Irritable Bowel Syndrome & Riding?

[pll]

I don't have IBS, but a sensitivity to sugars (from fruit, milk...). Coffee with milk is the "perfect" trigger: pair something that will go fast through my system with a diuretic. Anyway, a nutritionist suggested to pair any sugar with a little bit of protein or anything that will slow things down. e.g. if I eat an apple as a snack, add a dab of peanut butter. Or have a piece of biscotti. I have restricted my coffee intake to just one cup in the morning. In my case, some fruits are particularly evil (e.g. cantaloupe, melon), others are friendlier (berries, pineapple). And I take Align every night, which has helped.

[Velocivixen]

I guess I could play with my diet a little. You know what's really funny? I don't even like the taste of coffee, but drink it. I love the smell of good coffee. I drink it. I don't hate it, but I still drink it. I've tried tea, but something about coffee....I do think that caffeine overstimulates my intestines, but primarily just in the morning. I often have a cup of coffee late afternoon with splenda & about 2 tbsp ff milk and have no issues whatsoever.

[pll]

Well, diets can make a difference. A couple of years ago, I was trying to lose weight and, for lunch at the office, I would grab a cup of fresh fruit (mostly cantaloupe and grapes). Then I would indulge on a skim milk latte. The result: death never seemed so imminent! I eventually landed in the gastroenterologist and nutritionist offices.

[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.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm going to second what Knotted said- take soluble fiber supplements about twice a day in a modest amount. Metamusil is the somewhat expensive brand name of the psyllium grain husk soluble fiber. This type of fiber, as Knot said, tends to 'normalize' your bowels- in other words if you are too constipated it helps move things along gently, and if you have IBS with unpredictable diarrhea attacks, it really helps solidify and normalize that too.

Here's what I take, 2 capsules, twice a day:
http://www.allstarhealth.com/f/yerba...llium_husk.htm
It's the same thing as Metamusil but way cheaper. It's gentle and natural and simply helps normalize everything. It can help a LOT if you take a modest dose routinely.

Other than that, I'd say you ought to forget the coffee in the morning- it's obviously triggering a morning attack for you. You state you have a normal event when you get up and then a loose attack after your coffee.
Try some herbal tea (no caffiene) in the morning with a small amount of toast or something, along with a couple of fiber capsules. Take your fiber as well before going to bed, or with evening meal. I bet if you do this you will see a huge improvement.
Definitely avoid fruits or veggies with hard-to-digest skins- like tomato, peppers, apple skins, grapes, eggplant, and also mushrooms. Lettuce can be bad troublesome too.

[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.

[meganm]

I've had some issues in this department as well. I don't know if it's IBS, but for me, adding fiber to my diet has changed everything. I take Metamucuil (Benefiber didn't work), and that has helped so much!

[Velocivixen]

I eat enough fiber naturally each and every day without a supplement. It is not giardiasis because this ONLY happens to me in the mornings. Once I go that second time (which is the unpredictable part) then I'm good.
Interesting, though, to see that it seems somewhat common.

[Aggie_Ama]

My husband has Crohn's and he pretty much needs a bathroom before every ride. He takes a therapy called Remicade and immediately after his treatment it is much worse, when it is near treatment it gets bad again but he usually ends up constipated so urge but no relief.

His GI doctor has recommended Align, gave him a prescription to ease spasms, of course my husband doesn't remember to take them. A nutritionist or a good GI doctor might be worth a visit if you would like more relief. Bottom line, you are far from alone.

[TrekTheKaty]

As usual, what Knotted said!

I also caution those who've ruled out celiac with a blood test, that the blood test is terribly unreliable--a lot of false negatives. You shouldn't rule out celiac based on the blood test alone. In my family, gluten-free for less than 48 hours improved symptoms.