Diet and Irrritable Bowel Syndrome
Published 19 May 2017 • Updated 20 Oct 2020 • By Léa Blaszczynski
Avril tells us her story about more than 30 years of fighting against IBS and now being almost free of it. Not always medicines are going to help us get better, sometimes a simple change of lifestyle is what we need.
Hello Avril, could you please introduce yourself in a few words?
I'm a retired teacher with two adult children and four grand-children. I live with my husband in a small village in the heart of the English countryside, where I enjoy walking, bird-watching, gardening and creative arts (such as photography).
When were you diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and how did you get the diagnosis?
I was diagnosed with the diarrhoea-dominant form of IBS when I was in my early thirties after routine blood tests and X-rays revealed no signs of other, more serious conditions, such as Crohn's or Coeliac Disease.
Was it hard to cope with the condition? Did it change something in your everyday life?
It was extremely hard to cope with. Being driven out of bed every morning and spending most mornings frequently and urgently visiting the bathroom was very disruptive to my routine. It changed my life completely. From being an active, out-going person who loved travelling, I became virtually housebound and fearful of going anywhere. I could no longer go out to work full-time (teaching was out of the question), which affected my finances, I couldn't travel far, and it was difficult to mix socially. After some bad experiences in supermarkets, after a while I stopped doing the family food shopping. (Fortunately, my husband was able and willing to do the shopping and the morning school run.) Eventually, because of so many restrictions on what I could do, eventually it also affected me emotionally, and I became depressed.
What medications and remedies did you try before feeling much better?
To begin with I was given various medications to help relieve the symptoms. These didn't help at all, and some even made my symptoms worse. (One medication gave me blood poisoning.) When I refused further medications, I was put on an exclusion diet, but, although this did help to reduce the symptoms to a degree, at the same time it made it even more difficult for me to mix socially because I couldn't eat a lot of the food offered at events.
You have been suffering with IBS for thirty-five years and now you are much better. What has been the secret of this recovery?
Probiotics and another change in diet! After so long without any real reduction in my symptoms, I decided one day to do my own research to try and figure out what was wrong with me. I discovered that I actually had two problems.
One was an inability to properly digest cow's milk (which had given me obnoxious wind and abdominal bloating since birth). The other was the diarrhoea which had started after a bout of gastro-enteritis at the age of 32.
What led me to discovering the allergy to cow's milk was my reading a really useful book entitled 'Eat Right for your Type'. In it, the author (Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo) states that 'most dairy products are not suitable for people with blood type A - for the simple reason that Type A blood creates anti-bodies to the primary sugar in whole milk...' Not everyone in the medical profession agrees with the general hypothesis in Dr. D'Adamo's book, but I can report that when I eliminated all dairy products from my diet, my wind and bloating disappeared within days.
My allergic reaction to dairy products showed me that my immune system had played a part, and that it had also been under continual stress. Stopping that stress was my first step in recovery. However, I still had the diarrhoea, though not as badly as before. Though the original bad bug had been eliminated, something had changed to cause continuous symptoms. I believe this change was a change in the microbiome of my digestive system.
When I had a stool analysis at one point in time, it was found that I had very few of the good bugs in my bowel. So, although I didn't have the bad bugs, I didn't have enough of the good bugs either. These bugs help to protect the bowel wall. So these needed replenishing. My gastro-enterologist suggested a probiotic called VSL#3 which I was able to get from Boots the chemist. (It's expensive and unfortunately not always available on prescription via our GP, which I think it should be.) Those we can buy in the supermarket in the form of yoghurt-like drinks do not work, because the good bugs get destroyed by our stomach acid, and we need to get them further down the digestive system to the bowel.
When I discovered the lack of good bugs, I asked myself why these were not re-generating themselves, and after much research, I concluded that it was because they could not adhere to the cell walls of the bowel. The reason for this was I believe due to something called lectins. That is toxic food lectins. These do not normally cause problems in people, but may do so when the bowel wall is compromised in some way, as in the case of an infection, or in the absence of protective good bugs. These lectins are natural proteins found in many foods, especially in cereals. I figured that if I cut out as many of the lectin-rich foods from my diet as possible, it would give the bowel wall a chance to repair itself and for the good bugs to then re-generate.
So my next step then was to cut out the lectin-rich foods from my diet. This was difficult because it left very little that I felt able to eat, and it was necessary to cut them out for up to a year. The medical profession does not seem to have taken this lectin thing on board, but there is information about toxic food lectins on the Internet. Lectins are a natural protein in plants that protect the plants from attack by insects. So they are natural insecticides. When I cut out these foods from my diet, my symptoms slowly but surely improved. Now I eat goats' products instead of cow's. For cereal I eat mainly rice, maize/corn, and millet. And I'm re-introducing a lot of foods I once thought I couldn't tolerate, such as fruits, including raspberries and grapes. And I eat organically-produced food as much as possible, to avoid foods that may have residues of chemical sprays, such as insecticides and herbicides. And I only take medications when absolutely necessary. This is to avoid putting the immune system under stress, for these things can be toxic.
What positive message would you like to share with our readers?
Never give up hope. When you're having a bad day remember that it may not always be so bad.
If possible, eat fresh, organically-produced food, and supplement your diet with probiotics that are known to work.
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12 comments
Thank you, Mr Chipps, for your good wishes, and for sharing your poem. It's a lovely poem that shows a positive attitude that is inspiring. I find that facing fears and confronting them straight on helps to reduce them. But I also find it helps to do so by degrees, taking each new step and repeating until comfortable, and then going a step further. I wish you all the best for the future. Don't give in.
