Background - hypothyroid, optimally treated, no antibodies, otherwise fit and healthy.
About two years ago, I started getting sudden episodes of uncontrollable diarrhoea. I thought the first couple of times that I had picked up a bug, although that would be unusual for me, but then I realised (a) it was happening too often and (b) these episodes did not actually make me feel ill apart from the sharp abdominal pain that is the only warning (c) these episodes always last less than an hour.
I’ve gradually narrowed it down so that if I eat no wheat and no rye, and drink no beer, I have no problems at all. However, it’s not that simple, because I can eat some bread and drink some beer. For example, I can eat sourdough bread, but not white sliced and I sh@t myself in a traffic jam (in DH’s car) after eating a chocolate muffin from a well known supermarket. This weekend I was drinking Stella quite happily on Saturday, but I had one pint of Heineken on Sunday and sh@t myself almost without warning on the way home. Luckily, on both those occasions I was on my own.
The fact that I don’t react to all bread, or all beer, suggest to me that the villain of the piece is some sort of chemical additive, perhaps a preservative, but how on earth do I find out what it is?
I have tested negative for coeliac twice, the last time in March this year, despite forcing myself to eat enough gluten. As the blood test was negative, I won’t be offered a biopsy. My GP has not been hugely helpful, but has now referred me to a gastroenterologist. I don’t know how interested he will be in what is clearly, to me at least, an allergy/intolerance issue.
Does anybody have any ideas?
Thanks