Looking for advice on my symptoms
Hello everyone,
I have been struggling with bad digestion for the past 15 years. I have done my own food jounrals and tried some therapies. What I am learning is that the exact situation is highly individual to me. But maybe there are people out there who are experiencing symptoms similar to mine.
So I want to share my story and see who has experienced something similar or has some advice.
My journey started when I had my appendix removed in 2008. Six days after the removal, I took a trip to China. Because of the trip to a foreign country with food that I wasn't used to I did not think about the occasional diarrhea at all. But looking back, the diarrhea hasn't gone away since.
For the first five years or so, I ignored it, hearing stories that "it will eventually go away again".
By 2014, it had gotten really bad. I was always staying close to a toilet just in case. I had developed hemorrhoids from the constant toilet visits. My stool rhythm was: soft stool before breakfast, explosive stool after breakfast, possibly diarrhea during the day depending on the food.
So I went to the doctor for the first time. I was tested for Lactose and Fructose intolerance, but no indication. I had a colonoscopy, but the anatomy was fine.
I tried ecoli drops, loperamide and other things I could get in the pharmacy without a prescription. Initially, it helped. But from my perspective, it felt more like my body adjusted to the medication by learning to ignore it. I would always have a bit of an improvement at first and after a couple of days the medication seemed to have no more effect.
I learned to live with it, building a bit of intuition about what caused diarrhea.
For the past five years or so, I have experimented with "reset diets" where I would eat really basic foods (potatoes, rice) for a couple of days to calm my gut. This seemed to take away the extremes. Neither was my stomach ever really okay, but also the diarrhea got less frequent.
I started this year with a proper food journal hoping to find a specific list of foods to avoid. But no clear answers. I had another colonoscopy this year; anatomy is still fine.
The most recent innovation for me is one teaspoon of Psyllium before every meal. This has reduced the bloated feeling and seems to calm my stomach a lot. Yet, my stool is still always soft.
Here is what I know about my digestion today:
- My stool is always soft. Even when I eat nothing but potatoes and white rice for days. I seem to be unable to have shaped stool.
- Too much fresh yeast —> diarrhea after 10 minutes
- I flatulate a lot. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be smelly.
- Some curries —> diarrhea after 10 minutes
- Alcohol —> explosive diarrhea the next day
- Too much food at once —> diarrhea after 10 minutes
- After the diarrhea I immediately feel much better. I don’t have cramps. My body just opens up and lets it all out.
- Coffee seems to be fine. I don’t drink much of it, though.
- I tried avoiding sugars for a couple of days. But it was really hard to do and I did not notice an immediate effect.
- I wasn’t able to find any specific intolerances other than the fresh yeast.
- I do sports. I am reasonably fit and can run 10 miles. I can control my weight well by having an eye on my snacking.
I am at a state at which I feel that I am managing okay because of the Psyllium. But I am also thinking: Isn’t there more I can do? Why can’t I slowly build a better gut biome over time?
Happy to get any kind of feedback. Thanks!
Hi
and welcome to our community. I'm so sorry that you've been dealing with this for so long. Have you ever been tested for C.diff. or other bacteria? Your symptoms sound like they might come from an infection that you contracted either after your surgery or during your travels, but I'm not an expert of course.
Triggers are all very individual, so there's no one-size-fits-all diet. Gluten and dairy seem to be very common, have you ever tried cutting them out completely to see if that helps? I would try it even if you tested negative for Celiac, for example, because personally I tested negative and removing wheat from my diet still helped so much.
I also thought that this article might be helpful for you: https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/living/fodmaps-trigger-ibs-symptoms. I always found it very hard to pinpoint triggers because I assumed that the food I just ate was the culprit, when in reality it was something I had eaten a couple of hours before.
Another approach that works for some people is seeing a naturopathic doctor. I've heard that they can test the microbiome, although I've personally never seen one.
I hope this helps and that other community members will share their advice with you soon.
Karina (team member)Since you started being sick after your trip to China I wonder if you could have intestinal worms. I have heard that sushi-uncooked fish can have worms in them.
That might be worth exploring for sure! In France (where I live), people eat raw things pretty often and doctors prescribe worm medication regularly.
Karina (team member)
Here is an update. I am one year wiser. It was a long road of trail and error. In the beginning I greatly reduced my diet to only the most agreeable foods. Slowly (very slowly!) I figured out that - likesaid - it was never the last meal, but the 12-24 hours before that.
My personal culprits are: alcohol, wheat and sugar. The larger the amount, the worse my digestion is 12 hours later.
It takes great discipline and sometimes it is really hard socially. But when I reduce those three ingredients to the absolute minimum, my bloating goes away and I don't constantly feel my stomach (the way it should be!).
A food therapist I saw told me that "it takes as many years to get rid of bad digestion as you have had it". That would make it some 10+ years for me. So I have a long way to go still. But it is so much better now!According to the experts (info I found online) digestion takes 24-72 hours. Undigested food is eliminated in about 36 hours. It can take 2-5 days depending on the individual for food to pass. Some foods speed along, like sugary stuff, while other food like meat take much longer, like 2 days. Veggies and fruit can take less than a day. I found that this info helps me to identify which food might be the culprit. My transit time seems to be around 17 hours for some foods at least. Which might account for the diarrhea… it’s going too fast. The waste doesn’t have enough time to absorb the water. That's very interesting, thank you for sharing!
We also have this article: https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/clinical/how-long-do-fodmaps-take about how long it takes for FODMAPs to trigger symptoms.
It can be very helpful to know how long after eating symptoms appear, as the reaction might be due to something we had hours ago.
Karina (team member)
