IBS? Gluten intolerance?

[artkate]

I went through a few months of bad eating habits, and got cramps in the morning before a bowel movement. I was eating more frequently and thus using the bathroom many times more then normal. After a few episodes i cut back on the junk, and it helped.. until i got back into old habits. After two nights of bloating and pain,(this started SEVERE anxiety, pounding heart etc) i was terrified to eat anything that wasn't extremely healthy. I thought eating fiber ones and fructose filled 'real' fruit juice would do the trick...but then i had the worst episode and thought my bowels would explode of bloat. Chicken, eggs and veggies are all i will touch now...and I feel great! Except for the diarrhea. No more bloat, no pain just diarrhea. Could this be Celiac, or gluten intolerance? I am 24, and terrified to think it might be something worse. Also urine and blood and heart test came back normal, waiting for fecal) Anybody experience something similar?

[SassyLassie]

Sounds like food allergies/sensitivity to me. Gluten could also be a cause. To find out, cut out all foods that have gluten in them, if your symptoms stop, it is probably due to gluten. I would also seek out an alternative doctor such as a naturopath, have some food allergies tests run, this will all be invaluable in diagnosing your condition.

[acrazylady]

I had spent months with pregnancy symptoms even this fluttering that turned into flip flops and kicking around in my abdomen. I was loosing weight but bloating more and more everyday. I tried cutting out breads, milks, and just about everything from my diet to help with the digestive issues. Nothing helped.

My symptoms were: acne, hunger, increased blood pressure, cramping, headaches, runny nose/cold, movement in abdomen, cold sores, back pain, cold feet, nausea, fatigue, clear/white fluid from nipples, excess discharge, extremely sore breasts, and was even getting blue lines on hpt tests.

Turns out after years of no intimate relations and an sudden abundance of it I was overloaded with prostaglandins. These are found in everybody and also in sperm. I began alternating between a childrens aspirin and an aleve everyday and the symptoms finally went away. The positive hpt tests were caused from a mild UTI because blood in the urine will trigger a false positive.

[tootopheavy740]

Boy, does this bring back memories. Bloating, anxiety, pounding heart, flushed face,....and many more symptoms can be reactions to foods or chemicals.

To start with, I am not a doctor. I have food allergies up the yang yang and have been through all of this so I can speak from experience. This does not mean you should skip the doctor. You might go to a natural doctor and give them your symptoms. You might try doing an elimination diet. The elimination diet removes the foods that you may react to. Then you add them back one at a time watching for reactions. Once you know which foods are the culprits you will have a better idea of what to eat and what to stay away from. One thing to know about the food tests though is to use foods without additives. Bread has many ingredients, yogurt also has a variety. Once you have the sources, find out if they have something in common. For me, this was corn and while I have problems with gluten and dairy the corn is much worse. For me corn increases the severity of the reaction and the speed of the reaction.

One other thing, many food additives are not shown on the labels. Once you know of a certain food that causes you trouble, find out the other names the food goes by and use the list to keep you out of trouble when shopping for the food you buy.