Bowel issues maybe tmi

[picklepot22]

Not a poo troll. MN can verify.

I've had bowel issues for what feels like forever. Lots of red flag symptoms like bleeding from the bottom that I've seen the GP for many many times. Always given a cream and sent on my way with piles as the explanation (I do have visible piles so I'm not disputing they are the cause).

But lately I'm tired. My stomach is always gurgling and I'm bloated. I have diarrhoea a lot, not constant but regularly. I keep seeing the GP and have had two colonoscopies in the last 8 years but nothing ever shows up. I can't shake the feeling something else is going on.

I don't have the best diet and lifestyle (little exercise) and I'm thinking that now I'm approaching 40 maybe it is just my body reacting badly to certain foods. But can ibs reallt make you feel this bad?

If your stools are loose and greasy, then they need to look more at the liver and gall bladder.

I’m so glad you took it in the spirit in which it was intended 💐

I have diagnosed anxiety issues but I don’t suffer from health anxiety so I can relate in some ways but not in others!

There are some good books by Rangan Chatterjee about finding balance and looking after yourself generally. You could probably find one at the library. Something like that might be a good starting point.

Your body is telling you that what you’re doing isn’t working for it! Not everything is “fixable” through behaviour but good diet, sleep and exercise is an excellent start.

During exploration of some ENT issues, I had blood tests for 'allergies' Im not sure exactly what test they did, it was just blood tests and Ive since learned that thats now how you test for allegeries anyway,,,,, but the point Im making is that apparently I dont have any allergies

However I cut out bread quite a while ago, although still would have the odd ryvita now and then, the difference was stark, my joints didnt hurt, my ankles werent as swollen, my face wasnt a swollen.

So I dont know if that is an allergy or what but what Im saying is that even if tests dont show you have a problem with something specific its still possible that a foodstuff isnt doing you any good.

Due to you tests coming back clear I really do think that you actually have a lot more ability to rectify this situation than you are giving yourself credit for.

You decide what you eat and there are good or bad consequences depending on what you eat and drink.

Food is your torture at the moment but it can also be your medicine.

There is a meme about it - It’s hard eating cleanly. It’s hard feeling totally rubbish. Choose your hard.

If you sit on a pile of drawing pins, you need to pull them all out to rectify the problem.

Lots of good advice for cleaning up diet here but I think you need a clear plan you can try for a while, rather just eating better. For example Through quite a strict low carb diet I discovered that I really react to potatoes - brain fog- literally being surrounded by friends but not having the energy to speak, and joint pains.
It might take a little trial and error and being quite methodical to work out a good way to eat for you. I might not have discovered this if I'd only excluded dairy and wheat.

Probiotics are a good start but they act as place holders for our own good bacteria do we need to encourage those with probiotic foods.
Taking some enzymes with food may also be helpful.

Vitamin and Mineral deficiencies - it's worth getting some blood tests and getting the numbers. B12 that's in the low range seems to be completely sub optimal for a lot of people.

In terms of probiotics would something like actimel be enough?

I read that actimel is not enough which is why I swapped to tablet form which have 14 different strains of live bacteria, actimel and similar tend to only have one

So there are probiotics which are the bacteria and then prebiotics which is the fibre and foodstuffs that your body uses to get the right balance.

I use biokult tablets which were recommended by someone on here some time ago and I looked it up and researched it

By the way to the poster above, the drawing pin analogy is very painful on a thread where some of us have piles!!!!