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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
Background
As I’ve mentioned before, I received free samples of Digestive Advantage-IBS (DA-IBS) ™ from Ganeden Biotech. The understanding with them was that I would write weekly reviews, in similar fashion to those I’ve written while sampling Align. They would not, and Procter & Gamble, who makes Align, did not, have any say over what I might write.
The Wrinkle
The complicating factor is that Ganeden Biotech makes two versions of Digestive Advantage-IBS. ™ I started with the form that is in a tiny caplet for swallowing. Then, after four weeks, I switched to the form of DA-IBS ™ that comes in chewable tablets. The reason for putting the chewable tablets second was that they contain a tiny amount of sucralose, the ingredient name for Splenda ™. Sucralose “works for me,” as one of the IBS triggers. It turned out that taking only that small amount of sucralose every day was no problem.
Report
I have already reported, after four weeks of taking the caplets, that Digestive Advantage-IBS ™ is my choice for probiotic. See this post.
BUT
After a couple of weeks taking the chewable tablets, I felt that they weren’t as strong or effective as the caplets. I often wound up taking two chewables a day. Then I would take one DA-IBS chewable in the morning, and “cheat” and take one DA-IBS caplet in the evening.
Then I just thought–this is not a clinical trial, after all. What I want is the caplets, not this solution that doesn’t quite work for me. So I stopped taking the chewable form of Digestive Advantage-IBS ™ completely.
Now I take one, or occasionally two, DA-IBS caplets every day. I think the difference is not the sucralose content. My theory is that the chewables are far less likely to deliver the probiotic ingredients–yes, the good bacteria–to the large intestine, which is where I need them. This is the criticism often made of products such as DanActive ™ and Activia ™, and it may work equally well for Digestive Advantage-IBS ™ Chewables.
Availability
If the form of Digestive Advantage-IBS ™ that is available at your pharmacy/ drugstore/ apothecary is the chewable form, and you would like to try the caplet, either ask the pharmacist to order the caplets or order DA-IBS ™ caplets online from Amazon.com. It’s shipped directly from Amazon.com, not from an allied store, so should be available and fast.
November 9th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Probiotics, IBS Triggers, Align, Dannon Activia Yogurt, Digestive Advantage - IBS |
one comment
Naturally Controlling IBS
Amid a group of generally excellent suggestions for the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) from Andrew Weil, M.D., there comes the following classic description of how the “Food Diary” suggestion from your doctor is supposed to work.
How a Food Journal Works
A food journal: Most people with IBS say their symptoms worsen after eating certain foods. Write down what, when, and how much you eat in a notebook. Check it for patterns that indicate food-related triggers. In a British study, people with IBS were sensitive to wheat, beef, pork, and lamb. Alcohol, caffeine, and fatty foods are other common culprits; if any seem to bother you, eliminate each for a week or two to see if you improve.
Food-Diary Problems
There are a couple of problems with the food diary–beyond the fact that I’ve only ever been willing to do a food diary for IBS just once.
Logical?
For one thing, Weil makes this suggestion:
Alcohol, caffeine, and fatty foods are other common culprits; if any seem to bother you, eliminate each for a week or two to see if you improve.
So you eliminate one food that’s a trigger and keep on eating all the others? To be a little bit silly here, because of course our bodies don’t act in a logical fashion, but the thinking seems a little bit off. If you have ten triggers for IBS, and eliminate one, won’t your IBS still be triggered by triggers two through ten?
Grouped Triggers
At least that’s more or less what I found: I was already a vegetarian; stopped the somewhat possible things containing lactose and switched to soy milk, stopped soda, caffeine, egg yolks,
For me, I eliminated everything on the triggers list except artificial sweeteners, and still had symptoms–about half of what they were before, but still . . . I really didn’t think artificial sweeteners belonged, particularly Splenda ™. Besides, what would I use to satisfy my sweet tooth if I gave them up? I tried switching out artificial sweeteners, as Weil suggests, and did notice some difference between them.
So I stopped artificial sweeteners, too. And my IBS was under control at last.
The Point Is
What I am suggesting here is that many, many of us think we have tried the dietary approach and it hasn’t worked. We have eliminated each food in turn, and sometimes noticed a difference. So there are maybe two foods that we think we can’t eat, that are triggers for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Yet actually, there are four or five or eight or ten. We just never stopped enough of the foods all at once to notice the difference.
Elimination Diet
Yes. I am advocating the total elimination of all the foods on the “IBS Triggers” page. After a couple of weeks on an elimination diet, then cautiously add back one food, one of the “essential food groups” as one blogger has called them, sardonically. Add something back that you miss. Take it slowly, because you have reached an IBS-free (or almost) equilibrium, a platform on which to build.
Just One More Thing!
Sometimes there is “just one more thing!”
For me, wheat, only about 10% of a normal diet–it comes under the IBS second-day rule. For some people, plain wheat doesn’t work, but sourdough does.
Conclusion
Do not stop taking your Soluble Fiber Supplement (SFS), or your probiotic. Also remember the two life rules for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: “Never eat on an empty stomach,” and “Never drink anything with ice in it.”
