Daily stomach issues. Potential IBS...
Hi guys! I hope everyone is well? I am new here so apologies if I get the etiquette wrong!
Extremely brief history - I have had on and off issues (more on than off!) with my stomach for years and years. It used to be a bit of a running joke with friends and family but now I have grown tired of the jokes. I am a 31year old male and I have hit a stage where I want to try and at least attempt to fix the issue.
I wanted to reach out to people with genuine experience instead of reading articles online and trying to communicate with my doctor (here in the UK due to COVID it is not easy to have a proper conversation with your doctor anymore unless it is an emergency!).
I am working through my lifestyle and my diet and trying to figure out what could be the cause. This week in particular has been pretty annoying. Upset stomach here and there. Occasional cramping. Nothing severe but bad enough that I am here asking for advice!
To give you a picture - I would estimate I am of average build, perhaps a few extra pounds which I am trying to work on with exercise. I drink tea (sorry I'm British!) approx 2-3 cups a day. I rarely drink booze. However I have drank a little more booze this January - approx 2 ciders an evening which I share with my wife. I like spicy food but have learnt to really really limit this so I am not sure if that could be the cause... I eat quite a varied diet - my wife is a vegetarian so I get a fair amount of veggies in my diet. This month I have barely touched bread and the problem still seems to persist...
Could anyone share what are their triggers for their stomach issues? Any advice on what I should eliminate from diet all together?
Could it be as simple as the cider or the tea that needs to go?
Hi
and welcome to our community!
I'm sorry that you've been dealing with digestive issues. Have you been able to get any tests done over the years, just to rule out other potential illnesses? If not, I would try to get that done whenever COVID makes it possible again.
In the meantime, here are a couple of things you could try:
- The Low FODMAP diet (https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/ibs-diet) is a great way to start figuring out your trigger foods. You can find plenty of information about it on our website and the internet in general. For me, it was the first thing that has helped me get better.
- Keeping a food diary. Writing down everything you eat as well as the symptoms you have can help pinpoint your triggers. I would also suggest writing down when you're feeling stress or anxiety since these can be major triggers as well.
- Trigger foods are different for everyone. However, dairy, gluten, onions, garlic, too many vegetables and fruits as well as caffeine and fizzy drinks seem to be common ones for lots of IBS sufferers. From what you've said, I would experiment with maybe eating smaller quantities of veggies and mixing them with something like white rice (a safe food for many IBS sufferers, here's a forum discussion about it: https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/forums/white-rice-not-a-bad-choice-so-it-seems-for-ibs-d). Cider and tea might be triggers, especially if the cider is fizzy and the tea contains caffeine. Maybe you could try herbal tea for a couple of days to see if that helps? Flares can also be caused by small things like ingredients with too much fructose, chocolate, etc. so it's hard to pinpoint sometimes.
I hope this helps you! Wishing you quick relief.
Karina (team member)Hi! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. I have heard of the low FODMAP diet. Thank you for the link, it is really interesting what can and can't be eaten.I will trial a few days using the diet and I will give the food diary a go to.
I would have replied sooner but yesterday was a total wipeout due to some sort of stomach upset. I have to wonder if it was some form of food poisoning... I literally spent a couple of hours rotating between the toilet and lying ill on the couch ( sorry for the info). Right on the day that I write the message!
I went without the cider last night and so far so good. Could possibly have been caused by this. I had a very mild tea after eating breakfast and took some slipper elm first thing in the morning today which I understand is supposed to help line the stomach..
I find all this so weird though because it feels like things are getting worse the older I get! Is this normal?
Thanks againOh no, I'm so sorry that you haven't been feeling well! I feel you, sometimes it can be so hard to distinguish between a flare and food poisoning. One of our advocates recently wrote this article about exactly that: https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/living/food-poisoning
Unfortunately, it can take some time to figure out what's triggering flares. For me, my body sometimes takes a while to recover from triggers, even if I stop consuming them, so I wouldn't worry if you don't see any major improvement at first. I really hope that diet changes will help with your symptoms over time!
As for symptoms getting worse the older you get, I've seen a couple of community members talking about that. You're definitely not alone! If you like, you could start another forum topic for this to get more community members to share their experiences?
Wishing you quick relief from your flare!
Karina (team member)
