Irritable Bowel Syndrome & Riding?

[BC2COCyclist]

My DH has terrible gut problems, oscilates between irregularity, then diarrhea, then anal fissures etc. He found an large increase in protein in his diet helped a lot - it was accidental, he was on a weight training regimen and found that his vegetarian diet wasn't providing enough protein for what he was doing, so he got protein powder.

He started taking it and noticed he had to take less of the OTC med he takes twice a day, it has a purple label and it comes in powder format...I forget the name.

Anyway, his diarrhea/anal fissure problems have drastically decreased.

Me, I'm pretty regular, but I did have some anal fissure problems after my C section which were awful! I'm VERY careful to go the minute I feel the urge now. Sometimes, I barely get to finish my morning Cheerios before I have to go poo...it used to annoy me but my DH said that's regularity and it's a good thing.

eta: I was just yapping at DH about this and he said his symptoms are nearly gone, with the protein powder supplementation.

[badger]

I'm going to revive this thread because I finally found an answer to something that might be plaguing others.

A chance browse at Costco led me to a paleo diet book which mentioned FODMAPs ( Fermentable, Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides and Polyols) which led me to Patsy Catsos' IBS - Free At Last. I never had the diarrhea that is associated with IBS so I never thought my problems were that (and granted, it may not be as I've not been tested). But I had severe rumbling/bloating/gas every night. I was okay during the day but after dinner I was so uncomfortable. It never made any sense to me why I'd be fine during the day and not after dinner, so I just assumed it was just the way I was made. But reading how FODMAP malabsorption works it totally makes sense, how it's like a bucket and it's all cumulative. By the time dinner rolled around I over filled my bucket with FODMAPs.

Anyways, I started the elimination diet, and while I was skeptical the first few days because I was still rumbly and gassy, the past couple of days have been great. No bloating, no discomfort, just...peace (for the lack of better word, honestly). I'm hoping that I'll eventually find out what it is I'm not properly digesting and be able to eat stuff I love like apples and bread again.

[shootingstar]

What is the elimination diet? Anyway, for myself, I'm regular to a point if I don't have a b-movement at least once a day, usually in the morning, I wonder-- then later worry. Cycling does help me be quite regular...and "clear".

I don't get gas/rumblings or any of these problems yet.

But I have to say getting older, means needing to paying attention to b-movements, etc. At least some of us know what to do to help ourselves. I can't imagine people who don't exercise and don't have a healthy diet long term for bowel motility.

[badger]

What is the elimination diet? Anyway, for myself, I'm regular to a point if I don't have a b-movement at least once a day, usually in the morning, I wonder-- then later worry. Cycling does help me be quite regular...and "clear".

I don't get gas/rumblings or any of these problems yet.

But I have to say getting older, means needing to paying attention to b-movements, etc. At least some of us know what to do to help ourselves. I can't imagine people who don't exercise and don't have a healthy diet long term for bowel motility.

um... elimination diet has nothing to do with bowel movements. It's eliminating troublesome foods and eventually re-introducing them into my diet to see which foods are the triggers for my problem.

I can appreciate that you don't have the rumbling and gas, you're lucky. But some people like me have trouble digesting certain foods and rumbling and gas is a symptom of that.

[Irulan]

Elimination diets can also be used for allergy symptons, behavior issues and other things. You can eliminate lots of foods and add them back in one at a time, or eliminate one thing at a time and see what happens.

I have periodic bouts of IBS but fortunately for me it's been very easy to identify the culprits, most of the time. I quit eating fast food of any sort, period. Also, anything that is heavy on cooked tomatoes (which are very acrid) , or a tomato cheese combination, are off the plate permanently, like lasagne, or more than one slice of pizza. I know for some people it can take a lot of trial and error to find the culprits. One of my best friends has a lot of triggers, and she was very helpful in pointing me in the right direction. There's a lot of good info out in internet land with likely trigger food lists and so on.

[badger]

I've avoided some of the foods on the list already without knowing it, like garlic and inulin (pre-biotic, that thing is in a lot of granola bars, yogurt and even pasta and it's murder on my gut). The surprises for me was onion and pit-containing fruits. I used onion in most of my dishes, and onion and garlic powder's in pretty much every sauce out there, including ketchup and miracle whip, even hot sauces that I love so much Not surprising are the cruciferous vegetables and beans, but another surprise was the bagged salad greens that contain endives and escarole which explained why I was rumbly after I started the elimination diet. I've had a couple of meals that didn't follow the elimination diet and I've gone through it very well and I'm beginning to clue in that my triggers seem to be vegetables in general, which makes me sad because I'm more vegetarian than not. This also makes sense because when my boyfriend moved in and I started cooking a lot more meat dishes, my stomach wasn't as bad as when I was eating mostly vegetable-based dishes. Trial and error...