Anyone who has irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) ?

Have been coping with it for over a decade and it has literally tanked my life. For those with such condition, how are you coping?

Reply 1

Surnia

My GP suggested food combining as a way of treating my IBS, with the proviso that it doesn't work for everyone. It's eating foods together that are easy to digest; fruit before or between meals and a reset with primarily starchy carbs/veg or protein/veg.

On his recommendation and advice I bought the book 'The Harcombe Diet', ignored the first part and went straight to the eating plan. In less than 2 weeks I saw a massive improvement. Even now, I rarely get a flare-up, and if I do it's not with the severe pain or frequent trips to the loo that I had in the early days.

I work full-time, travel and exercise with it.

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

Original post

by Surnia

My GP suggested food combining as a way of treating my IBS, with the proviso that it doesn't work for everyone. It's eating foods together that are easy to digest; fruit before or between meals and a reset with primarily starchy carbs/veg or protein/veg.
On his recommendation and advice I bought the book 'The Harcombe Diet', ignored the first part and went straight to the eating plan. In less than 2 weeks I saw a massive improvement. Even now, I rarely get a flare-up, and if I do it's not with the severe pain or frequent trips to the loo that I had in the early days.
I work full-time, travel and exercise with it.

I see. The illness makes life very difficult, but not many folks understand it.

Reply 3

Anonymous #2

Sorry to hear this, I had this for years in early adulthood, it can be horribly debilitating.

Finding a GP who understood it helped because some folks I saw were clueless. I was put on all sorts of meds and had all sorts of investigations unnecessarily. Was sceptical, but one GP told me it was all in my head and suggested CBT, which did actually help, but possibly not for the reasons they thought. Mindfulness practice also had a positive impact for me

From my experience each person almost has to find out what worked for them though, so definitely worth exploring, researching, asking

Colofac was the only medication that helped me but I know there are a few others these days. Colpermin worked for someone I know, but not me. I used to carry lots of extra strong mints everywhere and drink mint tea a lot - both helped. Ginger tea seemed to help but I wasn't so sure if it really reduced the pain / cramps or just the associated nausea

Diet changed didn't seem to make much difference (was pretty good anyhow) but exercise did. Not super vigorous gym stuff but long quick paced walks in the country / park. Mine eventually faded over several years, no idea why