10 Years of Gut Disorder

Hi, I'm reaching out for help curing my gut problems, which have dogged me for nine years. Please read on and let me know if you can help.

I'm an anotherwise very healthy and fit male aged 40, who previously had no health issues. Aged 31, my problems suddenly started with some bad smelling gas, which became an episode of fatigue and stomache pain. I went to a doctor, who treated me with antibiotics for a potential parasite. But that didn't work.

I had a continual stomache ache or discomfort for the best part of a year while I attempted treatments for this. Within a month of it's emergence it included loose stool in the mornings. This would then go on ever since, basically. I was treated with nexium for a possible ulcer, though I had no reflux, and the issue fluctuated with no apparent reason.

When nothing worked I was referred to a gastroenterologist, who casually diagnosed me with IBS, which just felt wrong given my age and history of iron health. IBS meant he just gave me a piece of paper listing FODMAPS, which seemed to include every foodtype, which I should avoid, maybe. This did not seem promising.

I tried becoming a vegan, vegetarian, different foods, bit it seemed to have no discernible effect on my problem. There was no pattern. If I ate 'badly', I might actually he healthier. So eventually I ate whatever I wanted. But I have never recovered my normal bowel process. I so rarely do really healthy stools.

Over time things settled down without too much focus on this problem, especially with the extreme exercise I often did. But never did it go away.

One theme might be stress, but even when not stressed, it's the same story. I did have a really strange professional situation, with a big project hanging over me, that may even have had a religious aspect. This led me to wonder superstitiously if the problem was unrelated to anything scientific. To be sure, a sense of stress over this makes it worse, and of completion seemed to improve things at one point. But the issue was never cured.

My symptoms are waking up and needing the toilet, then having loose stools and diarrhoeia. In improved circumstances, I do a pretty normal stool in the afternoon. Rarely or never do I go 24 hrs or more without going like I used to. I used to be as healthy as anyone alive.

Recently I got seriously ill, as if with food poisoning, and had diarrhoeia for a fortnight. I visited a doctor and asked for antibiotics, sensing a potential parasite, and metranidazol immediate cured my symptoms! I stabilised for the week long course, then my condition deteriorated. I did a second course which was less successful but I improved. During this time I also took probiotic pills. But two weeks later, I'm back to square one with the same old symptoms.

Why did the antibiotics help? Do I have a problem with my gut bacteria, which the metranidazol killed temporarily? Is this a potential clue? How should I balance my gut bacteria to get back to healthy digestion?

Is there a potential food allergy I might have and what's the most likely cause. All blood and stool tests come back negative. I have had both an edoscopy and a colonoscopy and they found nothing!

Conventional doctors cannot help me. Is there a particular kind of health professional I should be consulting, a dietician or naturopath? Thanks for your advice and consideration.

I only want to focus on my health and make it my number one priority. Thanks again.