Discussion
I thought I would provide a little update since this thread started almost a year ago.
Well I started buying the ready made Kefir as it was mentioned in this thread and I would have given anything a try at that point, I was drinking that every day for a little over 2 months and I can honestly say I didn't notice any change in my symptoms so I stopped drinking it, now maybe I didn't drink it for long enough to notice any benefits but it tasted horrible so I was quite glad I stopped.
So I was at a bit of loss after that so I decided to mix things up a little with my diet and I finally found my issue after 25 years, bread!
I still eat bread mostly everyday but the issue was how much bread I was eating, I would have two slices of white bread with butter and peanut butter on most mornings and whilst at work I would eat the sandwiches I made that morning at work, so that's four slices of bread a day.
So I dropped the two slices of toast in the morning completely and replaced it with cereals, this might be Weetabix, Rice Krispies etc.
The rule I set myself was keep varied diet, don't eat the same breakfast for more than two days in a row and really limit the bread intake.
I also massively increased my fruit intake from near zero a week to at least one piece of fruit a day, banana's, apples, oranges etc.
So I have stuck to doing this for the last 9 months and I feel like a changed man, a bit extreme I know but I have only had two days of stomach problems and anyone with IBS knows how draining it can be to live with on a daily basis, I over indulged on the two days I suffered with my stomach so I'm happy that was just normal stomach aches.
Check your own bread intake could your issues be the same as mine!
Well I started buying the ready made Kefir as it was mentioned in this thread and I would have given anything a try at that point, I was drinking that every day for a little over 2 months and I can honestly say I didn't notice any change in my symptoms so I stopped drinking it, now maybe I didn't drink it for long enough to notice any benefits but it tasted horrible so I was quite glad I stopped.
So I was at a bit of loss after that so I decided to mix things up a little with my diet and I finally found my issue after 25 years, bread!
I still eat bread mostly everyday but the issue was how much bread I was eating, I would have two slices of white bread with butter and peanut butter on most mornings and whilst at work I would eat the sandwiches I made that morning at work, so that's four slices of bread a day.
So I dropped the two slices of toast in the morning completely and replaced it with cereals, this might be Weetabix, Rice Krispies etc.
The rule I set myself was keep varied diet, don't eat the same breakfast for more than two days in a row and really limit the bread intake.
I also massively increased my fruit intake from near zero a week to at least one piece of fruit a day, banana's, apples, oranges etc.
So I have stuck to doing this for the last 9 months and I feel like a changed man, a bit extreme I know but I have only had two days of stomach problems and anyone with IBS knows how draining it can be to live with on a daily basis, I over indulged on the two days I suffered with my stomach so I'm happy that was just normal stomach aches.
Check your own bread intake could your issues be the same as mine!
I used to suffer from terrible stomach aches and the GPs I visited failed to identify what was wrong and put it down to IBS. It got really bad about 5 years ago so decided to use my private medical insurance to get it checked out.
After months of investigation and tests it turns out I have something called Familial Mediterranean Fever, which is an inherited genetic discrepancy and very rare. It's only recently been discovered and most GPs don't know about it.
Quite a few people who have it are wrongly diagnosed with IBS. I take colchicine for it now and never had an issue since. Have a read up on it and if you have the symptoms get tested for it.
It's changed my life knowing what was wrong and having medication to keep it at bay.
After months of investigation and tests it turns out I have something called Familial Mediterranean Fever, which is an inherited genetic discrepancy and very rare. It's only recently been discovered and most GPs don't know about it.
Quite a few people who have it are wrongly diagnosed with IBS. I take colchicine for it now and never had an issue since. Have a read up on it and if you have the symptoms get tested for it.
It's changed my life knowing what was wrong and having medication to keep it at bay.
I’ve had 2x York Tests and my general well-being improved from making dietary changes.
Cow’s milk has been a common high IGg trigger for me.
Also mastication levels were well linked to IGg triggers. The stuff I hurriedly ate around stressful meal times, vs stuff I ate in a relaxed manner.
Stress. Still on going for me. Young kids. Lockdown. Lots going on. No decent sleep. Some historical stuff.
I’ve just started doing the Wim Hof exercise (not blindly, I’ve tried to understand the concept), so stressing my body to try recalibrate my stress response.
I just get this feeling I’ve been chronically stressed for about 5 or 6 years and my mind and body had taken a bit of a back seat to just getting on.
Good diet, lots of exercise, and time out to de-stress.
Everything the doctor orders, but so easy to ignore/forget.
Imo these diets might fix issues and mask things... but if there are underlying issues it’s good to fix those too.
Cow’s milk has been a common high IGg trigger for me.
Also mastication levels were well linked to IGg triggers. The stuff I hurriedly ate around stressful meal times, vs stuff I ate in a relaxed manner.