You’ll do fine!
September 16th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Sweetener, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers, IBS Diet |
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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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Agony of August–NOT
I finished the month of August without my annual bout of extreme IBS, either D or C, and credit the combination of IBS diet and the fact that I was taking the probiotic Align ™ for this amazing difference from the past “agony of August.”
Then, in the beginning of September, I had some C, the result of missing a dose of Heather’s Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber ™. Just goes to show you that all elements need to be in place for your tummy or mine to be on its best behavior.
Elements of IBS Therapy
So, to remind readers of these reviews, to use a probiotic for best effect on IBS, you also need the following daily elements:
For me, a year ago in July and August 2006 those things were not in place yet, and the probiotics I tried did not work for me. This year, I had both elements in place, and the Align ™ probiotic I reviewed worked great throughout August.
Conclusion of Align ™ Review
Align works as promised, at least on a well-prepared tummy. During the period I took Align ™ I also began to sample some fruits and vegetables, with good success except for broccoli.
The distribution system for Align ™ does not appear to be in place yet, and that affects the credibility of the main source of information, the Align ™web site. For example, the web site has a “sticker” update that says “Now available in pharmacies,” which is not true. There *may* be limited availability in warehouses, if a pharmacist knows to ask and is willing to order it. There is no distribution that has hit the shelves of a large chain pharmacy near me (CVS), in contrast to Digestive Advantage - IBS ™.
Promo Code for Align ™
The promo code to use for a $5 discount when ordering Align from the aligngi.com web site is AlignWOM. Look for a place on the web site called “promo code” and enter it there.
September 6th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Probiotics, IBS, IBS therapy, IBS Triggers, Align, Heather's Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber (tm), Adjuncts, Digestive Advantage - IBS |
4 comments
The following paragraph on Heather’s web site caught my eye:
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Supplements
Supplements for the dietary management of IBS can be unbelievably helpful for stabilizing digestion. This is particularly true when they’re used as one of the five key strategies for controlling Irritable Bowel Syndrome (proper diet, stress management, alternative therapies, and prescription medications are the other four).
Soluble fiber supplements, herbs that have medicinal effects on the gastrointestinal tract, heat therapy, probiotics, calcium and/or magnesium, and digestive enzymes are all of proven benefit. Best of all, results are usually felt very quickly - sometimes even immediately (emphasis mine). ((1 from the Help for IBS Website
http://www.helpforibs.com/supplements/))
see also
http://www.helpforibs.com/footer/treatments.asp
Not to throw a wet blanket on your hopes of instant relief–well, yes, I’ll throw that wet blanket after all.
Starting diet change, discovering that indeed there are more triggers than you thought, finding the right supplements, all take time. It took me at least three months. Then, too, probiotics take at least three weeks before they begin to give relief. So IBS treatment in full does not produce rapid results. Yes, parts of a treatment regimen do, such as putting a heating pad on a painful tummy, or drinking fennel tea for gas and bloating. Getting IBS under control, though, takes time.
August 19th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
fiber, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS Triggers, Digesting Information, Prebiotics, Adjuncts, IBS Symptoms |
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Today
Today, I took the 28th Align, of the allotment for my first month on Align.
Today I was late for an appointment. I ate a hasty meal including kiwi fruit, and my ride was late, besides. I rushed into the building where we would meet,and into the slow-as-molasses elevator. As I fretted, I noticed that I expected, as all my life I have expected, that my tummy would feel knotted and painful. However fretful I felt, though, that the world wouldn’t move fast enough to take away the shame of being late, my tummy was calm and unknotted.
Tonight
Tonight a friend came over and brought fried chicken and buffalo wings. I tore the fried coating off the chicken and ate some white meat, and then ate two buffalo wings. My tummy now, as I write, is still smooth and mellow.
Tomorrow
I am not going to do either of the above tomorrow, though. Maybe have another kiwi fruit, but that’s about all.
The Past Week
As the past week began, I was still coming out of a strong GERD (reflux, heartburn) outburst, and wasn’t sure whether Align was implicated. I did start taking Prilosec OTC, as well as Ranitidine (Zantac) 150 Mg. For the past five days or so, my tummy has been calm, and I’m nearly predictable and not constipated.
The Next Not-Quite-Month
For the next 28 days I’ll take the second free sample of Align. Unless there’s a problem with C, I will not be taking any other probiotic. I will write weekly reports on how it goes.
I hope that others will comment here about their experience with probiotics or Align. In addition to the free samples for blogging about Align, I’ve been given a discount code that I’m offering to anyone who writes in with a comment, on this article, or something else on the blog, and asks for the code as part of writing in.
Let us hear from you!
August 7th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS Triggers, Align |
2 comments
Read the following in conjunction with the Page on this blog called IBS Triggers.
I’ve just added the blog “Confessions of a Bathroom Dweller” to the list of links. The author has a post on not going the extra mile, “Sprite is an Essential Food Group!”
