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When you are working on controlling IBS, and being in charge of what you eat, these events can wreck the best self-control. Not only are the holidays stressful in and of themselves, but they take away the one thing you can usually control — what you eat. Here are some hints for being away from home, faced with lots of food that is problematic.
First:
This means that you start eating with a neutral food or with a soluble fiber. Another IBS blog linked here and said that meant a bowl of milk and fiber cereal. No, that’s INsoluble fiber (and milk is a trigger). What I mean by soluble fiber (SF) is a soluble fiber supplement such as FiberSure ™(inulin is the main ingredient) or Heather’s Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber ™(acacia powder is the main ingredient) or, possibly, store brands of soluble fiber supplements that use guar gum. Take some of this with you in a small travel bottle–with a half - teaspoon measuring spoon. After you do the hellos and greetings, before eating or drinking anything, grab a small glass and your small travel bottle, and mix some room-temperature water and soluble fiber supplement, and drink it. This calms down the gastrocolic reflex, which would otherwise react badly to just eating the first thing at hand.
Second:
Alcohol is one of the triggers for IBS. It will not relieve stress. If you want alcohol to relax your social anxiety, just think of the drink you want as relaxing your bowels in unwanted ways, either stopping the muscles that pass material along, or relaxing control over elimination - maybe not at the party, but somewhere down the road.
In Some Order:
- NO ice water.
- NO holiday ham - or as little as possible
- NO turkey dark meat or skin
- NO vegetables drenched in butter/margarine/fat
- NO soda
Strategies:
Bring your own bottle. Use whatever will look wicked, but refuse to share. In the bottle will be:
- Room temperature water, or
- Soy or rice milk, or
- Soda gone flat, or
- Cold soy “coffee”
- Your own favorite IBS-safe smoothie
depending on the crowd.
Style:
Beforehand, write yourself into a movie script about someone carrying off a mild social deception with style. Give yourself friendly lines that sort of fit what people think they know about you. It might be
“I’m following the diet my guru tells me to, so I can’t . . .”
“This is my brand new holiday strategy, to . . .”
I like the “guru” one, for obvious reasons, and for subtle reasons. What is subtle is that your host/hostess doesn’t know who this is, and will (perhaps) be reluctant to undermine the discipline the guru has imposed — even if the only guru in your life is you. You may think of some other authority figure. Some ideas are:
I’m participating in a strictly controlled medical study, and can’t . . .
I’m taking a medicine and can’t . . .
My own strategy, long ago, was “I’ve had hepatitis and can’t drink/have shellfish/have fatty foods . . .” - but in this day and age that’s not really going to conquer your social anxiety.
Two more hints:
- If you are going with someone you know pretty well, clue him or her in on your strategy, and even practice a few scenarios.
- If you have a “fiction” to attribute responsibility to a guru or medical necessity, and the host/hostess or someone else starts to push and inquire, there’s always the strategy of “Oh, there’s the door!” or “I forgot something from my coat pocket. Where are the coats?” or “Didn’t I just hear the phone?” or, of course, “That’s my cell phone. I’ve got to take this call.”
Please write in and share your favorite hints, or comment on these. Look at the dark turquoise line that says (usually) “no comments.” Click on those words, and you will be able to leave a comment. When you write in a comment, that phrase at the bottom will change to “Comments: (1)” and you’ll be on the board with your comment attached to this post, and with my thanks.
HAVE HAPPY AND MERRY HOLIDAY EVENTS!
December 17th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, IBS Triggers, Strategies |
4 comments
I have been fixing up the inner workings of For My Tummy. This involved going back over two months of posts, and that gave me the chance to notice that I had posted once on two rules for IBS, here. And then, ten days or so before that, I had posted on the one rule for IBS.
The rules in reverse order are:
-
Never Drink Ice Water
- Never Eat on an Empty Stomach
- The Second-Day Rule<
“The Second-Day Rule” needs a little explaining. If you try a new food and have no problems with it on the first day, don’t scarf it up on the second day, thinking “Oh, boy. Now it’s okay to eat xyz!” It will come back to bite you. In other words, some foods–like the IBS triggers–are ok for one day at a time, but not for day-in, day-out use.
