End of 30 days, still GI distress

[JaneRock]

Typical day:

Morning frittata with salsa, avocado and sauerkraut, or fried eggs with veggies or hash...

After breakfast, coffee with coconut cream and coconut milk

Mid morning caffeine free tea, water water water

Lunch: protein, roasted veggies, some ranch dollop and sauerkraut

Dinner: a protein and roasted veggies or spiralizer sautéed veggies etc. maybe avocado, maybe coconut flakes, but a fat.

Daily--minimal to no fruit.

Veggies always cooked at this point--roasted or sautéed, etc.

Still IBS-D symptoms, and a whole new gurgling of the gut.

Sleep is better--quit Benadryl cold turkey at the beginning. Have needed Advil only 2 x, and used to be much more. I also suspended Metamucil and have not taken any fiber.

I tried magnesium supplement, but it really upset my stomach/GI tract.

Energy is good--longer walks and have started running. Moods are good--just highly discouraged with the GI stuff.

Thanks for any insight.

The next thing is an intake with a naturopath later this month, and a nutritionist.

[Tom Denham]

Your meals look good. The one gut irritant that stands out is coconut flakes. They can be challenging to digestion. 

 

You might consider taking a probiotic supplement. I assumed that my daily sauerkraut and kombucha gave me plenty of probiotics naturally, but when I added Primal Flora or Prescript-Assist every day, my bowel movements improved.

 

I could not take Natural Calm as a magnesium supplement without causing loose stools frequently. My functional medicine doctor directed me to take magnesium aspartate tablets instead and that has been perfect for me with no loose stools of diarrhea resulting. Magnesium comes in several forms - citrate, aspartate, and something else. The different forms affect the gut differently. 

 

Sometimes GI problems take longer than 30 days to resolve. I think you are on a good path. 

[JaneRock]

Thanks for that--and I should have said I do take a probiotic. The coconut flakes are sporadic--and I also did give up almond butter and nuts that were "ok"--because they were not ok for me.

Take care and thank you--

[jmcbn]

Which specific 'veggies' are you eating?

[JaneRock]

Main veggies are (and cooked)

Sweet potato

Zucchini

Spaghetti squash

Onions, red onions

Broccoli (cooked well)

Carrots

Cabbage in the form of sauerkraut

Carrots

Tomatoes

Red potatoes

Cauliflower

Butternut squash

Snap peas

Minimal fruits are:

Blueberry

Very ripe banana

Kiwi

Apple

Strawberry

Mandarin orange

[JaneRock]

And beets!

[jmcbn]

Ok, so I hate to say this because I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but some of the veg you are eating are high FODMAP and with IBS symptoms you'd really want to be excluding those.... or at least keeping them to a bare minimum.

I'd sub your onions for the green parts of scallions for starters, then I'd cut WAY back on sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, cabbage & snap peas to see if your bloating settles. Fruit wise you look okay. I'd look at adding in Kombucha or a probiotic to help your gut to heal and then I'd reintroduce the fodmaps one by one, starting with the kraut for it's digestive properties & take it from there.

Coconut milk/cream & avocado are also high fodmap by the way.

Of course I could be way off the mark here, but if your bloating is anything like mine it's worth a try.
 

[JaneRock]

Have too experienced improvement with a low-FODMAP diet?

Thank you for your input...

I feel the low-FODMAP route is what will be coming, next.

Likely quitting coffee...tomorrow.

Big sigh.

[JaneRock]

**have you

[jmcbn]

Have too experienced improvement with a low-FODMAP diet?

Thank you for your input...

I feel the low-FODMAP route is what will be coming, next.

Likely quitting coffee...tomorrow.

Big sigh.

Absolutely.

And I'd been eating this way for quite some time before I started having issues - I just over did it on certain foods during the summer and paid the price.

I'd tried digestive enzymes first but they had no effect at all - I just had to allow my gut time to heal. I left it probably longer than was required but I found a happy place eating low fodpmap and didn't really feel the need to reintroduce anything for a while. Then fater researching a little I introduced a daily glass of kombucha and felt so much better that I've been doing FODMAP food trials since the start of the year - most of which has gone well.

It doesn't have to be a permanent thing. It just takes a bit of self experimentation to find your body's tolerance limit.

[JaneRock]

I have upped my probiotics to 4x day and switched magnesium.

Better...? Ish.

[praxisproject]

It's worth trying different probiotics too. I find fermented veggies are often too much (in larger quantities) but larger amounts of kombucha works well for me

[jmcbn]

I agree with praxis in that it's worth trying different things - and also worth noting that fermented foods will have up to 100 times MORE probiotics than a probiotic supplement.

That said when I was at my worst kraut did absolutely nothing for me, and in fact probably made me worse. Kombucha however would appear to be working wonders.

[JaneRock]

Thanks--I am doing so much reading and now am SO antsy for my appointment next week with a functional practitioner/naturopath.

I was reading about too much yeast in the small intestine and using diflucan to treat...as a help for IBS.

You can see I want a magic pill.

Until Monday, I will Whole30 on and keep taking notes in my journal.

I shudder to think of my kids finding this one after I die--all my bathroom habits in there, trying to puzzle it out.

Ah well. Here's to health.

J

[AnnaLizbeth]

So, as someone who also struggles with GI-issues (reason I'm on Whole30), I can definitely tell you that any continuing GI issues I'm experiencing are related to two things: FODMAP foods and coffee. I think coffee is the worse of the two, because on days that I don't have coffee, I can eat red peppers and brussels sprouts without any problems!!

[JaneRock]

Today, I am reading about the GAPS diet and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet...

The quest for healing continues.

I am happy I am not alone...but wow, I dislike that others suffer with gut issues!

[praxisproject]

Some things can be combinations too. I find my tolerance for everything (except gluten) goes up if I don't eat dairy.

 

Coffee, nuts and FODMAPs are regulars in the "a-ha!" moments.

[JaneRock]

Today I am just angry that there is no improvement. I am out of steam and just ready to not care anymore, you know?

Ok, enough whining.

[jmcbn]

Today I am just angry that there is no improvement. I am out of steam and just ready to not care anymore, you know?

Ok, enough whining.

What are you doing differntly to gain improvement  - other than the additional probiotics?

[JaneRock]

I've cut my consumption of sweet potatoes, garlic, onions.  Upped the probioitics, added kombucha in sips throughout the day.  No more apples, only the very occasional spotted brown banana, and that, in small bites, and only a bit.  

 

Cut my coffee consumption, likely quitting soon.  Added magnesium, B vitamins.  

[jmcbn]

Removing the sweet potatoes, onions & garlic is a good start. Unfortunately for me personally, once the gut inflammation was there no amount of reducing FODMAPs helped - I had to eliminate to get results, then allow my gut to heal before reintroducing the offending foods along side the probiotics in the form of kombucha.

If you're still eating broccoli, cauliflower, beets, & cabbage then you're still eating foods that could be causing the bloating.

I've also read that kombucha is best taken on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning for it's probiotic benefits - although this is more hearsay - I'm not sure that's there is actual evidence to support this.

[LucieB]

Agree! The gut bacteria that are fermenting those foods need to be "starved" out. Even reduced amounts keeps them going. I did 6 weeks of strict low as I could go FODMAP with great results.