digestive enzymes

[Iworryalot]

hi there does anyone take or know anything about digestive enzymes ? i have ibs since having bad childrens tummy bug 2 years ago , also stress and worry have made things worse but is better than was but having done some research found Enzyme Digest with betaine HCI , sounds a good thing to take may help my digestion problems any advice .

is your IBS diagnosed by a GP, hospital doctor or self?

doctor and specialist

Have you tried probiotics like yakult? These are supposto help. There are an awful lot of enzymes in your tummy by the way.

yes do take actimal and rotate with yakult when i remember to take them ,

no other problems with your gut at all?

if not, my usual reccommendation to clients who come to me with IBS is to go on a pysillium husk fibre course for a month and then come back to talk about what we do from there on the digestive side.

I will reccommend either maxicol or lepicol to them (no real difference between the 2 brands except lepicol was the original)

www.ibs-irritablebowelsyndrome.co.uk/

unless complications, I usually will not reccommend anything else until 1 month of this has been done. after 1 month most of the time you can tell if this is going to work and in the majority of the cases it does work and a further 2 months of intensive use of this is all that will need to be used except maintainance doses after.

I rarely reccommend digestives enzymes first as the bowel walls will be inflamed or gunked up, and some of the constituents in the enzyme pills could irritate your bowel more before the gut has had a chance to calm done.

if you are interested in this, I will go into more detail if you wish

I'm not 100% sure on the use of these, I know there's a difference between pre/pro biotics so they should in theory do different things. Actimal is IMO, full of sugar and not really the best thing for a dodgy tummy. There is one that is specifically aimed to help slow digestive transit (constipation), which should be better but I can't remember it's name. Yalkult is good for keeping well tummies well. Have you looked into food allergies? Wheat, milk etc? as they can cause problems.

thankyou both , basically iv had this problem now for almost 2 years , a triger was a bad tummy bug/ both sickness and diohrea (sorry cant spell ) after which my bowels have never recovered , have slowly got better that they were but not back to normal .throughout this time i was very worried was somethibg sinister .... bowel C , so went back and back to doc who always said ibs , i do worry alot and since then have suffered health anxiety /panic attacks ,am getting better now though slowly .... so as i was soooo worried refured myself privately to gasto specialist , who assured me thought was ibs triggered by bug sustained by my anxiety ...also had a sgmoidoscopy and full bloods done , stool samples and bowel biopsys all came back normal .specialist recomended CBT to help my anx . iv seen him since and is still happy with everything .
my symptoms

i get very bloated, specially by pm
wind
undigested food in BM
fluffy floating BM
sometims shreddy type BM
sometimes there quite normal .
i go once a day .

sorry to be so graphic

does anyone have similar ?

it is alot bettter that has been but am seeking ways in which i can help .

Have you had an abdominal ultrasound to check for gallstones?

sorry about the bad spelling writing whilst doing chores ..
its often bad around my period to ..

no acan for gallstones , had ultrasound scan on overys though , all normal

Do you get pain under your ribs on the right side?

no no pain at all only the occasional grippy tum pain

I would try the probiotics, you need to have one every day. You also need to look at your diet, ds gets diarhhoea like this if he eats too much wheat (bread/pasta). What are you eating?

i have a good healthy diet not 100% perfect but i do eat fruite and veg most days iv switched to porridge in the morning instead of fruite and fibre which has made a differance to y BM i have rasberrys and blueberrys with yogurt for mid morning snack ,light lunch, then another snack afternoon usually apple , then dinner , and try to drink lots of water ,

im not perfect but you have to live a little dont you....

Hmm. Fluffy floating poo is a sign of fat not being absorbed properly, which is a result of gallstones normally, the pain for gallstones is made worse with fatty foods.

I would still try the other yogurts (I still can't remember the name). You can buy things at the health food shop but be careful. I'll have a chat with my friend who uses these tomorrow and ask her, then get back to you. She'll know alot more than me.

Did your doctor/specialist do the coeliac blood test? If not it would be worth having it done because how you describe your BM is a classic indication of coeliac disease. Even if you had a negative blood test a year ago it would be worth repeating it as if you were in the early stages of coeliac disease you would not yet have developed the antibodies. It can take repeat tests over several years to get a positive blood test. It's just something worth keeping an eye on if your symptoms don't improve.

thankyou both , he did test for coeliac came back normal , he did say the only other thing i could have done is a enoscopy 9cant spell0 the one that looks in your tummy take biopsys for coiliac , but says he is happy and feels sure its IBS , have just had blood count done along with thyroid, hormones and iron all ok ..i do think its something like gut imbalance ,it does get me down alot as i do worry and therefore worry makes it worse ...visious circle ..

today bought a book called the good gut guide so am going to study that later and see if anything sounds like me....feel like im the only one with this problem ...

I think you should get tested for gall stones and also fecal elastase to see if you release enough pancreatic enzymes.
I suffered with oily poo for years due to undiagnosed pancreatic insufficiency and now take creon.

were your symptoms the same as mine ?

Yes, except I would go 4-5 times a day, and it is an awful lot. Do you find that there is a large volume of it?

ds1 uses digestive enzymes, Best place to buy them in the UK is mandi mart

Well, you can get them on prescription if you are pancreatic insufficient. But if you didn't want to go through the poo tests ect then you could buy the herbal type ones. I'm not sure how well they work though, compared to creon/pancrease ect.

Yes, it looks like they only do protease ones, whereas creon is a mixture of amylase, lipase and protease. The first two break down starch and fats.