Irritable bowel syndrome- any advice?

[Hayls]

Dh has been diagnosed with this after being really ill over Christmas and unable to cope with the pain. It calmed down again but he is having another flare up atm. HE is trying to work out what the trigger foods are but there seems to be so much conflicting advice.
Can anyone give some advice or personal experiences? He has been having osteopathy, which seems to have helped a bit- he can coep with it atm but doesn't want to have to!
TIA

i had stress related ibs which doesn't sound as bad as your DH's, but i found that anything with peppermint oil in helped, i hated peppermint tea but you can get fairtrade mints which contain it and they were nice to crunch, also you can buy the tablets, equally i had a very clued up gp who prescribed them for me.

not sure its all that helpful but one idea i guess

Thanks katzg, we think dh's is stress related as well as there is a lot going on atm. Will look out for peppermint 'stuff' thanks

I'd suggest making sure he is having enough fibre - but not too much - too much wholemeal anything was very aggravating. My symptoms were also aggravated by stress - severely. So worth considering the whole lifestyle thing.

I would consider seeing a homeopath (you can usually get an NHS referral if you are prepared to wait a bit), as they can offer holistic advice as well as suggest remedies.

Good luck, it can be so miserable.

Thanka mAzzystar. I know a good homeopathy clinic so might give them a ring. We have addressed the causes of stress- mainly caused by moving house, a long term renovation project 350 miles away and problems at work. We're moving next week, almost at the stage of contracting out work for the renovation project and dh's work have arranged a release programme for him to move to the job he wants in a few months. Don't think there's much we can do about living with a 2 year old though!

My IBS is triggered by too much fibre I can't too much fruit easily things green appples and too bread does it. Overindulgence is very bad aswell, possibly why your dh was worst over christmas? I'm better eating 5 small meals a day than eating 3 big meals. Stress is also a common trigger. When my flares up I tend to have peppermint tea after every meal which seems to help. I've had it for over 10 years now and it very rarely flares up anymore, but I have tried alsorts of socalled remedies and really found that you do have to review the whole lifestyle and cuts things out till you find what happens, but a healthy, active lifestyle certainly helps. So not much help really!

Hope he feels better soon.

has he tried probiotics ? I'm a complete convert after having Gastro Entertitis and being prescribed them. Prior to that I used to suffer from gripey pains etc (not severe though) and have taken a supplement from Boots and occasionally Actimel etc and it has made a huge difference. Also eating less processed and greasy foods (so tempting when you are on the go and time is precious).

probiotics is a good idea too - forgot about that - for a while i took a non-dairy acidophilus supplement. actimel etc canbe selfdefeating as full of sugar and that can feed/trigger any yeasts in the gut, so you don't get the benefit of the probiotic though.

acidopholus helped me, as did reflexology. i found trigger foods for me were garlic, anything too spicy, onions and yoghurt(?!). i have to say that peppermint tablets didnt agree with me ( they gave me the runs!)

Thanks for all that. He has been eating Actimel for the probiotics and I hadn't thought about the sugar etc in them so will mention that to him. HE eats really healthily (puts me to shame) so I don't think it's been caused by a greay, fatty diet but either way he needs to work out what the triggers are...
Just bought some acidophilus supplement on the net, thank you.