Anyone had these symptoms- abdominal pain & gas

[Lucy40ishere]

Hi, just wondering if anyone might have any ideas about the symptoms I’m getting. About 6 months ago I had some tummy cramps similar to what you have before diarrhoea. They didn’t lead to anything & I thought nothing of it. Then I had a few other episodes of the cramps but put them out of mind. Then on Christmas Day I had the cramps really badly & decided to make an appointment with the GP. I haven’t had diarrhoea or vomiting but I’ve had the cramps since then at varying intensity. The GP prescribed lanzoprazole & suggested a blood test which I’ve been putting off due to Covid. I did wonder about lactose or gluten intolerance. Has anyone had similar & got any thoughts? I will have the blood test & go to GP but in my experience it can take a while to get on the right track.

Lactose intolerance is easy to rule out, yourself, as there are lactose reduced alternatives to so many dairy products, now. Yiu need to cook a lot from scratch and read labels carefully, though, as it's added to lots of flavourings and will be in store bought baked goods, including some bread, either as lactose, itself, or some other milk derivative.

Thanks @PickAChew, I’ve noticed how much dairy substitutes have moved on over the years. Yes I’m planning to try excluding dairy. I started today & I must admit I was expecting a difference quite quickly but still getting a lot of cramps. If anyone has excluded dairy did it take time to notice a difference?

If it's lactose then the improvement should be pretty rapid. If you get the same results using lactofree as no dairy at all, then you have your culprit.

Yes that’s what I thought. I’ve been avoiding dairy all day & the cramps have still been really bad this evening. So dairy might not be the culprit. I might carry on avoiding dairy tomorrow too just to be sure

It'll need a day or so to get through your digestive system.

If Yiu can get hold of them, windsettlers are great - they're basically infacol for grown ups.

Thanks so much @PickAChew. I will try & get hold of those!