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Trial with VSL3 probiotic for IBS D

Posted , 11 users are following.

ned7744
ned7744

Hi,

I've decided to trial a few things on a 'longer' term basis for try and help with my Ibs.

I am on day 31 of VSL 3 probiotic. 1 sachet a day (on a morning) mixed into an activia yoghurt.

So... Up until 3 days ago I hadn't really noticed any improvement. I've not changed my diet in any way and eating at usual times and usual quantities of food. 3 days ago (and as I write this) my ibs seems to have calmed down. I've been passing solid stools and for the first time in years I'm actually passing a stool and not having to rush back to the toilet for a second attempt lol. I have also passed a few stools recently and the 'not finished' feeling has gone. 

Not saying that this VSL is curing me or whatever as there have been times previously I've had no symptoms of ibs for a short period of time usually before an ibs attack.

Just thought ppl maybe interested. I will keep this post updated. Plan to stay on the VSL for a few months before I can judge 100% whether it helps my symptoms or not. 

:-)

4 likes, 59 replies

59 Replies

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  • sunny1031
    sunny1031 ned7744

    Posted

    Hi Ned.  I have a question for you.  Did you have alot of gas associated with your ibsd?  A coupld of years ago (March 2012) I started having stomach/gut problems.  A colonoscopy had already been done previously, and everything was fine.  All of a sudden I started feeling nauseated everyday, then my stools were loose alot and the color and consistency changed.  I went to a gastroenterologist who checked me out (no images) and gave me a list of things to do. He thought I had issues with GERD too and advised me to take Prilosec.  I also had pain in my abdomen, but he didn't seem concerned.  My lower back even hurt too.  I was afraid something was wrong with my pancreas.  I was extremely sensitive to fat of any kind, and mayo was a big no no, sending me running to the bathroom. Actually everything sent me running to the bathroom.  He gave me a list of meds which included VSL#3 and Citracel (fiber) among of couple of other things. Fastforward...my symptoms got alot better, except for the nausea.  I actually got used to feeling somewhat sick every single day.  I never took the meds the doc told me to. In November 2012 I had an endoscopy.  Everything was fine.  He found a little redness from GERD but told me to stop taking the Prilosec, because he didn't think I needed it.  He also found a hiadal (sp) hernia and tested me for celiac disease, which he thought I might have, but that came back negative. The nausea actually stopped right after the endoscopy.  Weird, but wonderful!  I was so much better that I started eating whatever I wanted again. OK, so now...2 years later, I'm still having issues but they are different.  For the past year, I have been experiencing intestinal gas on a regular basis.  It seems no matter what I eat, it gives me immediate gas. It's so annoying.  Some foods affect me more than others.  I truly believe sugar is a big problem.  I have stopped soft drinks altogether.  It's hard to stop everything all at once. The gas is bad even without the drinks. I do think I'm gluten intolerent. I'm so frustrated with this, as I have never had a problem with gas until about a year ago.  It's a constant problem no matter what I eat.  So.....do you really think the VSL#3 is a good thing?  I have a whole bottle of it.  I took it once, but I felt like it made my stomach hurt the next day and I still had the gas, so I said forget it.  Oh, and what is a sachet?  Mine are in capsule form.
    • ned7744
      ned7744 sunny1031

      Posted

      If your having issues with nausea, brain fog, tiredness etc then I'd seriously consider looking at your sugar intake. I had serious brain fog, struggled to concentrate properly, always tired, heavy heart beat etc so looking back around the time my ibs all kicked off I realised I consumed a lot of sugar... Not just in soft drinks but in my general diet. So one day I just decided to quit the sugar.

      Man I felt bad for a month. The withdrawl sent my body into some weird cravings. I felt dizzy, thirsty all the time, craving anything sweet. It was hard to deal with. I almost felt hungover for 1 month before I started seeing improvement. I was at meeting in work and just felt spaced out... Like I was drunk lol. I slept soo much and was soo thirsty. I drank nothing but water, cut out all fizzy drinks, sweet tea, donuts etc. Anything with loads of sugar in I stopped.

      Anyway after about 5 - 6 weeks things drastically changed. I could feel my stomach getting better, my ibsd wasn't as bad, headaches went, brain fog went, I had more energy... I just felt loads better. The main thing was the smelly gas and burning from ibsd stopped completely. It's been the same ever since. I do have sugar now, buy manage it better. I don't drink coke... It's bad... Really bad. I have sugar free where I can and just regulate it. 