Taken together, the three rules make life sound like hard work for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. That’s true! I don’t want to coat it with Stevia to make it easier to swallow–actually Stevia would taste bitter if you used it in that way! What I want to do is to give you some sign posts so that what is happening in terms of Irritable Bowel Symptoms, whether constipation or diarrhea or cramps or alternating stuff–so that these symptoms make some kind of sense and potentially can be controlled.
September 12th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers, IBS-C, IBS-D, IBS Diet, IBS Symptoms |
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I came across some research from 2003, today, that demonstrated that fructose can be a trigger for IBS. It wasn’t on the list at the IBS Triggers Page, indexed in the Header. Now I’ve added it to the list.
What are Triggers?
For Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) triggers are foods and drinks that set off something called the gastrocolic reflex. It doesn’t make a lot of sense that something you eat or drink can barely leave your mouth before setting off - triggering - a strong reaction in your gut. It’s that “Oh, I know I shouldn’t have; now I’m in for it” feeling.
Are There Triggers for Other Conditions?
Yes. I know of one that has a whole group of difficult-to-avoid triggers. That condition is Acne Rosacea (AR). The person with AR flushes beet red when he or she laughs, or exercizes or coughs or drinks alcohol or runs or uses alcohol on his or her skin. The flushing alters skin cells to where acne breakouts are frequent and severe - this is not the acne of the teen years, but affects people later in life. It can also affect eyesight,when eyelids are the site of breakouts, and can lead to the spongy red nose associated with alcoholism.
Don’t Laugh, Don’t Eat!
Is that what I have to do for the rest of my life, with a condition that has such common triggers? In a word, YES.
Bummer!
Yes, managing one of these conditions is a chore, sometimes a very difficult task. It isn’t easy to learn, either. And you have taken the first or second or hunredth step in that process of learning how to manage your IBS.
Last Word
Not everything about IBS is the result of triggers, but certainly a diet that excludes the triggers makes about 80 to 85% of the turnaround you want.
July 25th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS Triggers |
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“The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with me, so they say it’s IBS.”
“I’m fed up with the doctors who keep sending me for tests and don’t seem to find out what’s wrong. They don’t know anything more than when they started and they don’t understand that I’m in pain.”
And I read many more similar complaints on the forums.
Medicine starts with the principle “First do no harm.” Now that there are many tests for many ailments, that principle may mean that a doctor does not reach for a prescription pad until after many tests have been done.
Halfway through the testing you say “Do something!” So s/he tells you to start taking fiber, but not what fiber to take, or worse, says “Use Metamucil ™” of which there are many flavors and roughnesses, and citric acid, and artificial sweeteners like Aspartame ™, and perhaps other additives.
This kind of desperation is very familiar to me, since I’ve been going through a series of tests for something else in the past few months. Along the way we found out that I have reduced my cholesterol level from 276 to 167 (fantastic!), that my heart ultrasound and heart stress tests are both terrific, and my liver function by blood tests and ultrasound is normal. In the meantime, I’ve been desperate for the doctor to give me something that helps the primary complaint, of a peculiar kind of fatigue. And I insisted on getting a second opinion, only to find that he agreed with my doctor, on one level, and had a question on another. In the meantime, I continue without any what I would call medical help.
It’s the same situation with developing a diagnosis for IBS. The doctor is not going to prescribe before s/he has ruled out a number of problems.
