Irritable Bowel Syndrome & Riding?

[nscrbug]

Yup...fellow IBS sufferer, here. Had a colonoscopy to rule out other issues...came back clean. Had a celiac blood panel...came back negative. GI doc labeled my problem as "IBS" and told me to up my intake of fiber (I was already eating a LOT of fiber in my diet). I bought some Citrucel and tried that for a few days...it was only a slight improvement. I do tend to have certain trigger foods, which I try to avoid or consume sparingly. I drink lactose-free milk and take Lactaid tablets before consuming other dairy products. Needless to say, I still have bowel issues...not everyday, but often enough for it to affect certain activities (like riding). On most weekday mornings, my bowel "routine" generally happens right when I arrive at the gym. I have no idea why, but it's usually like clockwork. As soon as I pull my car into the parking lot, I get the urge "to go"...and sometimes the urge is so strong, that I find myself literally jogging from the car to the door. On days when I'm not at the gym early in the AM...I'm usually out riding, and guess when the urge hits? Yup...about 10 - 15 miles into a ride. Which is exactly what happened this morning.

Don't really have any suggestions or ideas...just wanted to chime in to say that I feel your pain.

Linda

[KatzPajamas]

nscrbug~It really is nice to know that others have similar issues (not nice that anyone has these issues tho ) I had problems for so long that my kids and hubby all knew way to much about me. Hubby was always saying "what is wrong with you?!" Not that I blame him, but wow, it sounds like it these are common problems for women. Just asking, are any of you mothers?

[emily_in_nc]

I don't have IBS that I know of, but on the morning before a ride, I am always in and out of the bathroom several times. I drink coffee, which does trigger it, but even before coffee, it seems to be triggered by just thinking about riding! I don't have this issue on work days or non-riding weekend days, other than rarely; but it's like clockwork on riding days. Because of that, I do think it's in large part psychological in my case. It's actually a good thing in that once I am all "cleaned out" I never have to think about my bowels during a ride.

DH has this same issue on riding days...we are like two peas in a pod. Fortunately, we rarely do group rides/events where there is a set start time, so we can just trade turns in the bathroom until we're both completely done. Sometimes that means leaving later for a ride than we'd planned, but so be it.

[Velocivixen]

I saw a GI doctor and he took a very lengthy and involved history. As a young child I recall having very painful stomach aches, being very constipated with rock hard stools and vomiting a lot. I lived in a very stressful household (alcoholic lived there) and it was like walking on egg shells. Seemed to manifest in my stomach. Now I have the opposite problem as I described above. Life now is extremely calm, low key and relaxed. I used to work in a job where a co-worker was harassing me (boss knew but nobody did anything) and it got to the point in the morning prior to work I would vomit or have terrible diarrhea because of the thought of having to work in that dysfunctional environment.
So my GI doc did both a colonoscopy then an upper/lower GI (EGD) and ruled out a bunch of stuff. The culture for H-Pylori was negative, despite him finding two tiny ulcers. He put me on Protonix which I took for a couple of years. I finally quit taking it. However because of the two ulcers he couldn't say for certain if the ulcers caused the problems or if it was IBS. My ulcers went away and I still had a lot of symptoms, so I believe it's IBS.

[DarcyInOregon]

Velo, I had IBS for quite a few years, was diagnosed with it after a lot of testing, and I managed to reverse the condition. For the years I suffered from it, my intestines would spasm and the pain was awful. The bowel movements would either be flat as a pancake or be diarrhea. And yes, I had the same accidents that you did, mistaking something more critical for gas.

I reversed the conditoin by 1)learned to control stress, 2)eliminated food chemicals and caffeine from the diet, 3)went totally heart healthy with the nutrition, along with the increase of fiber from fresh fruit, veggies, whole grains, legumes, etc. as already mentioned and eliminated processed foods from the diet, 4)swallowed the probiotics every day for over a year as already mentioned, and 5)put daily exercise as a priority over other things.

Because I eat so much fiber, I have to get up extra early before the morning rides to make sure I've had enough trips to the bathroom. If the starting point requires a drive, I make sure I get there early enough to avail myself of the toilet facilities if needed.

