To ask if anyone has ‘cured’ their IBS?

[ImaHogg]

I know it’s classed as a life long condition but I’ve been suffering for 22 years and have just about have enough of this horrible condition.
I belong to endless IBS support groups but obviously most of the members are people like me who are still suffering a looking for help and advice. I am assuming that if people do have a grip of their symptoms then they are hardly likely to be on support groups.
I’ve tried endless things over the years from the low fodmap diet to hypnotherapy and CBT. None of which have really helped long term.
Two things I haven’t tried are probiotics (some of the reviews say they can cause diarrhoea which is one of my huge fears with this complaint). I’ve also tried a few antidepressants but I couldn’t get past the awful side effects.
I’m 48 and am starting to think that hormones now play a big part as my symptoms became much worse and virtually daily at the age of 45 and I also can’t lie and say I don’t suffer from anxiety as I really do and I have a very stressful life atm.
Late 2019 I had a colonoscopy, endoscopy and ct scan. At the follow up appointment the gastroenterologist said all was clear. I handed him a list of my symptoms and he asked if I had tried all the standard IBS meds, which I have to no relief. He handed me back my list and told me that he couldn’t help me and to go back to my gp!
So I am just wondering if anyone on here has/had IBS and has found a way of living well with the condition and has minimal or no longer has symptoms?
Any advice is most welcome.

[quote LarryUnderwood]@ImaHogg I think the Schar range is really good. The ready-to-bake baguettes are nice, and the seeded loaf are good. And genius brioche burger buns are lovely.[/quote]
Off to the shops

Yes I have.

I just figured out what didn't agree with me - cowsmilk, gluten, fried/fatty foods.

I eat mainly vegetables, gluten free whole grains, nuts & seeds, chicken and fish. Low sugar, low refined carbs. I make a lot of vegetable soups and my own buckwheat bread.

I take the following periodically:

• Probiotics
• Aloe Vera juice (not Forever Living)
• Swedish Bitters

They've all helped.

imahogg thanks for starting this post, I have been experiencing ibs like symptoms since last year.

No definite diagnosis, seen colorectal surgeon, continence advisor and currently awaiting a referral to dietician.

It seems, from the posts on here, that I will need to find my own solution

The most debilitating thing atm is waking early for a poo 💩

Bloating, stomach pains and other joys

Like you, imahogg, I am 48 and peri has made it worse, never had these issues before lockdown, anxiety is an issue

I've just bought some Activia yoghurts and some probiotics on the strength of this thread, even though I think dairy might be one of the things bothering my stomach. Had an Activia at lunch time and no gurgling or stomach pain so far. It was tasty too - I've missed yoghurts!

I found that doing low FODMAP for a while seemed to "reset" me and helped me to get it under control most of the time and I've now re-introduced almost everything, with just garlic and gluten that caused me issues when I reintroduced. I'm reintroducing these very slowly now and it seems to be working.

My main issue now is stress. It doesn't need to be a properly stressful situation - even knowing that I need to be out of the house by a certain time or having a work meeting can be a problem. Has anyone found a good way of reducing the impact of stress?

@chickadeeeeeeeee

imahogg thanks for starting this post, I have been experiencing ibs like symptoms since last year.

No definite diagnosis, seen colorectal surgeon, continence advisor and currently awaiting a referral to dietician.

It seems, from the posts on here, that I will need to find my own solution

The most debilitating thing atm is waking early for a poo 💩

Bloating, stomach pains and other joys

Like you, imahogg, I am 48 and peri has made it worse, never had these issues before lockdown, anxiety is an issue

I’m sure peri has something to do with mine getting worse 😩

I really want to try activia or Greek yogurt but having not touched dairy for 15 years I’m so scared too, sounds ridiculous lol! I’ll have to try at the weekend maybe, then if all hell breaks loose at least I’m at home!

Not cures but seems much better when I eat my own sourdough bread.... just Googled it and it might be a thing 🧐

Try goat or sheep's yoghurt OR almond or coconut yoghurt if you have a problem with cows' milk OP.

Try lactose free yoghurt or sheep's milk yoghurt (it doesn't have that farmyard taste that goats milk has).
The probiotic i take periodically is alflorex. It was developed for people with lactose intolerance and ibs. I have found that a 1 month pr 2 month course is very helpful.

I had really bad symptoms like yours. Finally went to an dietitian who specialises in IBS. She looked very carefully at all my symptoms (not just the gut ones) and suggested it could be intolerance to vasoactive amines. Put me on an exclusion diet that was low fodmap as well as low amines - it was very restrictive because I’m vegetarian.
Long story short - dramatic improvement almost instantly. I then had to start reintroducing some foods a little at a time to see what I could tolerate.
There’s no doubt that she’s right - all the symptoms fit what I had and if I lapse too much into eating too much of the “problem” foods I relapse.
DM me if you want more info - this is an issue surrounded by quackery, woo and myths, and it’s not easy to get exactly the right treatment for you.
In the past GPS have given me mebeverine, which didn’t work for me and others have suggested it can make it worse.

I too have had IBS for 20+ years. It started when I started teacher training at 23. Never went away. It’s clearly related to stress with me. In pregnancy it went completely. It’s not as bad now as it was pretty children. I avoid greasy foods. Never eat from a chip shop for example. I avoid all brown and seeded bread as that is agony. My daughter is coeliac. Her consultant was convinced I was too as I apparently have all the symptoms of an undiagnosed coeliac. My blood test was negative and a biopsy done during a colonoscopy (I have a strong family history of bowel cancer)was also clear. I think for me the reality is there is some sort of hereditary weakness and it has manifested as IBS for me.
We a household with a coeliac I cook 100% gf for us all and I think that has helped me. I am far less bloated. Schar is good. Genius wraps and pittas are also popular here.