In part, she says:
Someone found my little corner of the blog word by typing in:
“is sprite bad for people with IBS”
ahhh….someone after my own heart. You see, I know carbonation is “bad” for people with IBS. My brain knows that it is not smart to intentionally consume something that will add air to my system. But of everything I have had to give up or modify to deal with my IBS, Sprite is the ONE thing I REFUSE to give up.
For me, it’s coffee–well, at least some coffee. Not very much. About 1/4 of a cup, mixed with mocha soy, but some.
OK. We all do it, we all pay a price.
What we could do:
- Cut down the amount - just one Sprite, ™ less than one cup of coffee spread throughout the day
- Diminish the effect - let the Sprite ™ go flat before you drink it, mix the coffee with non-coffee compatibles
- Share it so you eat or drink less
- Make it with substitutes - soymilk instead of milk,
- Chew it carefully (pecans, almonds) or grind it up
- Use it in powdered form - powdered cocoa, not chocolate, not even dark chocolate with no dairy and no sweetener
- Give it up for IBS control?
What’s your favorite dodge on the “essential food groups” plaint?
August 5th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
coffee, Chocolate, humor, Food for IBS, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers, IBS food, IBS Diet |
2 comments
Moderators in one of the IBS Forums often suggest trying Dannon Activia ™. I have not. That’s because lactose is sometimes a trigger for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)–and lactose is an ingredient in milk and milk products such as yogurt. Of course Activia ™ is a food–yogurt–and not a medicine.
Now comes this FAQ from the Chicago Tribune health reporter Julie Deardorff. On her blog she asks and answers this question about Activia and other probiotics:
Q. What’s the deal with yogurt?
A. All non-heat-treated yogurts do contain live active cultures, which include the bacteria used as starter cultures to make the yogurt [Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilis], Sanders said. “Yogurts may also contain added cultures, including probiotics. A wider range of health benefits have been documented for some of these added probiotic strains,” Sanders said. But “many of the organisms in yogurt cannot survive in the acidic environment of the stomach,” said Sri Komanduri, an assistant professor of medicine in gastroenterology and nutrition at Rush University Medical Center. “In addition, yogurt contains lactose, which can be a potent gastrointestinal irritant and may only add to the patient’s symptoms [if the person is lacatose intolerant].
Sanders also suspects many yogurts marketed as “probiotics” with added strains don’t contain enough bacteria to be effective or haven’t been studied. “I also bet there are many yogurts that contain probiotics that have little if any efficacy studies done on them,” she said.
What do you think? Has anyone tried Activia, ™ or do you know someone who has tried Activia? Is the advertising for Activia helpful at all in “normalizing” the tummy problems of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)?
August 2nd, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Medical, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers, IBS food, IBS-C, IBS-D, Digesting Information, Dannon Activia Yogurt |
4 comments
Summer Travel has a number of hazards for a person with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
- Traveler’s Diarrhea
- Chancy Diet
- Stress
- Absence of facilities
- Getting over-tired
- Did I say stress?
First of all, avoid carbonated drinks and ice water. And, drink plenty of cool, not cold, water.
One element of the travel kit that I have used with success–and there’s no payoff for mentioning this other than that you may find it helpful, too–is Equalactin. This product consists of chewable tablets that equalize the water content in the large bowel (intestine, colon). Equalactin works to prevent tipping the balance from where you are generally comfortable to discomfort or disaster. Equalactin doesn’t do the whole job but it certainly helps.
You add it to your IBS kit together with enough soluble fiber for your trip. Those small travel bottles in travel kits often help.
Then you add a few envelopes of organic instant oatmeal (see my Amazon page), some rice crackers, and perhaps some rice cakes. These will calm the gastrocolic reflex, and substitute for a meal when you can’t get to food.
And have a good time. That is, after all, the best stress reliever.
On the absence of facilities, stores and restaurants in many states are now required by law to make their restrooms available to people who come in because of an imperative need to use the restrooms. See GastroGirl’s recent column on this at Revolution Health.
I push the envelope all the time on overdoing it, blogging into the wee hours, staying up with a book, spending a night out with friends or family–and then getting up early the next morning to do necessary stuff like (recently) allergy testing. Just saying: cool it with this stuff on your vacation. If you stay up, or stay out, late, sleep in as long as you can the next morning.
As for chancy diet, please resist the ball-park frankfurters and other summer foods laden with fats, wheat, and such. Print out and take along the list on the IBS Triggers page here.
July 27th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
fiber, Amazon, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers, IBS food, Online sources |
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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 |
no comments
There are two important rules to remember in the self-help approach to IBS. You have made the important decision to take charge of what’s going on with your body, now that, hooray! the doctors and technicians have found none of the majors. You don’t have cancer. You don’t have Crohn’s Disease. You don’t have gall bladder disease, or you don’t have a gall bladder. You don’t have liver disease. So you do sensible things: you stop drinking alcohol, you test whether milk makes things worse, you look at the authoritative list of triggers for IBS here, and begin to eliminate them.
Still, not everything seems right–or worse, nothing seems to be under control. So these are two rules you need to remember.
July 22nd, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
fiber, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS Triggers, IBS-C, IBS-D, Digesting Information, IBS Diet, IBS Symptoms |
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