[Velocivixen]

Hi Darcy, thanks for sharing that. I've lost 116 lbs., exercise almost daily, eat whole foods, prepare most of my foods at home, and have extremely little stress. I do drink coffee every morning though. I typically also eat Nancy's Organic non fat yogurt, so I wonder if I have a sensitivity to milk. Yogurt has so many natural probiotics though. I eat a lot of veges & fruits, whole grains, beans & legumes and drink plenty of plain water.

[gbunker]

A friend of mine takes a low dose of amytriptaline for IBS. It's an old-school tricyclic antidepressant, and is taken in a miniscule amount for this purpose. She says it works very well.

She also takes a fiber supplement called Konsul that is supposed to be more effective than Metamucil. I thought that fiber supplements were just for constipation, but apparently they work for either extreme.

[grey]

I am shocked to see how many of us have stomach issues!
Velo, I have several odd things going on, not all like your issue, but I have had one of those embarassing "I thought it was gas" incidents. At work, 10 years ago. Thankfully nobody was in the bathroom, and my office was right next to it. I had worn stockings as well as undies and thankfully it didn't go past the stockings (hiding that in the office trash???? OY!) and I found a way to get home ASAP. Horrifying.

I worked from home for many years, and the stress and late nights of my old occupation were killing my stomach, much like you describe. Who would have thought graphic design and marketing could be so brutal? Just try having a printer screw up a 200K job sometime. For those years, everything I saw online for IBS symptoms, I had.

Stress is huge for me. I've managed to reduce most of it to a very manageable level, but still have a few things that set off my stomach. No coffee. Ever. When I have it, my stomach knots up into a ROCK, it swells, it hurts from start to finish, I get reflux, and it takes 24 hours for everything to relax again. An unrelated issue for me with coffee is arrythmia, mix that with exercise and you get a very scary experience. For whatever reason, for me coffee is poison. Shame, because I love it so. I have decaf once in a great while, but it still gives me some of the above symptoms. I think it's the acid.

Stress, or going on vacation/visiting family means extra precautions. I bottle up. So I pack carrot juice and extra fruit, am super careful about what I eat, and get up early to relax enough to encourage movement. I have to do this "getting up early thing" anytime my routine is disturbed by something (company, added stress, a morning bike ride). Should all this prove ineffective, prune juice becomes my friend, but it also tears me apart along the way.

I'm still sorting out what my trigger foods are, because I also experience a lot of bloating. There are times you'd swear I was five months pregnant! It seems I may have a little gluten intolerance - barley and kasha are the worst, but pasta seems to be fine. I bake our bread & grind my own wheat, so I've been opting for amaranth and oats and making rice and bean flours instead. It's interesting and fun to experiment.

I'm vegetarian, I'm very careful to eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies, legumes, etc. I avoid dairy save for about three "cheats" I allow myself per month (cheese = lockdown. Dairy also causes several "female" issues for me, and at only 27, I had arthritis so bad some days I couldn't lift a pan. Got rid of cheese, I'm all good now - no arthritis and no doctors trying to diagnose endometriosis when it isn't there).

I've knocked out a lot of sugar, opting for stevia instead, and drink a lot of home-made herbal tea. I subsititute Teechino for coffee - it satisfies that craving and is alkalizing instead of acidic. Like Darcy, exercise is paramount. I've also started including a probiotic, but haven't been good about taking it every day. Noticing improvement though.

[Velocivixen]

Thanks everyone for sharing on such an intimate and personal topic.

[ny biker]

Am I the only one who finds that a surprising number of club rides start someplace where there are no bathroom facilities anywhere nearby? Not just no toilets at the ride start (like a school or park and ride lot), but no gas stations, fast food, convience stores, etc. within miles. I learned years ago to check in advance and I won't do a ride if there are no nearby restrooms. And I don't even have the severe problems that many of you have. But I still want to pee before and after the ride regardless of any other needs that sometimes arise at the last minute. The only thing I can figure is that the rides are planned by guys who figure they'll just find a nearby tree.

Anyway, </rant>.

I typed my earlier post on my phone, which kinda limits my ability to type long messages. So to elaborate a bit, my friend with ulcerative colitis told me she had reached the point where she could only run errands one at a time to minimize the amount of time she spent away from home. Her diet was extremely limited and she was losing weight. Since she started to take Align, she no longer has to plan her activities around proximity to a bathroom, and she's been able to go back to eating some foods that had previously caused major problems. And her weight is back to where it was before. She said it's the only thing that has really helped with her symptoms.