Avril
i agree with your sentiments about doing things by degrees and for me that is a hard thing to do, as i have always had to things at full pelt and will not rest until they are completed.
i am pleased that you liked the poem, i wrote it when i had my creative head on, but i do not write many new poems now, as i have run out of ideas, this is something i will overcome in time. because i want to want to write songs that may hopefully be sung in the male voice choir i am a member of?
take care ,kind regards keith
Hi Avril and Keith and any others reading this.
I feel for you, I don't have IBS but I did have an irritable bowel for over a year during a period where I had taken several doses of anti biotics over a period of 10 months due to a long term infection in my lungs. I did have one medicine the doctor gave me to take about 30 mins before food which helped but this did not treat the overall health of the bowel.
I understand that if you've had IBS for so long what helped me, may not work for you or it could help ease your symptoms when you are having a particularly bad time of it.
My brother in law is a chemist who also qualified as a herbalist, his main advice was to take a course of pro biotics, the real ones, not those in yoghurt or yakult The high strength probiotics you can get from the health food store or a well known chemist in UK also stocks, them, there are so many different ones you can take for different types of irritable bowel and these days I would use them if for any reason I get an irritable bowel or have to take a course of anti biotics. Medications can upset the bowel, anti biotics is just one of them.
My mother suffered terribly with her bowel after having bowel cancer and the doctor prescribed for her Fibrogel you may know of this already, this is completely natural and you can buy the equivalent in the health food shop, its like husks of seeds and you add to a drink.
What I would do for myself at the time when my bowel was very unhappy is take a months course of the probiotics, (pro biotics put the natural flora / friendly bacteria into the bowel bringing it more into balance. Forgive me if you already know this, irritable bowel is when the unfriendly bacteria in the bowel is excessive to the friendly bacteria, its out of balance, the pro biotics put more of the friendly bacteria back into the bowel that is why taking a course of the probiotics can help the bowel. It may be something that can't help your particular problem with IBS but I would say its worth a try if you haven't already done so.
I note probiotics have helped you Avril. Also there are other alternatives to cows milk and goats milk whenever you fancy a change, Rice Milk, Oats Milk, Soya Milk, Almond Milk, Coconut Milk, also another alternative to dairy that I can't quite remember the name of. I particularly love Almond milk and I like Coconut Milk on my cereal and in desserts, I made a bread pudding once with coconut milk and coconut oil, using the coconut oil spread on the bread instead of butter. It was delicious and easier on the tummy than cows milk and butter. I find the alternative to dairy koko I think is the brand is very good in tea or coffee and also Rice Milk is quite good in tea or coffee too, most all are fortified with calcium and other nutrients though, where as milk from the animal has these in their natural form..... I digress.....
For me after taking a months course of probiotics my bowel would settle for a time, then a few weeks later it would become irritable again so I would take another months course and again the bowel would settle again, I kept doing that until my bowel came back into balance, as I say for me it took about a year going longer between each treatment, I rarely get irritable bowel now, but as I said mine was bought on by anti biotics and its not something I was born with.
I hope this may be of help to someone.
Best wishes to you Avril and Keithe
Ely
By the way I find white bread very bloating, some bakers bread worse than others and I do still enjoy a slice of white bread toasted, however its not just white bread I've noticed it can be where bakers use the commercial white flour to bake scones, cakes pastry etc.
I think its ok to have some of these food items but I find if I have too much I get bloating, it makes so much difference to how you feel not having a bloated tummy. Sometimes I can get a bloat if I have wholemeal bread which I find lays heavy on my tummy.
I find malted granary bread non bloating, light on the tummy and is good fresh and toasted. :)
What is thi Avril?
I do qigong, tai chi type moves which I find very relaxing and calming, its like meditation to movement and if you can get your chi flowing smoothly it is of course good for health. I attend a class once a week and do medical qigong workshops occasionally, I start with doing the shortly video practises on you tube, you can try it for 10 mins 7 mins, 15 mins, 20 mins etc. the names I would recommend on you tube, are Don Fiore and Lee Holden, they are very good at explaining, Don Fiore is a more risk free instructor, Lee Holden is a bit more challenging and in any case, its always best to check with your doc first of course if you haven't done any exercise for some time.
Just listening to relaxing music can de stress or one of your tube videos with music, there are some reall good ones, I particularly like Nature by Numbers video by Crystobal Vila with music by Wim Mertens, Often a Bird.
Not sure if video links such as these are permitted, will try one and if you want the others and its ok can post or send you pm with links.
Nature by numbers (best watched on full screen on you tube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKPzDFDnmuw
Dear Ely,
Thank you so much for all the advice that you have posted. It's extremely thoughtful of you.
Yes, some of what you have written is familiar territory for me, such as regarding probiotics and Fibrogel. However, it's interesting what you say about needing to top up with the probiotics, as I wasn't sure whether one course of probiotics was sufficient to get things back into balance. The fact that you found you needed to top up from time to time and then eventually things returned more to normal gives me confidence to do the same. So I've ordered another month's worth of probiotics, will see how things go, and repeat from time to time in the hope that one day I will find I'm more or less back to normal. Meanwhile, I am much improved these days on how I was formerly, so it's a case of my aiming to maintain that and possibly make even further improvements.
I will have a look with interest at the videos you mentioned.
My best wishes to you, and thank you again for your kind contribution here.
Avril