I saw a herbalist for years in Edinburgh and took prescriptions from her. It helped massively and I’d recommend anyone to try a medical herbalist. It’s also worth remembering that you may not be coeliac but could still be wheat intolerant. My daughter was diagnosed very quickly. We were extremely lucky. However her wind was truly horrific. In the early days we knew she’d had something with gluten as the smell would reappear.

I had amazing results with the FODMAP diet. It transformed my life. I accidentally ate some onion the other day, nearly threw up on the train and had to go to bed for the day I was so knackered. I don't know how I was living when I was eating alliums and lots of dairy. I urge anyone who has IBS-type symptoms to give it a try - and be really strict. It took me over a month to "get it out of my system" on the elimination phase and then I just woke up one morning and felt amazing.

I kept a food diary before and could never figure out my triggers because the symptoms happened 12-36 hours after eating something.

I know you said you've done FODMAPs before, but I'd be really thinking about taking another look at your diet. You said your safe foods are things like rice and potatoes. So you do have some foods which are better than others? I'd personally be thinking about spending 8-12 weeks eating nothing but your safe foods and drinking water, a la FODMAPs but stricter. Yes, it's a shitty diet long term. Take a multivitamin for now.

Then seriously introduce one food at a time for three days and see what happens. Either you get a reaction or you don't. Then you can start adding to your list of safe foods and figuring out which ones trigger you. Yes, it will take a long time. Yes, it will be restrictive and tedious. But if you do find some safe/trigger foods then you will have symptom relief to some extent for the rest of your life. I think it's worth it.

You cited as evidence of how strict you were with FODMAPs that you lost half a stone. That's not being strict with elimination, that's just not eating enough food! You can eat as much as you want of the "approved" foods. I do think that a really extreme elimination diet would at the very least lay your mind at rest over whether it's food-related or not - and at the most could cure you for life!

FYI, many gluten free products have other ingredients which can trigger digestive symptoms in some people. They often have cornflour, which really does a number on my mum.

Turmeric capsules, intermittent fasting, sensible eating, probiotics

Mine seems to have retreated over the last few years and a few things have changed for me. I no longer eat seeded wholemeal bread, I'm sure the little seeds used to shred my insides, could guarantee I'd be running to the loo an hour after eating it. I changed my pill from a combined to a progesterone only, I took a 6 month course of mirtazapone which seems to have reduced my anxiety and stress levels, and I take a probiotic regularly. Not sure which of these helped the most, but the probiotic (optibac everyday) definitely helped with my lactose intolerance and reduced the gut squirming sensations. A pharmacist friend persuaded me to do a month on them a few years ago, and I had to report back that I no longer felt my insides. Before then my gut had always been noisy, I'd felt it churning and my insides always felt 'squirmy' even without other symptoms. I had no diarrhoea on starting them at all and can definitely now tolerate cheese and yoghurt, but clotted cream is a step too far

I used to suffer badly in my twenties and tried all sorts such as probiotics, excluding wheat, dairy with not much success. No real specific triggers just everything I ate triggered it.
Pregnancy cured mine, not been bothered since and that was 15 years ago... Maybe pregnancy hormones helped somehow I don't know but I'm glad it did!

I found that eating live yoghurt every day has helped enormously. I also take a daily probiotic. For me it was definitely linked to my gut flora.

@muddledmidget

Mine seems to have retreated over the last few years and a few things have changed for me. I no longer eat seeded wholemeal bread, I'm sure the little seeds used to shred my insides, could guarantee I'd be running to the loo an hour after eating it. I changed my pill from a combined to a progesterone only, I took a 6 month course of mirtazapone which seems to have reduced my anxiety and stress levels, and I take a probiotic regularly. Not sure which of these helped the most, but the probiotic (optibac everyday) definitely helped with my lactose intolerance and reduced the gut squirming sensations. A pharmacist friend persuaded me to do a month on them a few years ago, and I had to report back that I no longer felt my insides. Before then my gut had always been noisy, I'd felt it churning and my insides always felt 'squirmy' even without other symptoms. I had no diarrhoea on starting them at all and can definitely now tolerate cheese and yoghurt, but clotted cream is a step too far

I think I need to try your regime. I definitely need to sort my hormones out, I have gynae issue and have been told it may be due to my progesterone levels being low. I have a very stressful life atm which is not going to get any better any time soon and I’m really starting to think it’s affecting the way the whole of my digestive system is functioning so could really do with trying antidepressants for a while and retrying probiotics whilst I’m back on the low fodmap diet.

Tim Spector has some interesting studies on gut, worth a read

I also had colonic irrigation with prebiotics put up my bum to reseed my gut flora. That’s probably a bit medically dodgy but I was desperate by that point.

He also talks about the above and “resetting” your gut in this way

@ivykaty44

Tim Spector has some interesting studies on gut, worth a read

I also had colonic irrigation with prebiotics put up my bum to reseed my gut flora. That’s probably a bit medically dodgy but I was desperate by that point.

He also talks about the above and “resetting” your gut in this way

Thanks, I’ll check that out.

I think we're going to see faecal transplants being developed in this area too. this is interesting

@BIWI

I think we're going to see faecal transplants being developed in this area too. this is interesting

The gastroenterologist I last spoke to said the most exciting thing in gut health studies for the future is personalised gut biome testing and faecal

Sorry press send to quick

...faecal transplants. He said people are currently doing it themselves via internet/post. He warned me against doing that lol!

I just wanted to update this, in case it's useful to anyone.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, My teenage DS has had IBS symptoms, we had some success excluding dairy and onions. After reading this thread I got him Kefir and 10 days on he says there's a noticeable improvement, so we'll definitely continue with it.

Thanks to those who recommended it!