For My Tummy

Jolly Holidays - Yeah, Right: How the World Sees Irritable Bowel Syndrome

0 Comments Published by tummyblogger December 18th, 2007 in general

For those of you who are saying “Yeah, right!” to my post of earlier today on what to do at a holiday dinner or party, here is some commiseration from Sophie at IBS Tales. These quotes she lists might make you happier about staying home, if that’s your choice.

On the other hand, you can read through the quotes and say to yourself “Well, if I don’t hear *that* one, then the party/dinner went okay.”

And, if you are wondering about the sly strategies I suggest, and just want to honestly tell people –”I can’t eat that. I have IBS,” then read Sophie’s Reality List.

IBS Hints for Holiday Parties, Christmas Dinner, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s

4 Comments Published by tummyblogger December 17th, 2007 in Gastrocolic Reflex, IBS Triggers, Strategies

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:

“Never eat on an empty tummy,”

from my Three Rules post

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:

No alcohol.

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:

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!

Birthdays and Holidays Strategy - Foods for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

0 Comments Published by tummyblogger December 3rd, 2007 in general, IBS food

In this Holiday season, I wish you the best outcomes in managing your IBS! May the “merries” and “happies” that you hear, all apply to you!

This is the time of year that lots of families and groups exchange wish lists.

When you want some special items to control your IBS, and are not in control of the grocery shopping, one strategy is to put Amazon gift certificates on your wish list, so you can order items and try them out, or order items that you keep apart from the regular groceries. Gift certificates from all one place can be combined into a “shopping for my IBS” budget.

Best,
Tummyblogger

Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen on Oprah Radio

3 Comments Published by tummyblogger November 14th, 2007 in Probiotics, general, Digesting Information, Sustenex

Sustenex ™ is a variant on Ganeden BC ^30 ™, a probiotic used also in the Digestive Advantage ™ line of products for IBS, IBS-C, Crohn’s Disease, and Lactose Intolerance.

Sustenex, however, is marketed as a health-promotion product, rather than as a health-improvement product like the Digestive Advantage line. I cannot find out from the online literature whether there is the same amount of Ganeden BC^30 in each of the Ganeden products. I would be interested to know the differences among their products.

The reason I have been reading the Sustenex materials at www.sustenex.com is that I received a press release from them (Ganeden Biotech), which is reproduced here, without the main image.

1-800-456-0276 DigestiveAdvantage@GanedenBiotech.com

Dr. Mehmet Oz radio show on Oprah & Friends™:

Date: Thursday, November 15th

Time: 7:00am, 1:00pm and 7:00pm

How to listen to the show: Tune in to XM Radio channel 156 or click here! to sign up for a 30-day free membership.

Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Michael Roizen, renowned doctors in cardiology, anesthesiology, and wellness are also the best selling authors of the YOU series of books. Their latest book, YOU: Staying Young was just released and is on the New York Times Best Sellers List.

Learn more about probiotics >>

Learn more about GanedenBC30 (Bacillus coagulans), our patented strain of probiotics >>

I am traveling out of town, and may not get to listen. Would you like to write a guest review of the radio show for the blog? Contact me tummyblogger [at] gmail.com?

And, to find out more about probiotics, especially for tummy problems such as IBS-C and IBS-D, and even IBS-A, read the following articles on this blog:

Originally from October 2006, on promising medical research:
http://www.formytummy.com/2007/04/20/medical-research-on-probiotic

And the series on Probiotics 101 and 102, as follows:

That even funnier word, SYNbiotics, is covered in this article:
http://www.formytummy.com/2007/07/09/prebiotics-plus-probiotics-synbiotics/

Don’t forget PREbiotics, described in this article:
http://www.formytummy.com/2007/07/09/prebiotics-plus-probiotics-synbiotics/

You Know You Are Having a Bad IBS Day When . . .

2 Comments Published by tummyblogger November 12th, 2007

You know you are having a bad IBS day when

You start talking unkindly to the button you are trying to sew onto that winter coat that it’s cold enough for, when it’s really all the fault of the needle.

You know you are having a stressful and bad IBS Day when

You drop and break a perfectly balanced, grooved, weighted glass that knows better than to leap out of your hand and crash to the floor.

So the stress catches up with you, and you know you are having a really stressful and bad IBS Day when

Your IBS-C turns into IBS-D.

