ibs getting worse

[jbedford]

Hi my name is Joy I have had IBS most of my life when I was a child my appendix were removed only to find they were normal, I suffered from constipation and abdominal pain distension from a very young age. My mum said i was on laxatives from about 6 months old. I was eventually diagnosed with IBS in my 20s by a gynaecologist when I was referred with abdo pain and menstrual irregularities. In my late 30s i was so fed up of feeling ill all the time I had food intolerance testing performed and was told I was intolerant to gluten, dairy and eggs, I cut them all from my diet and felt much better but gradually reintroduced them. For a while I was fine but now the symptoms are back and I feel worse than ever. My main symptoms are constipation but I occasionally get breakthrough diarrhoea this is a nightmare as I am a keen runner and the urge (if you know what I mean) often comes when I am out running in the middle of nowhere this is extremely embarassing as you can imagine. I also have oesophagitis and fibromyalgia. I am considering cutting out gluten again as this is the easiest to cut out for now as I also weightlift and use protein powders and eggs for protein. I struggle to get enough protein as it is and have a stock of powders i cannot afford to replace with dairy free options. Any advice you can offer me on relieving symptoms would be great. Currently the only medication I take are amytriptilline 20mg for the fibro, lansoprazole for oesophagitis and macrogol for constipation.  Thanks Joy

[jbedford]

Thanks for your reply I don't actually have coeliac been tested and was told I didn't have it just intolerant to gluten. I  have experience of living gluten dairy free as my boys are both autistic and the oldest one was gluten dairy msg free for about a year it didn't really help very much and as he was a faddy eater we went back to a normal healthy diet. I didn't find it too much if a hassle to
Follow this diet I cook most things from scratch anyway and just found a few changes were needed. I guess I just need to cut out gluten and see how it goes.

[Caryopteris]

I don't think you have an option to eat gluten.  If you have Celiac, eating gluten will lead to other autoimmune problems.  Get off the gluten completely and you may have remission or at least improvement in your fibromyalgia.  For the constipation, what works for me best is a drug called Amitiza.  It is not cheap, but it is less expensive than it used to be.  I just take it every 3 days or so.  I also use Miralax, which seems to be the same thing as your macrogol.  I previously took amitriptyline as it kept my migraines away.  Guess what ... my migraines and many other odd symptoms are due to gluten and nuts, so I don't eat them.  It's worth it.  I also avoid dairy.