[Biciclista]

Am I the only one who finds that a surprising number of club rides start someplace where there are no bathroom facilities anywhere nearby? Not just no toilets at the ride start (like a school or park and ride lot), but no gas stations, fast food, convience stores, etc. within miles. I learned years ago to check in advance and I won't do a ride if there are no nearby restrooms. And I don't even have the severe problems that many of you have. But I still want to pee before and after the ride regardless of any other needs that sometimes arise at the last minute. The only thing I can figure is that the rides are planned by guys who figure they'll just find a nearby tree.

Anyway, </rant>.
.

whenever that happens, I complain long and loud. IF they want riders who are over 50, there has to be a bathroom near the start and finish of the ride!!!.


As I read this, i see a pattern. sure some of you have IBS, celiac disease, other stuff, but I think your BODY says, oh i remember this, we did this before
We expended a HUGE amount of energy on our last ride, and well, that's almost like "flight" response, so I'm dumping the tubes (intestines) now so we don't have to deal with it later, when we CANNOT stop... or carry that extra baggage...

I say this because i don't believe my DH and I have celiac or IBS AND because this does not happen to me on non-ride days.

[gbunker]

Have any of you tried mindfulness meditation for stress? Here's a link to the wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness_(psychology)

It's been shown to be clinically effective at treating pain, stress, anxiety, and depression. It comes from a Zen tradition, but is a non-religious form of meditation. It was developed by a physician at UMass named John Kabat Zinn, and it's becoming quite widely used. My doctor suggested it for me becasue of blood pressure and arythmia issues.

I signed up for a mindfulness meditation class a few weeks ago, and it's actually helping with a variety of stress-related medical annoyances. I think it would help with any athletic pursuit, too. I am very non-woo woo, and quite skeptical by nature, but I quite like this class. The only down side is that you have to actually DO the meditation to make it work, and it's always hard to find the time. The class I'm taking works in some gentle yoga, too. I think you can find classes in most metro areas.

Thought I would throw this out there, since IBS can be exacerbated so much by stress.

Gillian

[Crankin]

A couple of comments. I also took Amyltriptaline (10 mg... a minuscule dose) for my fibromyalgia symptoms, of which GI stuff was a part. It really worked and I only took it for 3 months. It can cause weight gain, so I was really vigilant with my eating and exercise. I also took the mindfulness meditation course at the same time and continue to practice some of it; I use it extensively with my clients. It really works.
But, I think there are 2 issues here. I do have the IBS symptoms, but they wax and wane according to my diet and stress. I now know what sets it off and sometimes I am willing to pay the price. I can have one cup of coffee with no issues, but sometimes I just want two! I don't eat much dairy except cheese, but I do love spicy food. I don't eat onions... that's an automatic set off.
However, I also have the same thing Emily and Mimi describe and so does my DH. We call it "the dreads." It's a feeling of dread or nervousness, accompanied by at least one trip to the bathroom before a ride, but for me, it often is 2-3 trips, before a ride. Even if the ride starts in the PM and I have gone in the morning, i have to go. My older son described the same exact thing happening to him before a ride, too! I am fine once I am on the bike.

[emily_in_nc]

However, I also have the same thing Emily and Mimi describe and so does my DH. We call it "the dreads." It's a feeling of dread or nervousness, accompanied by at least one trip to the bathroom before a ride, but for me, it often is 2-3 trips, before a ride. Even if the ride starts in the PM and I have gone in the morning, i have to go. My older son described the same exact thing happening to him before a ride, too! I am fine once I am on the bike.

Yep, that's it. Although I don't tend to have any issues with it if I ride at lunchtime or later. It's strictly a morning thing for me, so I think it's partially the anticipation of the ride (even though it's not usually dread, just a mix of anxiety/excitement) and partially the caffeine in my morning coffee that gets me going. And it's almost always at least 2x, often 3x, also!

I don't remember this happening when I was younger, but it sure has been consistent since about age 44-45.

[Biciclista]

Do runners NOT have this problem???