am taking supplements for it as well as a fibre drink and symptoms have improved.
Good luck with it . The one thing i have learnt from it all is to listen to your body, if you are not feeling right and the drs keep dismissing you. Get a 2nd or 3rd opinion!

[dogbone1]

Another IBS person here....

Gotta love it. Especially when it hits me at work. Or when I know have company coming over.

I recently discovered that sugar alcohols (the stuff in a lot of low carb chocolates and sweets) sets me off....makes normal people gassy for a bit, but makes my digestive system have really unpleasant fits.

Just a warning for anyone before you decide to go hogwild on some Russell Stover low carb peanut butter cups......

-db

[WingDing]

Three years ago I had my gall bladder out. Almost immediately I started suffering from what seemed to be IBS symptoms. My doc could suggest nothing, so I suffered. Urgent diarrhea (bad for a teacher to have) terrible abdominal pain, plus terrible itching all over my body especially if I got too warm or sweaty.

In an offhand comment to a surgeon, because I was going to require a hernia operation to repair a hernia (result of the laparoscopic gall bladder op) FOR THE THIRD TIME, I mentioned the IBS. Fortunately she took the time to listen to the symptoms and informed me I DIDN"T have IBS but what is called Bile -induced diarrhea. Results from too much bile being released into the body following a high fat meal, also irritated by coffee etc. Excess bile in my system was also the reason for the itching she explained.

She prescribed cholestyramine for me. Now this is AWFUL stuff...a powdered resin you mix into juice and drink ..up to six packets a day and I was warned I may have to be on it for forever. Fortunately though it cleared up my symptoms within two weeks. I thought they would recur when I stopped the meds, but I was symptom free more or less for nearly a year! When the symptoms did recur ( and much less violently), I took the meds again for a week, and again symptom free. I WAS SO MAD AT MY DOC< that I had suffered for three years and there was this simple solution!

Now I would think that eating such a high fat diet as Atkins would bring this back worse than ever. HOWEVER...if anything, I have had NONE of the symptoms since starting this WOE. THus I think there had to be a yeast/sugar/wheat connection in there somewhere. I can now actually go out and not worry if I am going to be too far from a bathroom. No tummy pain, actually having what looks like a real BM again (sorry maybe TMI but this is an IBS thread LOL), no reaction to my one morning coffee...ZIP. I think frankly this WOE is a miracle for more than just weight loss (read the results in the depression thread for example) and I intend it to be my WOL for a long long time!
:) This is very interesting. I was dx'ed 12 years ago with IBS. Had GB removed about that time. Experienced periodic diarrhea, abdominal pain and vomiting. Really nasty taste associated with the episode. Broke out with a neck rash and itches that subsided as I recovered from attach. I wonder if this is what you are talking about?