I've been feeling pretty darn well for around two weeks now, which is an extremely welcome relief. To be honest things were a bit grim there for a while - my guts seemed to get into their kind of "IBS place" which they don't know how to get out of without help, and I never know how to help. Once I'm in a session like that it can take weeks for things to get back to normal. Well, when I say normal I mean normal for me, which is really quite abnormal for most normal people.
These long-range attacks aren't like my most heinous of all, the diarrhea-out-of-nowhere-with-extra-pain attacks that are just agonising. Their power is in the fact that they go on and on and on, and they start to make you think that this is the way it's gonna be for all time, that this constipation and pain and bloated feeling, this fighting with your system, is just the way you're going to live from now on, so get used to it.
But like I say, finally, I've managed to snap out of it. And I'm not sure about this theory (Oh, I always have a theory), but I think it may be down to the fact that I'm taking vitamin D supplements.
This came about because I'd been trying to analyse my "mystery year", which was a very odd time in about 2002 when I went for almost a full year with really very few IBS problems. I've tried to recreate it as much as possible in the past in terms of diet and fiber supplements, but with not very much success. The only thing I hadn't tried was the vitamin D, which I was taking because I'd had some back pain and I'd read that vitamin D (along with calcium, which I also take) was good for the back.
I hadn't really connected the vitamin D with IBS because, well, I was taking it for my back and not my intestines, but I googled it and found that it might not be completely ridiculous to think that there was some connection. The most interesting find was a study which showed that mice with Crohn's disease (I know, I didn't realise that mice could get Crohn's disease either, poor little fellows) showed less symptoms when they were given the vit D.
There was also quite a lot of stuff about how people can be vit D deficient fairly easily, especially if they stay indoors a lot and don't get in the sun enough. Plus, it may be complete coincidence, but Caltrate Plus is a supplement which is famous in the online IBS community for helping sufferers (although more those with diarrhea, but still.) And what does Caltrate Plus contain? Calcium and vitamin D.
Anyway, at the moment it's just a theory - and like I say, I always have a theory for the times when I'm feeling well. I'm sure at one stage or another I've attributed my good patches to everything from gluten to coffee to homeopathy to hypnotherapy to the fact that I'm not wearing pants.
Hopefully, in the end, one of these theories will prove correct.
do you have ibs or ibd
Funny you mention the 'no pants thing' I seem to have better days without pants. I quit coffee over a year ago and tried the gluten free diet, the milk free diet to no avail. I have had attacks for about 4 years and I really miss eating meals out with my husband or just going for counrty drives like we used to. I have seen a gastro.doctor and a urologist too. A barium enima and colonoscopy came back virtually negative of everything but a small area where the large and small intestine meet a area of irritation. I suffer bouts of constipation and diarrhea with a few good days a month which I live for but can not predicts when they will happen. I saw a shink to see if it was a deep seeded problem I haven't dealt with - not it either. I welcome the vitimin D theory - I will let you know...and thanks for listening.
Vanessa
Yes, Calcium is brilliant, its completely changed my life!! Of course, its combined with vitamin D, and both together.... wow! It took a few weeks to get properly into my system (I don't eat dairy so my body was shocked at all the new calcium), but now I can live not a "normal" persons life, but for an alternating IBS sufferer - pretty dam normal! I imploy you to try it, in the UK take just a vit d/calcium high strength supplement twice or 3 times a day...
After my thyroid removal, I was taking LOADS of calicium (caltrate 600 D- as told by doc)and had no flare ups during that entire time, even though i was stressed most of the time. I eventually stopped taking calicium because i got lazy (had to plan taking it so it didnt effect my synthroid med) and the flare ups started again. Now Im back to taking at least one a day and am feeling better.
Just a little aside on that - maybe (apart from the stress issues), it would seem a lot of IBS sufferers are much better on holiday - vitamin d from all the sun?
I really think a major part of it is connected to the life one leads in large western cities - everything is so manic and hectic. I am travelling in thailand this summer, so i will also be changing my diet a great deal (cutting out most wheat and dairy) and will report back on any effects this may have. Keep up the good work though!
I always have a theory too : ) Thus far none have completely panned out, but I keep searching. I am hypothyroid as well as having IBS-A.
I think you may be onto something about the D. At present, a combination of vitamin D3, calcium, and magnesium seem to be helping me. It started with a surprise blood test result indicating I was deficient in D. So I started on D3 supplements. Had also been taking a multivitamin long term which just wasn't getting the job done, so I started taking Caltrate as well as the D3. Was okay (at least no worse) for a bit, but then had terrible muscle pains in various places--really awful. Finally figured out I need magnesium to balance my new uptake of calcium. Tried different versions, with "Slow Mag" seeming to work best for me (it has calcium as well as the magnesium). Wow, what a difference! My gut is now NOT at the top of my list of complaints, where it has been for so many years! It isn't perfect, but it is soooo much better, not to mention better sleep all around. Don't know if it will work for me forever or for anyone else, but I am thankful it is working right now! I learned more than I ever wanted to know about how you need magnesium along with calcium and which forms are best absorbed and tolerated.
I'd have to agree with Vitamin D intake as helping. It has corrected my bowel 'swings' and given me what I would consider a normal function, which in turn enables me to eat a greater variety of food, including much of which disagreed with me for the past twenty years. I didn't even start Vit D for this purpose! Having a better balance GI system seems to have stopped me being hungry all the time, and makes it easier to control my food intake. I have also had plenty of other things fixed..... I no longer have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the loo, my hayfever has virtually disappeared ( both after 20 years of suffering), I sleep better, am exercising more easily and in general feel about 15 years younger. Just from Vitamin D. I take 1000IU per day, and a recent blood test showed my levels are now normal. ( A local doctor recently stated that he had tested 95 people for Vit D (simple blood test) and found 90 were deficient....! Worth investigating.