IBS Basics
Published by tummyblogger July 18th, 2007 in Teas, fiber, Sweetener, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS Triggers, IBS-C, IBS-D, Soy Products, FiberSure (tm), Heather's Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber (tm), Benefiber (tm), Digesting InformationIn this post I will try to outline the basics of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) therapy. The harsh truth is that there is no magic pill or potion. IBS is a condition rather than an illness. I know, when you are in the middle of the current round of bodily “wrongness” that is IBS, you feel sick, often very sick.
The way to deal with this truth about IBS, that there is no magic pill or potion to heal IBS once and for all, is through life-style changes. Yes, that’s the “blame the victim” kind of answer that is so irritating, to me as well as to you. And what is worse, the life-style changes have to be so thorough, to do a good job at IBS control.
What I am talking about is cutting out all of the IBS triggers on the Page in the index across the top of this page. You no longer eat fatty foods, you no longer eat meat, except for chicken. You do eat tuna and salmon and other kinds of fish. You start eating a lot of soy products that are look-alikes to hotdogs or hamburgers or lunch meats or pepperoni. You stop drinking soft drinks, and coffee, and caffeinated teas. You stop drinking flavored water that has citric acid in it–and every label I’ve looked at does. You stop eating anything with high fructose corn syrup for sweetening. You also stop all low-calorie artificial sweeteners. You stop drinking beer, or wine, or hard liquor, or anything else with alcohol in it. You get these triggers for IBS under control by eliminating them.
You gradually build up the daily amount of fiber that you take, to between 25 and 45 grams of fiber a day, half of that as completely insoluble fiber like a) guar gum (Benefiber ™), b) Inulin -from chicory root–FiberSure ™, or c) gum acacia (Heather’s Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber ™. The other half can be in food products like oatmeal or in a mixed fiber like Metamucil ™. And you take a probiotic–with your doctor’s advice on which one and how much and for how long. If your doctor is clueless, I would suggest taking a probiotic that has a lot of medical support, is promoted as being helpful in IBS control, and that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Don’t start at the end by taking a probiotic and expecting it to do wonders for you and your IBS. Start at the beginning, with changing your diet–that’s 85% of the battle. Getting adequate fiber is 10% of the battle. Using a good probiotic supplement is the last 5%.
Then you start to live: to live without diarrhea (IBS-D), to live without constipation (IBS-C), to live without alternating between them (IBS-Alt). And then there’s so much more you can do with your life.
The above is not medical advice, although it is in line with current medically recommended therapy for IBS.
Great info here. I want to share another resource that you and your readers might find useful. The irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) center on revolutionhealth.com has a ton of information about living well with IBS, and there’s also a community area where users can share their personal IBS stories and join IBS discussion threads. Take a look when you get a chance, I hope you and your readers find it interesting.
Thanks, Tim. I’ve been planning to come on over, and now, with an invitation, I certainly will.