      Following on from the whole sugar thing I still had bad episodes of ibsd but things were different. Quitting sugar made a difference and has done to this day. There are other issues still playing a part of my ibs... I just constantly research over and over and will find my cure!

      As for the VSL... Saw and felt nothing for about 2 months then things got a lot better. As per my previous posts... I know and feel the difference. I'm probably about 90% better now.

      I really appreciate the help and advice ppl have given me. One thing I keep saying and believe in though is ppl with ibs should look at their diets, lifestyle...etc and identify possible causes of their symptoms then change 1 thing and test it. For example as I keep saying I started taking 1 sachet of VSL probiotic daily and did nothing else. Kept my diet the same, lifestyle the same etc... And have it time. That way I could conclude easily whether the VSL probiotic actually worked. I could then eat trigger food and see how my body copes... Proving whether the VSL has improved things. This is exactly what I have done and instead of suffering for 5 days or diahrrea after eating trigger foods it's now more likely to be 1 day.

      I mean the other weekend I had alcohol and usually the next day I make sure I stay at home near a toilet as I know il have diahrrea. I won't travel or go out in case I have to go to the toilet. Anyway I travelled to see a friend, went out for a long walk with him, had a Chinese for tea, drank coffee during the day... No problems. Something I could never do 6 months ago.

      Last weekend I bought some beer. I haven't drank beer in months, if not years because it would play my stomach up big time. Anyway after 3 cans of beer and a Chinese I woke up the next morning slightly bloated... No real problem... Felt a bit tired but that's because I had a late night. My stools were slightly loose, but not really a problem.

      So yeah.... That's the story so far.

    • carmel83758
      carmel83758 ned7744

      Posted

      I had a problem with brain fog etc. It does not always have a connection to sugar. I dont use sugar at all, or any form of sweeteners, do not even like it. In my case it was an imbalance of gut flora which I put right with biotics.
  • sunny1031
    sunny1031 ned7744

    Posted

    Oh, and my stools are and have been almost completely normal for a long time.  I do experience some diarrhea if I eat too much fruit or whatever.
  • ned7744
    ned7744

    Posted

    I've just bought nearly 2 months supply of VSL. I'm going to stick with it. If I notice no improvement with sufficient time I will stop. Is like to also get some decent L Glutamine and take that. Bought this stuff off eBay and I'm sure it's just capsules of talc lol.

    I also want to now start looking into my diet very closely as I seem to be able to know now from taking VSL what foods are actually causing me bloating and diahrrea.

    I just need to get a plan in place to try each thing in turn over a period of time.

    I keep reading a lot of new posts from ppl on here saying 'been diagnosed with ibs for 6 months, tried everything... Nothing works'. That's rubbish. These ppl have not taken a structured approach to dealing with their symptoms (in my opinion).

    Something I've found my GP and specialists lacking is a structured approach to dealing with ibs. Since seeing a consultant and also now a dietician I feel I have the necessary Info to manage my ibs and improve it without needing to keep going back to see my GP or being given medication which just reduces a symptom instead of curing the root cause.

  • Pctom
    Pctom ned7744

    Posted

    Hi Ned, 

    iam in a very similar situation 2 u Iam taking vsl3 been on it for bout 2 months now and there has been improvements but it takes time! Iam quite impatient so that doesn't help , Iam now in process of ordering symprove which has had nhs clinical trials, it was also on daytime telly for how effective it is set rebalancing your gut flora but they recommend 12 wk course! Then a maintenance dose after that, I've also heard that we might never reset our flora out once it's f$ck@d but Iam  not wanting 2 start thinking like they right now cause everyone of us responds 2 stuff differently But when u have gut ache all day u 'll try anything, see the prob is that I,ve had countless courses of antibiotics which can totally wipe out  good and bad bacteria that balanced u out in first place so it can b frustrating cause Iam  like u iam havin good days with vsl but it feels that the gut aches r never far away! Also what iam doing is rotating with probiotics cause what I've read is that ur gut is like an eco forest with lots of bacteria just doin there thing and lettin u get on with ur life and there is a lots of different species of bacteria in your gut, (sorry 4 info overload here) u should look at prebiotics cause that is almost the missing piece of the puzzle I reckon! Anyhow goodluck in your quest for inner peace.