Stress. Still on going for me. Young kids. Lockdown. Lots going on. No decent sleep. Some historical stuff.
I’ve just started doing the Wim Hof exercise (not blindly, I’ve tried to understand the concept), so stressing my body to try recalibrate my stress response.
I just get this feeling I’ve been chronically stressed for about 5 or 6 years and my mind and body had taken a bit of a back seat to just getting on.
Good diet, lots of exercise, and time out to de-stress.
Everything the doctor orders, but so easy to ignore/forget.
Imo these diets might fix issues and mask things... but if there are underlying issues it’s good to fix those too.
As an aside to the kefir thing I’ve been on keto since January. No IBS symptoms whatsoever. Focus is better (after the first 3 weeks. The first 3 weeks were awful) No ibs symptoms whatsoever and one toilet visit per day in the morning after coffee. This is down from 6-10 a day.
12kg lighter too. 108kg down to 96 (still another 10 to go)
Best desert ever is quark (twarog from your local polish shop) and pure cocoa powder. It has a decent amount of probiotics too.
It seems to cure or help ibs eat like a Slav. All their food seems to contain probiotics. (Just don’t start drinking like one)
My wife eats twice what I eat and never goes above 58kg (she’s just under 6ft) I put it down to the fact that she eats pickled stuff with every meal. Drinks vast amounts of kefir and only eats sweet stuff twice a year.
12kg lighter too. 108kg down to 96 (still another 10 to go)
Best desert ever is quark (twarog from your local polish shop) and pure cocoa powder. It has a decent amount of probiotics too.
It seems to cure or help ibs eat like a Slav. All their food seems to contain probiotics. (Just don’t start drinking like one)
My wife eats twice what I eat and never goes above 58kg (she’s just under 6ft) I put it down to the fact that she eats pickled stuff with every meal. Drinks vast amounts of kefir and only eats sweet stuff twice a year.
Stress is certainly a massive trigger with IBS, it's a catch 22 though isn't it, your stomach starts playing up you get stressed and that makes the issue worse.
I would always worry about when my next episode would happen and still do to a degree, I don't think I will ever stop worrying about my stomach issues, I'm much happier in myself at the moment which will be having positive benefits for my overall health, I just need to find some motivation to start exercising now.
I would always worry about when my next episode would happen and still do to a degree, I don't think I will ever stop worrying about my stomach issues, I'm much happier in myself at the moment which will be having positive benefits for my overall health, I just need to find some motivation to start exercising now.
Milkbuttons said:
Stress is certainly a massive trigger with IBS, it's a catch 22 though isn't it, your stomach starts playing up you get stressed and that makes the issue worse.
It’s a catch 22.I’ve been a bit frustrated as doctor wasn’t much use, and yorktest people weren’t either, just don’t eat XYZ, great. But why?
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s stress based for me.
Chronic stress. I’m mostly fine now due to dietary changes but ultimately... why.
And the why has led me to stress.
I’m stressed because I’m stressed. And myriad other reasons.
But then why? Why stressed? Stress is to help save your life, or respond to issues... not to live in a permanent state where actually you’re fine.
Recalibration seems key to stress. It’s easy to lose perspective.
One thing that helped me was a nutritionist who told me it takes approx 24 hours between eating something and getting cramping/bloated symptoms. After this knowledge was imparted it became much easier to consistently assign symptoms to what I’d eaten. For me it was starchy foods like rice, potato (no more chips, devastated) and avocado ( not a great loss). Low fodmap diet worked well for me, also eating smaller portions more frequently.
Three things helped me:
1. Course of Symprove heavily laden with additional probiotics. I am not making product specific recommendations as that may be against forum policy.
2. Reducing stress. Yes it’s a massive trigger.
3. Papaya! Each to their own taste buds but this is a great source.
By the time I did that kefir was not required.
At the end of the day in simple terms all disease is inflammation. So what is causing that? Are your gut microbes out of whack? Likely yes. So find your trigger foods if any. Mine were spicy foods (no more Chinese). Introducing more anti-inflammatory components to your diet can help alleviate and resolve it.
Here are some ideas on supplements:
https://draxe.com/nutrition/l-glutamine-benefits-s...
Further ideas on diet:
https://draxe.com/health/ibs-diet-food-cures/
It is one hundred per cent reversible in cases I have seen.
On the shangrila side of things if that’s your bag people often talk about embracing change and being able to forgive as an emotional component of healing ibs.
1. Course of Symprove heavily laden with additional probiotics. I am not making product specific recommendations as that may be against forum policy.
2. Reducing stress. Yes it’s a massive trigger.
3. Papaya! Each to their own taste buds but this is a great source.
By the time I did that kefir was not required.
