My weird experience with alcohol
I doubt if this will make sense to many IBS sufferers, as alcohol is mostly considered a big trigger for IBS.
What happens to me doesn't happen every evening, and I can go a long time without these particular symptoms. But about 4 hours after dinner (I eat about 6pm, so this can start happening around 10pm), after having felt very good, suddenly my gut starts feeling horrible. It's not pain or bloating, it's this all encompassing "discomfort" (very hard to describe) and I start to feel almost like the world is ending. That's a feeling that's also hard to describe.
My heart speeds up, or slows down a LOT, and I might miss heartbeats 4 or 5 times a minute. Also my breathing becomes more intense and deeper. I can feel something akin to nausea, but (how do I explain this?)...it doesn't feel as if my stomach is involved in that. It's not indigestion, reflux or any stomach thing. It feels more like being so scared it makes you feel queasy.
I will pass some wind, maybe tree or four times, but even doing that doesn't help. I literally feel scared, and am unsure what I'm scared of!
Probably of an IBS D flare up starting!
Anyway, I am beginning to learn that if I sip ONE SHOT of alcohol (vodka is the only alcoholic drink that I can handle, and I usually add a little honey to it as it's not nice on its own) -I can feel quite normal and okay again within 5 minutes. My heart returns to normal, my breathing steadies, even the passing wind stops, and I think -what was that all about?
Then I'm usually good for the rest of the evening and night! The alcohol does not trigger a flare up, it seems to do the opposite. And the next morning I don't necessarily have a negative bathroom experience either.
In fact I'm usually good until the next time that happens, which might not be the next evening, it could be weeks later.
Does anyone else find that kind of positive effect from alcohol?
I keep thinking it has to be a bit weird, considering alcohol is an IBS trigger.
The feeling you're describing, with the all-encompassing discomfort and feeling like the world is going to end, reminds me of what anxiety feels like to me. When it's really bad, I get nauseous, too, but even slight anxiety puts my stomach into knots and I couldn't possibly imagine eating. Could it be something like that that you're experiencing? But then of course it doesn't make much sense that it would happen a couple of hours after dinner, and without any particular trigger...
No matter what this is, I'm glad alcohol helps you! If it doesn't cause any negative effects, I wouldn't question it. 😉
I personally can have some wine without it triggering my IBS. We also have this article about alcohol and IBS: https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/living/alcohol-indulge, I don't know if you had seen it?
I hope others will chime in soon, I'd to know if anyone else has a similar experience!
Karina (team member)Oh yes, that sense of "almost nausea" which gets triggered by what's going on lower down in the gut. I know what you mean. That thing after dinner always happens quite a few hours later (usually 4 or 5) so I think that's when all the food has possibly just begin to filter down into the colon. So part of it might be the gastro-colic reflex at work?
Prior to that happening (randomly) all I feel is restful, enjoyed my food, watching a video or movie, relaxing...etc. So it's hard to know what starts it happening.
But I wonder if there's also a fight-flight response too triggered by oversensitivity to fairly normal stuff occurring during digestion, and maybe that's why (in my case) a small amount of alcohol soothes that sensation, because it cools down the sympathetic nervous system a bit.
And part of it I'm sure could be a slight PTSD reaction based on scary experiences in the past with a sudden flare up?
I don't know. But the odd thing is it's not a food trigger which causes that, and it doesn't seem to be an obvious stress trigger either.
But it's quite strange that something that many with IBS find to be a gut irritant and trigger for IBS. can be so helpful for me! Mind you I always think I had to have been built back-to-front! 😁
That's possible about the gastro-colic reflex! I know for sure that IBS has caused me to feel far too much discomfort and almost panic over fairly normal digestive sensations. The "slight PTSD reaction" is exactly how it feels for me, too. We've had such terrible flares that started after feeling slight discomfort in our guts, so that now every little sensation makes out brain think that a flare is coming up, even when it's not.
Since the reaction always starts at approximately the same time in evening, could it be related to something that happened around this time in the past? Did you use to get flares at this time in the evening before?
Haha, it is a bit strange that alcohol helps you, but bananas don't work!
Maybe it's about the quantity, too? I imagine you drink less of the vodka than someone might drink if they were having beer or wine.
Karina (team member)
Yes, I think you're right. It doesn't help when we may have memories of times when we just started to feel a bit of gut discomfort, and then suddenly a horrible flare up came. It is bound to make us hypervigilant about anything we feel is "moving about down there", or even the natural need to pass wind could set off that memory.
I mean...what some people (without IBS) don't realise is how absolutely horrible it is to go through an IBS flare up, especially when we might have been feeling completely normal just minutes before. It's like nothing can be trusted any more. Not even feeling OK!
I don't think the 4-5 hour gap I can sometimes feel after meals and when those particular symptoms start is connected with memories of times past when flare ups began, because often my flare ups would begin first thing in the mornings after sleep. I did have two flares that started at night, but one started at 1am, and another at 2am, so those don't fit that pattern.
It might be more to do with the time digestion takes, and coincide with the time food has passed through the small intestine and what's left starts to enter the colon. The timing would make sense. I also wonder if it has to do with wind moving down as that happens.
No, bananas don't help me. They make my tummy a bit "too frisky" the next morning! i.e. they act like a laxative for me, as do many other fruits and some veggies like beetroot or carrots. I have had many upset tummies the next morning from eating even half of a banana the day before, even when it's not too ripe. That may be because of the fibre. I don't know. It can't be fructose, as I can happily eat honey.
It's a shame, because I do like them.
Yes, with the alcohol, I will feel some relief even after just a few sips (or maybe one measured shot in total) It doesn't need any more than that.Hypervigilance really is the right term. I think that people without IBS are used to feeling well unless they're ill, and it's a lot easier mentally to deal with an illness caused by a virus or bacteria than to feel sick for no reason whatsoever. At least for me that's the case.
After reading your last comment, I actually realized that specifically wind can cause very uncomfortable, almost anxiety-like feelings for me. They often only last a couple of minutes. It's definitely somewhere in my lower tummy and it's not usually related to a flare... Maybe there's one part of the digestive system, as you said, right before the colon, that's especially sensitive to discomfort for some reason?
I can always remember your trigger foods because they're my ultimate safe foods, haha. Especially bananas, carrots, potatoes, apples... I'm also sensitive to fiber, but there must be something special about these foods that make them work so well for some people and not others.
Karina (team member)