    :-)

    • carmel83758
      carmel83758 Pctom

      Posted

      Your gut flora will only become rebalanced if you do the whole thing. Or at least it would be a lot quicker then. You cannot treat biotics as a medicine where they are magic pills. You also need to have a lot of prebiotics and cut out sugar, alcohol, caffeeine, refined and procesed food and increase vegetables while taking them. If you do the whole thing properly you dont need it to take twelve weeks. You dont need expensive fancy biotics where most of wshat you pay is to cover their marketing, public relationships and advertising, you can get ones that are cheaper and the cheaper ones might be just as good but cheaper because they are not spending a fortune on marketing. Same as with food - a tin of heinz beans is twice the price of a tin that hasnt got that label on yhet made in the same factory and tastes the same or better. I cured my self of ibs with biotics but it would never have happend if I had not done the whole thing at the same time I cannot afford a twelve week course of some fancy thing either.
    • ned7744
      ned7744 carmel83758

      Posted

      Have you a guide then or a good place it can find info on pre biotics? And what I need to cut out if my diet? Exact foods or food groups?

      At first I glossed over your replies on here as I really just wanted this whole thread to be about how VSL has worked for me, however I'm starting to find that even though I've noticed improvement I do still have rough days and starting to think you maybe correct and this is why im not seeing more improvement in symptoms.

      I'm 99% sure sugar is having a big impact on my symptoms. I'm also considering wheat. I'm currently abroad on holiday. Things are ok. I've not yet had an ibs attack, have been watching my diet very carefully and have been keeping a very precise food diary. 

      Il see how it goes.

    • carmel83758
      carmel83758 ned7744

      Posted

      You can google prebiotics and lots of sites will list them . They include honey, oats, chicory, onion, leeks, loads of veg, less fruit (as it contains more sugar than veg) , less or no processed/refined/bread etc. Less carboydrates and protein. There is one snag. These prebotics can also help the bad bacteria to grow. At the moment I am taking a biotic which is called _______, it has been fermented for longer than the ordinary one. I will take it for 28 days and then stop. If you have to take it every day forever then theyh are not working. Look upon biotics as seeds that you plan t in the garden. If you plan t the seeds and make sure you water them and cultivate them and remove the weeds they grow and become beautiful things, you do not need to keep putting more seeds in.

      Emis Moderator comment: I have removed the product name as we do not allow repeated posting of product names in the forums. If users wish to exchange details please use the Private Message service .

      http://patient.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/398331-private-messages

  • Pctom
    Pctom ned7744

    Posted

    Hiya Ned,

    I am Also on vsl been taking for bout 2 months and it has helped but still I get my rough days and am very strict with diet ( no sweets, alchohol , white bread and so on) Iam now trying 2 rotate my probiotics every couple of months in order to try and colonize as many of the good guys as poss but it takes time! Also Just other day in my quest at healing I saw symprove which is new and I hope this is the 1 that will finally fix my gut!! Cause it's cracking me up:-(

    • ned7744
      ned7744 Pctom

      Posted

      I know exactly how you feel. Exactly!!!

      It's awful and ppl don't necessary understand how it affects daily routine and life in general!

    • carmel83758
      carmel83758 Pctom

      Posted

      Read about syumprove and not impressed. It said it contains only 4 bacteria which are unique to them. A true bacteria is not unique to any one commercial manufacturer, it is something which is available to all.

      If it is unique that makes no sense to me. And just four bacteria. No.

  • ned7744
    ned7744

    Posted

    So yeah... Abroad at the mo. Still taking the VSL. Had an ibs episode yesterday and feeling the effects still today. Been closely watching my diet etc but for whatever reason my stomach has gone crazy again and the ibsd is fairly bad. Had to take Imodium (something I don't like doing) as it's not too good.

    Double dropped 2 sachets of VSL this morning to see if this helps. I'm travelling home tomorrow. 

    Man I'm p*ssed off.

    Looking through my holiday food diary I started though i certainly need to cut out fizzy drinks, sugar and caffine. Spent a couple of days drinking just water, eating plenty of veg and fresh fish, rice etc. Felt quite good... Until yesterday. 

    Anyway... The ibs saga continues.

    Got a plan of attack for when I return home though to start playing around with my diet a bit more and maybe start taking this VSL on an evening...etc.

    Anyone suffer with ibs and anxiety? Especially travelling? 

    • patricia46418
      patricia46418 ned7744

      Posted

      Hi. IBS is linked with stress and anxiety. I always have flare up when I travel abroad. I have IBS C now which is worse than D

       I even have flare up when I travel in the UK now.

      I used to take Probiotic high strength for a month before travellin and while there. I always drink bottled water abroad.

    • ned7744
      ned7744 patricia46418

      Posted

      Yeah I'm exactly the same. It was quite bad travelling home from abroad. I was really anxious... Don't even know why. Stupid really.

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