In an ideal world, once that has taken place, there is one obvious medicine to prescribe that will take care of the problem. If the diagnosis is Irritable Bowel Syndrome, that is not the case. Here is what the ideal doctor will discuss with you when he or she has excluded all the other options and concludes that you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
A. Incidence of IBS symptoms in the general population and its relevance to the patient
B. Gastrointestinal physiology including gastrocolonic response, production of gas, gut sensitivity to certain stimuli, and possible
C. The potential impact of stress in triggering or exacerbating symptoms, with reassurance that symptoms are not psychosomatic
D. Any anxieties, including concerns about underlying disease and major symptoms
E. The need for the patient to accept responsibility for condition management
F. The recognition that no panacea exits, but that therapies can greatly improve quality of life and significantly reduce symptom severity
Well informed patients are more apt to make choices and changes in lifestyle and diet that can reduce the severity and the frequency of their symptoms. It is recommended that physicians discuss new information during patient visits, and build on previous information by disseminating any new educational materials that may have become available since the patient’s last visit.
The source of the above is a paper published on the Gastro-Enterology pages of the Johns Hopkins Institute. The paper describes a number of levels of consideration of the problems of diagnosing and treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
Realistically, your PCP is going to fall short on several counts in the just-quoted lists. I hope that s/he fulfills at least some of them. Where this blog can help is in the last two elements of the above list, which are:
“E. The need for the patient to accept responsibility for condition management [, and]
F. The recognition that no panacea exits, but that therapies can greatly improve quality of life and significantly reduce symptom severity [.]”
“Accepting responsibility for condition management” does not mean that the condition is your fault, or that if it is hard to manage, that you aren’t trying your best to manage your IBS. It does mean that you have a considerable role to play in achieving a greater degree of comfort in living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
Also note that item “F” uses the term “therapies” rather than “treatments.” Does that make a difference? Let me know what you think.
July 23rd, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS-C, IBS-D |
one comment
Don’t Drink the Water
In my teens, quite a while ago, I often mentioned tummy pains to my family doctor. While the diagnosis of IBS didn’t exist, he did give me a word of wisdom that helped. He said: “Don’t drink ice water!”
I have now extended that to “Don’t drink cold, refrigerated water!” I have a bottle of (fresh) room-temperature water in the kitchen. I mix it in varying amounts with cold water from the refrigerator. Keeps my IBS tummy happy!
The thing is, really cold water, especially on an empty stomach, triggers the gastrocolic reflex, that demon that we want to keep sleeping!
Gastrocolic Reflex
The nice thing is that by drinking cold water on an empty stomach, and triggering your gastrocolic reflex, you become aware of what it feels like. You know the effect on your IBS symptoms because the cramping, or bowel moving, or gas passing, that is part of your IBS, pops up in miniature. When you know what it feels like to have an IBS trigger activate your gastrocolic reflex, you can chase the gastrocolic reflex with a banana, or banana chips, or some rice, or rice crackers, or some soluble fiber (Benefiber ™, Heather’s Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber ™, or FiberSure ™). So you have some control over the later and stronger IBS reaction that would otherwise come.
Is that clear? I’m trying to say (1) Recognize when your IBS trigger has hit your gastrocolic reflex, using cold/ice water; (2) chase your IBS trigger by eating one of the IBS soothers I’ve listed above.
Nice!
Somehow that strategy, chasing after a mistake you made in eating or drinking something you shouldn’t, is a really nice “benefit” of having IBS. :-/ There are not many things in life that really allow you to undo the past. This is one of them!
July 11th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, fiber, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers, IBS food, FiberSure (tm), Heather's Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber (tm), Benefiber (tm), Prebiotics |
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I don’t endorse enthusiastically the “Help for IBS” Website and newsletter, for a couple of reasons.
First, the diet she endorses is very high in carbohydrates, with limited attention to protein intake. That’s possibly good and necessary if you are thin, with IBS-D. It is not the healthy diet currently recommended, and she/her staff incorrectly states that it is.
Second, she seems confused about soluble fiber, and endorses foods like rice that actually do not have a lot of any kind of fiber, but are high in starch (=carbs). There is definitely a place for starch, and both starch and soluble fiber tame the gastrocolic reflex, so they work alike in that fashion. The problem lies in the idea that eating rice is eating fiber. It isn’t.
I can, however, recommend the current issue of the “Help for IBS” Newsletter.