Digestive Advantage-IBS Samples Report

1 Comment Published by tummyblogger November 9th, 2007 in Probiotics, IBS Triggers, Align, Dannon Activia Yogurt, Digestive Advantage - IBS

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.

The Trouble with IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome

2 Comments Published by tummyblogger October 26th, 2007

The social impact of disease names is variable, and sometimes immense. If you have one “pariah” or outcast disease, like athlete’s foot, suggests the following article excerpt, you just don’t rate.

What if illnesses, ailments and diseases were brands? You’d have your embarrassing, awkward ones like irritable bowel syndrome and athlete’s foot. Your once well-known, but obscure ones that you find only in history books or Delmas, like diptheria and typhoid and polio. The diseases that everyone’s heard of but nobody knows much about, like multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis (hey, that rhymes). There are the ones that fill us with dread, like Alzheimer’s. The cancers are in a category of their own. And there are the truly terrifying, faintly exotic ones like Ebola or mad cow disease, diseases you never want to catch but which have a certain dark glamour nonetheless.

See more of Sarah Britten’s musings, on the light side of disease names, at http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/britten/2007/10/24/if-diseases-were-brands-part-i/

If IBS had a different name, like Arugula — which always did sound like a disease name to me — we would still have to answer questions of “what does it mean?” Still, we might get away with using words like “tummy” in the definition, rather than “bowel.” I’m not a fan of baby words like tummy, most of the time, but “Irritable Bowel Syndrome?” Come ON! Can’t we say “I have been diagnosed with “Chronic Pain in the Tummy” (CPIT) or “Continual Runs, usually Diarrhea” (CRUD).

What difference would a change of name make in your life? Let us know with a comment.

Wow! Four Weeks of Digestive Advantage-IBS ™

6 Comments Published by tummyblogger October 19th, 2007 in Probiotics, Align, NSI Probiotics, Digestive Advantage - IBS

Reviewing Digestive Advantage-IBS and Align
After approximately ten weeks of using Align ™ probiotic caplets, and filing my objective reports of the experience, I thought it was a pretty good product with some real problems in pricing and supply. {See my Align reviews}

Four weeks ago this past Monday, I started Digestive Advantage-IBS ™ (DA) in caplet form. {See my earlier DA reviews.}At that time, and for a year at least before then, the caplets were readily available through Amazon.com and other online sources, and the chewable tablets could be purchased at the CVS across the street. The price of DA was about half that of Align ™. I knew that DA had the problems of pricing and supply licked.

Problems with GERD on Align
What I didn’t report, in the ten weeks or so that I took Align ™, was that I had ever increasing (and recurring) problems with GERD. After all, Align was a probiotic aimed at affecting digestion in the large intestine. Toward the end of the time on Align, I was taking Prilosec ™ OTC as well as Ranitidine 150 mg. on a daily basis to control GERD.

Prilosec ™ is only supposed to be taken for two weeks, and I had just started DA when the two weeks were up. My GERD was under control for the moment, so I thought, I’ll continue with the Ranitidine and wait and see on the Prilosec, expecting that “any day now” I would need Prilosec again.

IBS and GERD All Clear, on Digestive Advantage-IBS
The “WOW!” in the title is that during the four weeks on Digestive Advantage-IBS ™ I have never needed to go back on Prilosec ™. Align ™ gave me ever-increasing problems with GERD; the NSI probiotic 15-35 that I took before beginning Align also gave me problems with GERD. I thought it went with the territory. Four weeks plus without GERD is amazing to me.

Otherwise, Digestive Advantage-IBS ™ (plus diet, exercise, all that good stuff) has controlled my IBS tummy very well. I have begun to add fruits and vegetables–sometimes cautiously, sometimes not,. When I’ve added a fruit or vegetable that doesn’t work too well for me, and have an evening of a slightly rocky tummy, I take a second DA caplet. Generally in a half hour, and certainly by morning, I’m fine.

Subjective vs. Objective
My report is only subjective, and certainly not a scientific study. In spite of reports to the contrary, Digestive Advantage-IBS does have adequately controlled scientific studies that show significant results for IBS pain and bloating. In addition, my comparison of Align ™ with DA indicates that, while both are a little bit constipating to my system (with IBS-C), DA is slightly more so, making it potentially better for people with IBS-D. The constipating effect can be countered, if desired, by half a teaspoon more of Heather’s Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber ™ or Fibersure ™ or a guar gum Soluble Fiber Supplement.

