IBS - I need some advice

[WillowJ]

So my question is: are there any foods that are generally considered fairly safe for everyone with IBS, or does it have to be a case of trial and error for every person because everyone different? e.g. what about boiled brown rice?

Sorry, but it's different for everyone, although there are some foods thought to be more likely to be safe in general, like sticky rice and chicken (broth if you can't take the whole meat).

Some foods are more likely to bother more people, like eggs, soy, wheat and/or gluten, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, corn, chamomile (particularly for people with hay fever), nightshades, and mushrooms. (Edible nightshades include potato, tomato, eggplant, and peppers/capsicum: a person could be sensitive to a few of these or all of these). Such lists are a good place to start looking for intolerances, if a person doesn't know where to start. For IBS, add fiber, especially insoluble fiber, but it's not unknown to be sensitive to soluble fiber.

FODMAP helps some people, doesn't help (or makes worse, if it results it having people eat more of something they're intolerant of) others.

I guess any other remedy is the same.

I can't have lamb, keifer, oatmeal, chamomile, potatoes...

Fennel seed tea does help me a little.

Sorry that you are going through this, Bob. It makes things difficult as I understand all too well.

Just a note about the D problem, anyone who has this newly and it's severe, or has it to a newly severe extent, and it persists more than 3 days, should be seen in clinic to check for infections, especially if it's watery or they have cramping pain. Particularly if they've been to a hospital, clinic, or nursing home lately or been on antibiotics.

 

[WillowJ]

ps, also "excitotoxins"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22766026/

This includes a lot of "hidden" nasty ingredients like dextrose, "natural strawberry flavor", soy sauce, etc.

 

[Bob]

Thanku for your thoughtful post, Willow.

there are some foods thought to be more likely to be safe in general, like sticky rice

Is sticky rice just white rice, or a special kind of rice?

Edible nightshades include potato, tomato, eggplant, and peppers/capsicum

Strangely, I seem to do well with tomatoes and potatoes, so far. But, as you say, everyone is different.

 

[Bob]

There have been so many helpful and thoughtful posts from everyone in this thread. Thanks so much. It makes it so much easier to know that I'm not alone with this problem, and I'm not unique or totally weird. It would be really hard to be totally alone with this, with no community to share thoughts and experiences with. Although, obviously i would rather you all didn't have these problems.

Quinoa was a moderate success earlier, but I could only eat small amounts. This evening I've had plain boiled potatoes and that was quite a success - I was able to eat quite a moderate amount of them, with no obvious flare up. Fingers crossed that I can eat more of them tomorrow.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this: if I find a food that's safe, is it ok to eat it everyday, or will that risk me quickly becoming sensitive to that food?

 

[WillowJ]

Is sticky rice just white rice, or a special kind of rice?

It's a special kind. I like it because it doesn't have vitamins sprayed on (must be made with soy or something that bothers me, and also is typically fake folic acid, which I try to avoid), and also it has, idk, a special kind of starch? So it supposed to be extra good for the digestive tract.

And it's yummy.

I get the kind they eat in Korea and Japan. It's a short-grained rice with a very nice flavor. You get it in the Asian aisle of the grocery, or an Asian store. I am guessing that in England in a big enough town it would be similar to here and you can readily get international foods.

I'm glad you found some things you could eat, or eat a bit of.

I've never been able to answer the "rotation" question. I don't really have enough foods or enough control of my own food to rotate properly, but I do loose more foods from time to time. I get foods back sometimes, too, though.

 

[ariel]

Bob if you are tolerating potatoes ok, you could try just eating potatoes for a few days.
http://vegetablepharm.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-potato-diet_14.html

I did it a couple of months ago and it seemed to reset something. It didn't fix everything, I still have major inflammation with preboitics and probiotics, but it was definitely worth doing.

Best wishes!

 

[msf]

Sticky rice (or jasmine rice) has a lower resistant starch content than other varieties, such as basmati - I used to have some trouble with the basmati I was eating, especially when I reheated it (this increases the RS content further). Now that I eat sticky rice (twice a day!) I no longer have these problems.

