AIBU to ask how to diagnose a mystery illness online?

[Flyingfish2019]

Most likely this really is a stupid question but now that I am already here and to tired to go to bed and this has been on my mind for a long time. has some kind of mystery illness, one gp said it was ibs-c (but did not tell him why he has ibs) another could not find anything wrong with him after he had send him to a number of tests, said his diet sucked but he changed his diet and still feels unwell.

There is a page thing were you can put symptoms in let me find it

symptoms.webmd.com/default.htm#/info

Or post the symptoms here?

@RoomR0613

His symptoms. I am not sure if this are all symptoms of the same illness or several illnesses:

(-He has ptsd)
-His blood pressure is sometimes a bit to high but not much so
-There is something wrong with his cholesterol, he has too much of the bad one and not enough of the good one
-He does not have diabetes but might get it later in life (according to blood tests)
-He often has constipation
-He sometimes has diarrhea
-His stomach often after he has eaten, especially if he eats something healthy. That gets better with warmth. It feels like cramping and starts circa 15 minutes after he has eaten
-He has cystitis a lot
-He has insomnia
-He often has a tremor

(Oh... and he hates seeing medical doctors and fears them and was already really brave to have himself checked)

I’d start by going gluten free and see if it helps.

Gluten may be the problem but ask your doctor for a coeliac blood test before making any dietary changes - going GF first can give a falsely negative result.

His stomach often after he has eaten, especially if he eats something healthy

By healthy do you mean fruit and veg?

Is he overweight?

How much fluid does he consume during the day?

What medication is he on?

A tremor should be checked by a neurologist.

By healthy I mean like fruit and veg and wholegrain stuff. Yes, he is overweight... actually not really fat, but his BMI makes him overweight. I think he does not drink enough healthy fluids... most unfortunately. He is into energy drinks. He knows that they are not actually healthy but unfortunately he became a bit addicted to them. He also drinks alcohol, between one and three bottles of wine a week.
He currently is not really on a medication but sometimes takes Buscopan.

I would try cutting out gluten and dairy

A tremor needs to be checked out by blood tests and scans

@Gerbi1: he gave up milk and diary for a while but it made no difference.

@DecemberSnow They couldn’t find any organic reasons for himhaving a tremor.

Whycan going gluten free first give you false negative results?

So we have a gentleman with PTSD who is drinking a high volume of energy drinks and experiencing insomnia and tremors. Drinks approximately 27 units of alcohol a week.

He has a poor diet, constipation and diarrhoea (although that could be overflow from constipation perhaps?) particularly after he he eats fibrous foods. Has high cholesterol and is pre-diabetic. Eliminating common triggers from his diet hasn't reduced symptoms (although dairy intolerances and coeliac disease would require this to be done very strictly to have an impact).

I don't think it's a mystery illness, I think it's MH issues coupled with too much caffeine/ sugary energy drinks (he will feel like crap on the come down from these) and a very poor diet. Possibly some IBS as well or a reaction to eating 'healthier' food he isn't used to.

He sounds unwell, but I suspect knocking the door merge drinks on the head to start off with might relieve quite a few of his symptoms.

door merge should be 'energy drinks'

I was just about to say what RoomR0613 did

You need to give up gluten and dairy for a long time (3-6 months) to see if they’re the problem or not.

Whole grains are most certainly not healthy. In fact they generally contain a poison called lectins. Gluten is a lectin.

Energy drinks are lethal and he needs to sort out giving them up maybe with the help of the gp. I couldn't see the persons age but you do need to sort out his liquids.

Stop the energy drinks in the first instance and take it from there, although I believe they can be quite addictive?

Actually he tried to come off energy drinks and he is also trying hard to eat better but that is difficult for him because 1) he is often tired from insomnia and feels he needs an energy drink 2) his stomach hurts when he eats healthy.

Are you a doctor. May I ask a stupid question? I am a bit worried because he had caught cystitis several times in the last time... and I heard that this is rare in a man and can be a sign of dangerous conditions is that true?

@bluegingerale In this case he did not quit diary for long enough

You need to give up gluten and dairy for a long time (3-6 months) to see if they’re the problem or not

That's sometimes the case, sometimes not.

But it's always worthwhile considering the immediately obvious likely cause (energy drinks) of most of the more worrying symptoms before cutting out arbitrary food groups or worrying about mystery illnesses.

Eating fruit and veg may well be triggering IBS too, but any IBS will also be worsened by drinking lots of carbonated, caffeinated, high in sugar energy drinks.

Bile Acid Malabsorbtion.