Summary: A Probiotic for IBS *and* GERD
So, for the purpose of taking a probiotic, and for taking a probiotic that is easily available, and for taking a probiotic that is cheaper than most others on the market, I have a summary comment below.

Bottom Line
Not only a Digestive Advantage, but also a competitive advantage.

“Food is a Weapon,” Environmental Action, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Behavior Change

0 Comments Published by tummyblogger October 16th, 2007 in Blog, general, IBS

Food and Environmental Impact
Somehow the slogan “food is a weapon” makes me think of food fights. We are familiar with some kinds of food fights, the kind when someone tries to make you eat something you know is going to cause IBS symptoms like diarrhea, gas, cramps, constipation.

This arresting poster 'Food is a Weapon' Poster from World War II comes from World War II. The poster is a reminder that all kinds of environmental actions took place in order to assist the United States in the war effort.

Blog Action Day
As you know if you visit this blog repeatedly, I have a column devoted to public service ads, including a “tree in a widget.” That’s a low-key reminder to people not to slack off on environmental activism. Today, though, is “Blog Action Day,” a simple call to all bloggers to post something about the environment.

Behavior Change
Thus, this post. The source for the poster is the “No Impact Man” web site. He blogs about living a life that has no impact on the environment–and he lives in New York City! With a restaurant-loving wife and one child! Check out the noimpactman.typepad.com post on “Changing our Behavior.”

For My Tummy is a blog that’s dedicate to helping ourselves to change behavior about the food we eat. Can we parlay that expertise we’ve gained into reducing our impact on the environment? Does it take a War Office or similar governmental organization to push us into the kind of change that will avert disaster? What are your thoughts?

Irritable Bowel Syndrome: 7 Diet Principles

2 Comments Published by tummyblogger October 11th, 2007 in fiber, Probiotics, Soy Products, Prebiotics, IBS Diet

Introduction
I would like to clarify the underlying principles to the IBS food recommendations that I make on ForMyTummy (FMT). When I first started ForMyTummy.com, over a year ago, I thought the principles were the same as, or similar to, those of Heather Van Vorous, of the HelpforIBS.com web site. Upon reflection, after a year of writing tips and recipes and articles, there are some specific features to my approach which can be stated as, ta-da!, the following Principles.

Principle 1

NEVER EAT ON AN EMPTY STOMACH

This means that when you wake up, the first thing you put into your mouth is a soluble fiber, such as Heather’s Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber ™ or FiberSure ™. Later in the day, the first thing into your mouth will be either a small amount of gentle starch like rice or soy crackers, or another part of your daily dose of a Soluble Fiber Supplement (SFS).

Principle 2

GET ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN FOOD SHOPPING

This is because you are in a learning process yourself. To try to tell someone else who is buying or preparing your food what it is that you want/need, and what has to be or not be on the food label is to create more interpersonal stress than you really need. Negotiate to be part of shopping trips, or change your food service (lunch place, wherever) to “vegan,” or ask for gift certificates to Amazon and lay in your own stock of oatmeal or soy noodle soup or something else that you like.

Principle 3

READ ALL FOOD LABELS IN THE STORE!

The list of ingredients, and
The nutrition information, particularly carbohydrate and fiber content

Principles 4 and 5 are to be applied in sequence.

Principle 4

START WITH AN ELIMINATION DIET

List of IBS Triggers

This also means that you will have to switch to available foods that are based on soy beans or rice. Rice is both binding and calming to the tummy; that means that if you have IBS-C, base your NEW diet on soy, and add small amounts of rice.

“Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the Food Diary.”

Principle 5

EMPHASIZE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES FOR ADDED FOODS

New Food Pyramid

Principle 6

MOVE AND GROW

Get off your duff and do something about your IBS, or
Include physical exercise, or
Grow thinner or fatter, whichever you need to do, or
Move through the process of self-help for IBS and grow as a person.

Principle 7

ADD THESE TO YOUR NEW DIET

Enough soluble fiber supplement (SFS)- See the Fiber 101 posts, starting with Fiber 101a, and the articles in the category “Prebiotics.”
A good probiotic, Digestive Advantage-IBS ™ caplets or Align ™ caplets are ones that supply the probiotic in effective amounts; they are reviewed in the category “Probiotics.”