At the end of the day in simple terms all disease is inflammation. So what is causing that? Are your gut microbes out of whack? Likely yes. So find your trigger foods if any. Mine were spicy foods (no more Chinese). Introducing more anti-inflammatory components to your diet can help alleviate and resolve it.
Here are some ideas on supplements:
https://draxe.com/nutrition/l-glutamine-benefits-s...
Further ideas on diet:
https://draxe.com/health/ibs-diet-food-cures/
It is one hundred per cent reversible in cases I have seen.
On the shangrila side of things if that’s your bag people often talk about embracing change and being able to forgive as an emotional component of healing ibs.
Milkbuttons said:
I thought I would provide a little update since this thread started almost a year ago.
Well I started buying the ready made Kefir as it was mentioned in this thread and I would have given anything a try at that point, I was drinking that every day for a little over 2 months and I can honestly say I didn't notice any change in my symptoms so I stopped drinking it, now maybe I didn't drink it for long enough to notice any benefits but it tasted horrible so I was quite glad I stopped.
So I was at a bit of loss after that so I decided to mix things up a little with my diet and I finally found my issue after 25 years, bread!
I still eat bread mostly everyday but the issue was how much bread I was eating, I would have two slices of white bread with butter and peanut butter on most mornings and whilst at work I would eat the sandwiches I made that morning at work, so that's four slices of bread a day.
So I dropped the two slices of toast in the morning completely and replaced it with cereals, this might be Weetabix, Rice Krispies etc.
The rule I set myself was keep varied diet, don't eat the same breakfast for more than two days in a row and really limit the bread intake.
I also massively increased my fruit intake from near zero a week to at least one piece of fruit a day, banana's, apples, oranges etc.
So I have stuck to doing this for the last 9 months and I feel like a changed man, a bit extreme I know but I have only had two days of stomach problems and anyone with IBS knows how draining it can be to live with on a daily basis, I over indulged on the two days I suffered with my stomach so I'm happy that was just normal stomach aches.
Check your own bread intake could your issues be the same as mine!
Well done. May you continue to enjoy good health. Well I started buying the ready made Kefir as it was mentioned in this thread and I would have given anything a try at that point, I was drinking that every day for a little over 2 months and I can honestly say I didn't notice any change in my symptoms so I stopped drinking it, now maybe I didn't drink it for long enough to notice any benefits but it tasted horrible so I was quite glad I stopped.
So I was at a bit of loss after that so I decided to mix things up a little with my diet and I finally found my issue after 25 years, bread!
I still eat bread mostly everyday but the issue was how much bread I was eating, I would have two slices of white bread with butter and peanut butter on most mornings and whilst at work I would eat the sandwiches I made that morning at work, so that's four slices of bread a day.
So I dropped the two slices of toast in the morning completely and replaced it with cereals, this might be Weetabix, Rice Krispies etc.
The rule I set myself was keep varied diet, don't eat the same breakfast for more than two days in a row and really limit the bread intake.
I also massively increased my fruit intake from near zero a week to at least one piece of fruit a day, banana's, apples, oranges etc.
So I have stuck to doing this for the last 9 months and I feel like a changed man, a bit extreme I know but I have only had two days of stomach problems and anyone with IBS knows how draining it can be to live with on a daily basis, I over indulged on the two days I suffered with my stomach so I'm happy that was just normal stomach aches.
Check your own bread intake could your issues be the same as mine!
That’s great, I had what was initially diagnosed as IBS that turned out to be diverticulitis after three years of suffering. A week in hospital gave me plenty of time to think luckily antibiotics fixed it as it could have been far worse.
I had to be completely honest with myself, I didn’t eat right, drank far too much, was stressed and was a lazy sod so it really shouldn’t have been a surprise.
That was in 2018 and by changing all the above I’ve lost 3 stone and have never felt better.
So many of these ailments are self inflicted really, avoid all beige food and eat fruit and veg. Job done it really is that simple.
It’s not easy though the food industry is peddling pure crap 99% of the time although this is slowly changing.
I had to be completely honest with myself, I didn’t eat right, drank far too much, was stressed and was a lazy sod so it really shouldn’t have been a surprise.
That was in 2018 and by changing all the above I’ve lost 3 stone and have never felt better.
So many of these ailments are self inflicted really, avoid all beige food and eat fruit and veg. Job done it really is that simple.
It’s not easy though the food industry is peddling pure crap 99% of the time although this is slowly changing.
Glad you're feeling better OP. I have suffered from IBS for years and years, tried everything and finally seem to have got a solution recently. For me, taking one Imodium tablet every other day has completely transformed it. My digestion now seems to have gone back to how it was in my twenties before the onset, and I am so grateful. I'm not saying this is everybody's solution but it was for me.
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