Quote Originally Posted by shadon
I'm having a bout of this now...it rots! I want to ride this weekend!

How do you pursue your life as a cyclist and deal with this? For me, it only acts up once in a great while but when it does, it really does a number on my gut! I want to ride this weekend, and tommorow looks like it's out unless I feel a *lot* better tommorow....grrrrrrrrr!
I did battle with that when I was in my 30's. I'm in my 40's now and it isn't quite so bad. Seemed to get better with hormonal changes.

For me, activity helped. I never had an episode begin after I started a bike ride or went running - I just had to get moving right away! However, my doctor suggested that lactose intolerance could be the culprit. He said the easy way to find out is to eat a lot of dairy products at once and see if it causes a flare-up. If it does, just hold back on dairy or try Lactaid or something similar. He also suggested fiber supplements to keep things even (less cramping). Those helped me a little, but not enough. I still have a few flare-ups occasionally and I've found that since taking calcium has an otherwise unpleasant side effect (it "plugs you up," to put it politely), I take calcium supplements during those spells.

Also, for some reason, dark liquid such as tea or cola within about an hour of a meal, especially a meal with any dairy, used to cause problems. It might have been the caffeine, but Mountain Dew never bothered me and decaf tea wasn't better - ?

You might want to check out Nancy Clark's "Sports Nutrition Guidebook." It's a good reference which was recommended to me by a dietitian, and it has a chapter about dealing with GI upset which might be helpful.

Deb