Principle 8

VARIATIONS

This means that you can pick from these principles according to the extent of your IBS “damage” in the slang sense. Principle 1, 2, and 3 apply to everyone, with 2 and 3 being ones you can take on gradually. The Principles 4 and 5 involve radical dietary change for most of us. You need to be really committed to change, really miserable with aspects of IBS, to take this on. Principles 6 and 7 should be added to Principles 1, 2, and 3 as well as used with the full dietary changes of 4 and 5.

COMMENTS?

How would you use these principles? Are there any others that you would want to express? Please comment using the Link below, that says “No Comments” if you are the first to write in–otherwise the linke says “1 Comment” or “2 Comments,” and so forth.

Digestive Advantage-IBS: Second and Third Weeks

3 Comments Published by tummyblogger October 9th, 2007 in Probiotics, Food for IBS, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Digestive Advantage - IBS

reminder: In addition to using the following probiotic, I also follow a diet free of known triggers for IBS (except caffeine in small amounts), exercise, and especially important, take 20 grams/day of Heather’s Organic Acacia Tummy Fiber ™ and another 20-25 grams of fiber/day, most of it soluble fiber. This fiber is “prebiotic”–it supplies a suitable growing medium for the “probiotic” that is the subject of this report.

Second Week on Digestive Advantage-IBS
During the second week on Digestive Advantage-IBS, I got adventurous. As you may recall, I had had an upset stomach late one day in the first week, and discovered that if I took another DA-IBS caplet, I soon felt fine–translated into IBS-speak, that means my tummy was soon mellow.

So in the second week, because I felt more control over symptoms, I tried adding more fruit to my diet. That is, more than the ever-present bananas. Kiwis worked well; I came a cropper on a new fruit called “pluot,” a cross between a plum and an apricot. I skinned it, and sliced the fruit into bits that were a cross between a slice and a chunk. Pluot pie might be interesting, but the raw fruit–not so much. That was also a night I took a second caplet of DA-IBS. I don’t know for sure that my body wouldn’t have handled the pluot by morning, but I really did not want to wake up with an aching gut. Other fruits that worked: watermelon, raspberries, and seedless grapes!

Third Week on Digestive Advantage-IBS
The second week on Digestive Advantage-IBS had gone well in exploring fruits, basically. For the third week on DA-IBS I decided to try more vegetables. The problem with vegetables is, often, that I buy them fresh and then don’t want to take the time to prepare them. So they go bad and have to be thrown away. But this week I got enough that there was always something I could fix.

The vegetables that were easy successes were summer squash and tiny tiny carrots, both steamed. I also steamed broccoli florets, right in the bag, and they were soft and delicious and great! I steamed carrot chips (Bolthouse Farms); a big bag gave me enough for several days of carrot snacks and carrot side dishes. With carrots, be sure to chew thoroughly any carrot pieces or tiny carrots that are still pretty firm, not almost mushy.

Coming Up Next
I have not yet done the packaging, delivery, and convenience kinds of commentary for Digestive Advantage-IBS that I did in the reviews for Align. So one of the next posts will be a review of that aspect of the Digestive Advantage-IBS experience.

Also, look for me to switch, and spend the second 32 day period reviewing a slightly different DA-IBS product, the chewable tablets that are what you would frequently find on the shelves of your friendly neighborhood large chain drugstore, like CVS or Walgreens.

Comments Wanted
And, just below this post, there’s a link to a comment form, if you would like to tell us about your experience with DA-IBS. Click on the “No Comments” part of the tags to be the first to add your comment. If someone else is weighing in, the tag will say “1 comment” or “2 comments” and so forth. Shall we try for “5 comments” on this post?

For My Tummy - New Look

2 Comments Published by tummyblogger October 1st, 2007 in Blog, general

If you have been here before, there is a newer, bolder look to the Header and menu bar.

I was “working” (fooling around?) behind the scenes and changed a couple of things in the Header. The thing is, the changes I made did NOT promise to make the Name bolder, or to shift the menu down across the main page. I filled in the name and changed “home” on the menu to “Home” with a capital H. Doing either of those things was expected to have *some* effect, true–but I got more/different than I bargained for.

Still and all, I rather like the new look. So for now, until you let me know how you feel, I’ll keep it. The look and feel of this web site is, yes, a personal expression.

The look and feel is also, I hope, a familiar “face” to those who return. As such your opinion matters a great deal. So let me know.

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