Everything in this issue it is okay. A nice letter about going off Zelnorm and seeing results with dietary control. A doctor’s article about The 7 Myths about IBS. And, if it applies, a bit of knowledge about what celiac disease is/is like.
April 18th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, fiber, Food for IBS, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers, IBS food |
no comments
This will probably wind up as a page, as well as a post.
There are two web resources, as far as I know, that provide some lists of snacks for IBS.
This list, at tummychow.com, approaches the category of “what to eat when you can’t eat anything!”
There is a somewhat longer list at the Heather Van Vorous web site, in the forums.
Snacks, taken before your stomach is empty, seem to me to be helpful in quieting the gastro-colic reflex, that is hyper-alert and ready to be activated when your stomach is empty. I would still suggest beginning meals with soluble fiber–acacia, inulin, or guar gum–in commercial terms that’s Heather’s Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber, FiberSure, or Benefiber.
October 16th, 2006
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, Snacks, Food for IBS, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS food |
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Following on yesterday’s post, about Breakfast mistakes, I had found I was loading up on IBS triggers, that activated the gatrocolic reflex’s gateway to gastrointestinal mayhem: bloating, constipation, pain, and whatever else!
I started the changeover to a tummy-calming breakfast with the Acacia powder branded with the name of Heather Van Vorous. Acacia powder is a soluble fiber; you could also use Benefiber. Metamucil is a mixture of soluble and insoluble fibers, and is not as easily tolerated. I put the unopened big can of Metamucil down on the side table in the lobby of my apartment building, where people share items they cannot use, that someone else may be able to use. But I also noted that “soy” by itself is a soluble fiber. I didn’t think this through very well, because there’s no fiber listed in the soy product by the “Veggie” people called Veggie Slices; the next thing I ate was a slice or two of Veggie cheese, usually Swiss, as having the least sodium.
Step3a came later; I brewed some half-coffee, half-soy RocaMojo in a cheap and wonderful 12-oz. french press, that I got on Amazon. I brewed it, but didn’t drink it right away. Read on.
Step 3; this is the Revival Soy Unsweetened Shake. I have to emphasize that it is unsweetened; there are three kinds of Shakes available in all the Revival Soy flavors. The three kinds are sugar-sweetened, Splenda sweetened, and unsweetened. They all cost the same. If I have soy or almond milk on hand, I add the powdered unsweetened shake to 8 ozs. of “milk.” If not, the mix tastes okay in 6, not 8 ozs. of cold water. I have a couple of the shakers supplied by the Revival Soy people, which do a pretty good job in breaking up the powder and mixing it with water. When fixed with soy, it makes a pretty good breakfast by itself, at about 220 calories, 20 g. of protein at least, and very low carbs.
Last step: pressing the coffee grounds to the bottom of the French press, and pouring my “coffee.”
September 27th, 2006
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, Breakfast, fiber, Food for IBS, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS food |
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Generally for the first meal of the day, I take some time and ritualize the experience. I learned from Heather Van Vorous’s website about the Gastrocolic reflex. This reflex–I don’t know where it’s located, or precisely how it acts, but I have experienced what it does–this reflex is a reaction to what is taken in by mouth. It stands at the gateway and says “Pass without problems” or “Stop. Let’s see what trouble we can start in her tummy, right away.”
That’s why, when I stopped in a store to get cash back from a purchase on a hot day, I went for a cold bottle of water. I said to myself, “Oh, not just water. I could get that at home, or should have carried it with me. Some flavor, at least.” So I got a fruit-flavored water, sweetened with Splenda. Within two minutes, my tummy had bloated so I looked like I had swallowed a balloon. There wasn’t time for the water/Splenda to reach the colon; as I understand it now, the Splenda (which I hadn’t noticed) had triggered the gastrocolic reflex, and the effect was bloating.
Gastrocolic is fairly easy to remember: Think of any baby you know who has had colic, and gastrology, the medical specialty dealing with stomachs. [MORE]
September 25th, 2006
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers |
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