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What do you guys think of this...

Posted , 4 users are following.

ned7744
ned7744

So I posted on here before about trying to find the cause of my ibs. I tried VSL probiotic for a number of months with a slight improvement... And have since moved onto a gluten free diet. Anyway... I thought the gluten free had sorted my ibs. If I stay 100% gluten free, don't drink any coffee or cola my symptoms seem to go away... But... I've been noticing some strange things...

1) whenever I eat gluten free foods that seem to contain grease or fat these irritate me. I've had a number of roast dinners which have left me feeling bloated, gluten free sausages also make me feel a bit strange, mince meat bolognase gluten free makes me feel slightly weird aswell. What I mean is I get slight bloating and usually a solid, but slightly burning stool.

2) the other thing I can't work out is that over Xmas I drank a fair amount of beer, eat McDonald's, crisps... Etc and felt fine.

3) I went on holiday last week. The week before I went away I was ill so eat very healthy, no gluten etc and continued this on holiday. I felt really good up until the afternoon of the last day. I had a chicken, bacon and mushroom salad with a side portion of chips. All afternoon I had wind. I woke up the next morning and felt proper rough. My stomach felt awful, had burning poo and felt sick all day. I had to starve myself until tea time before I could eat anything. I had a salad a few days earlier with a side portion of chips with no problems. I eat a lot of fish, veg, fruit etc and have felt fine throughout the rest of the holiday.

What I don't understand is whether I've got this gluten thing wrong or not... Is it something else that's causing my problems? Did I have an ibs attack because of a build up of gluten?... But this doesn't make sense as I've eaten more food containing gluten and not had any real problems? It's frustrating me because im still no clear 100% on what's causing it.

I eat 1/2 a 12" meat feast pizza a couple of weeks ago to see how is feel the next day... Well it make me feel awful.

There is something in my diet that seems to really badly irritate me and flare up my ibs and I can't work out exactly what it is or why it's happening. Your thoughts would be good.

I'm not coeliac, don't have chrones etc. All my blood, stool and wee tests are normal, my endoscopy was normal.

I'm just wondering if maybe something else is causing my ibs and eating gluten free is relieving the symptoms but not solving the problem.

Thanks

0 likes, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • Guest
    Guest ned7744

    Posted

    You should look into the low FODMAP diet if you haven't heard of it before. I've been gluten intolerant so have avoided it for a few years but you're right, only going gluten free doesn't solve the problem. My gut eventually got worse and I found out people don't react to gluten, they react to fructans, which is a simple sugar found in wheat and other things like garlic and onion which a lot of people also struggle with. FODMAP stands for different types of simple sugars such as this, lactose and fructose which can be poorly absorbed in the small intestine potentially due to reasons related to your gut bacteria so the sugar makes its way to the large intestine where it shouldn't go and then gets fermented by bacteria which causes the bloating and other symptoms, this is one theory anyway. So if VSL#3 is helping this could be related to your gut bacteria and maybe its worth having a look at the low FODMAP diet to see if you can figure out if it is high FODMAP foods affecting you and if so, which ones. I think that probiotics and low FODMAP diet are the best solution. Hope this helps.
    • ned7744
      ned7744 Guest

      Posted

      Thanks for the replies. Yeah it seems that gluten free does help me and I do feel much better, but in my opinion I'm still missing something or haven't got it quite right.

      I took VSL probiotic for a few months and seemed to see an improvement, but stopped because I also started to change my diet (unknowingly) and therefore thought it could be either... Hence the gluten free journey began.

      I also tried to take prebiotic daily but gave me a major amount of bloating.

      I took L-Glutamine to help repair my guys but this just made me feel constantly sick.

      I feel I'm well on the way to solving my ibs problem but it's just this last bit I need some help with. Il certainly look into FODMAP diet. That's really helpful!

      The reason I eat the pizza was to see how I reacted. I've got a list of the ingredients from it so I know something in those ingredients is the problem. Like when I wanted to try and prove gluten was causing me problems I eat 2 different topped pizzas over 2 nights... Felt awful. I eat 2 Chinese take away over 2 nights... Felt awful. I then went strictly gluten free... 1 week later and I had the first normal stool in 4 years.

      Another strange thing I've noticed since doing the gluten free thing is that when I did have an ibs attack it was much less severe than before. Also if I eat totally gluten free for say a week then have some food containing gluten I can certainly tell I've eaten it, but the bloating is slightly less.

  • larah97847
    larah97847 ned7744

    Posted

    Hi ned7744 a gluten free diet is not appropriate for IBS. Although there are gluten free products that are ok for IBS, others may still contain high FODMAPs ingredients.

    For the benefit of those who haven't got a smartphone, I have transcribed all the food from the Monash University Low FODMAP app (November 2014 version).

    The FODMAP food list will help you to identify the food that are low, medium, high FODMAP, so that you can make an informed decision, but please be mindful, we are all different and we have different tollerance levels. You should really consult a dietitian who is familiar with this diet. All the best.

    Emis Moderator comment: I have removed the link as it was to a site unsuitable for inclusion in the forums. If users want this information please use the Private Message service to request the details.

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

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