 

[Snowdrop]

Hi @Bob
My usual caveat that I'm no expert but I've heard that Slippery Elm can have a soothing effect on an inflamed GIT.
I might be worth a try as it is a treatment that is not at all expensive (at least not here) and not difficult to swallow.
Best wishes for better days ahead.
SD

 

[kangaSue]

A good article on gut microbiota imbalance contributing to IBS
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4413965/

 

[ppodhajski]

My illness took a major turn for the worse about a year ago, and I've now developed quite nasty persistent IBS over a period of about a month.
At the moment it's a constant problem and I can only eat small amounts of food each day, which is problematic.
I've got very loose bowels, with undigested food passing through.
When the symptoms flare I also feel more ill with the ME symptoms in general.

My diet has been cut down to bananas, tomatoes, potato crisps, and a few vegetables such as potato, mushroom, onion, spinach. But it's all happened so quickly that I haven't had a chance to experiment with a proper elimination diet. These foods are the ones that seemed to be the safest from an already limited diet. (I assume that onion isn't a wise food to have? But it happens to be in my ready made microwave meals. I'll really struggle if I can't have these meals.)

I can't take any probiotics, and I'm not aware of any medications that might help.

So my question is: are there any foods that are generally considered fairly safe for everyone with IBS, or does it have to be a case of trial and error for every person because everyone different? e.g. what about boiled brown rice?

Also, are there any meds or supplements (apart from probiotics and prebiotics) that can be really helpful?

Thanks for any advice.

In my opinion all those foods you cut down to might be causing and continuing your IBS-D.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23644955
Of these, 58% experienced GI symptoms from foods rich in biogenic amines,

Bananas, tomato, mushroom, and spinach, are all very high in amines.

You might try cutting down on high amine foods first. I have the science behind this but need to leave it at this for now.

Here is a good list of foods
http://aminerecipes.com/low-amine-grocery-list/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...DlvM1VtYTNuTEREekRCSGJWQXhXSFE&hl=en_US#gid=0
http://www.millhousemedical.co.nz/files/docs/factsheet_7_amines_in_foods.pdf
http://media.wix.com/ugd/df2c93_d47a8750b33642d892c14a94b2c4a301.pdf

I was like you, no more amines for me and it was nearly cleared up. I needed to add B2 to make it totally go away.

 

[ppodhajski]

As someone who has cured his IBS-D after 20 years I have some things you might try. I was exactly like you for three months once.

The three things that I feel cured it were:
1)Cod Liver Oil, it has
-Vitamin A that helps produce bile acids and helps lower serotonin
-omega 3's and D which also modulates serotonin
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25713056

2)Flavin Mononucliotide which helps lower serotonin by increasing MAO activity http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/o63-008?journalCode=cjbp

3) Low Amine Diet

Note that Infections can effect serotonin http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2982.2005.00719.x/full
(This may increase mucosal 5HT availability and contribute to the clinical presentation of PI-IBS.)

The strongest evidence is that serotonin plays the most singular important role in IBS.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...nticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=

My poops are perfect now.

Note that this also happened when I was on Prozac but prozac had bad side effects for me as well.

 

[AndyPandy]

Hi @Bob

I have had IBS since becoming ill with ME/CFS.

The FODMAPS diet and slippery elm have worked best for me, along with eliminating lots of identified problem foods. If I don't follow this strictly, my IBS is much worse.

Dairy free probiotics also help me as I found out when I had to stop them for a faecal test.

I hope you find some answers.

Best wishes Andy

 

[panckage]

Relatively safe foods to add:
Chicken stock (make sure there is no soy added)
Rice noodles

Edit: The "Enjoy LIfe" brand is a good brand for snacks and things. Their foods are guaranteed to not contain the 10(?) or so most common food allergens/intolerances. Now the food isn't particularly good and it is expensive (as all food of this type is) but as someone with multiple food intolerances its about the only brand I have confidence in to not make me explode