Anyone here deal with IBS-D?

I haven’t tried the carnivore diet although I do have meat with each meal. I stay away from lettuce, arugula and peas because my body can’t digest it for some reason.

Are you sure it is not chrohns or UC?

I’ve dealt with something similar—not exactly, but close enough—for about the same amount of time, and it’s only getting worse. I’ve been through all batteries of tests multiple times with no true diagnosis. Basically always ends with “probably IBS. Drink plenty of water and make sure to eat that plenty of fiber. Maybe try ____ anti-depressant/anxiety drug.”

But when mine gets really bad, it feels like I have a 25 pound bowling ball in my stomach that I have to lug around. And it makes doing anything at all brutal, the things I HAVE to do a huge struggle, and anything beyond that almost impossible, no matter how much I try to psych myself up. It’s pretty miserable.

But it’s finally gotten to the point where I’ve realized you can’t count on your doctors to save the day. You have to take responsibility for your own health, be a proactive advocate for yourself. Asking questions here is a good start. Search YouTube videos, read books and articles that pertain to what you’re experiencing. When the status quo isn’t working, try something else. A couple of things I’ve done:

1) Monk-fast once a week. I was already doing IM fasting for years before I even knew it was a thing because I could really only handle 1 meal a day. So had to do more to do something different. I remembered reading about a guy with bad stomach problems who happened to be Jewish. So he started doing what is now referred to as the monk fast for spiritual reasons and found it had a very positive impact on his stomach issues as well. How I do it—eat a regular meal Sunday evening around 6 and nothing after that. I wake up Monday and drink a full glass of water and a cup of black coffee 1st thing to get the bowels moving (hopefully). I don’t eat or drink anything that contains calories all day. I probably drink 2 more cups of coffee throughout the day to help curb my appetite, but it’s not required. I’m gonna try to start incorporating green tea. But I only drink that and water all day, go to sleep kinda early Monday night (if for nothing else to sleep through some of the hunger). Wake up Tuesday morning and break your fast whenever you want. If you eat breakfast at 6 am, that’s a 36-hour monk fast. I never eat breakfast anyway, and I’ve overcome the hunger at that point, so I try to wait until 6 to break my fast with dinner, making it a 48-hour one. (Anything longer is a different kind of fast, which has its own benefits, but I don’t think it’s sustainable weekly).

It makes my Tuesdays the best day of my week as far as how I feel. And my stomach shrinks a bit, so my meal that breaks my fast winds up being smaller than usual, so I still feel good on Wednesday, then progressively worse as the week goes on. I do it strictly to feel less full and shrink that 25 pound bowling ball into a 5 pound one, but you do go into ketosis for a bit and get the benefit of autophagy for whenever that kicks in.

But I still feel bad toward the end of the week, so I’m still searching. The 2nd thing I’ve done is be prepared with questions and theories when seeing doctors. Not the ones that make them roll their eyes like you went to online med school and think you’re able to diagnose yourself. For example, I’ve had foot problems related to undiagnosed gout that fricked up some toe joints. I read up on gout and found a study relating uric acid to dehydration. So I went to see a podiatrist a year or so ago and said, “I know a lot of this is out of your ‘jurisdiction,’ but I think all my health problems are related and probably start with my stomach and how it’s made it hard for me to even drink enough water without feeling full. So, I’ve probably been dehydrated pretty regularly for over a decade.” Luckily, he agreed and is very thorough and did a huge blood panel that revealed levels of things that indicated possible Chronic Kidney Disease Stage 3, which can be related to hydration. He referred me to a nephrologist—my friggin podiatrist—(haven’t seen him yet), but more importantly made me aware there was even such a thing. Which empowered me to go read about it, and I discovered that hydration can greatly affect those levels. So I’ve started to be uber aware of my hydration and all those numbers have leveled out to where I probably don’t have CKD.

***I fricked up on one of my monk fasts and neglected electrolytes so bad that I was so dehydrated I went to a clinic for an IV bag, but they didn’t like the way I looked so sent me to an ER. After doing a little blood work and after my 2nd IV bag, the ER doc came out and said my levels were so bad they wanted to admit me. So I spent 2 days in the hospital on a constant IV and taking potassium supplements while they monitored me. Moral of that story is to ALWAYS be aware of your electrolyte intake, but ESPECIALLY if you’re fasting. There are a ton of different Liquid IV type powders, but I found one from Dr. Berg (popular YouTube channel doc) that has much more per serving and zero calories that won’t break your fast. So my morning glass of water is mixed with that now. I usually have 1 more glass on a regular day, but 2 or 3 more during my monk fast days***

I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of my stomach issues, but again, my PODIATRIST referred me to a different G.I., an allergist to see if I’m allergic to any particular foods (haven’t seen him yet), and suggested trying an elimination diet while I wait on my appointments. He even recommended a good dietician in case I needed help with a plan.

The monk fast may not be for you. You may not need an allergist or a dietician. But what you—and me, and everyone else—DO need to do is be more proactive and take more agency in your/our healthcare. Doctors don’t have time to be experts and stay up to date in every single thing, and we can’t keep waiting for one to have a Eureka moment and find the perfect pill for our particular problem(s). Nor do they have the time (or incentive, at least not as much as we do) to communicate with all the other doctors we may be seeing. It’s ok to try to help them connect the dots. If they get pissed at you being prepare with intelligent questions, find a different doc.

A lot of this is rambling, tl;dr, and stuff you already know. I’ve just become awakened and am pretty passionate about it. I wasted way too many of my prime years feeling like shite waiting for somebody to “fix” me. And there may not be a medical “fix.” But there are certain things we can do as far as exercising, reading, meditating, changing our diets, and other outside the box holistic things to supplement medications that can at least make us feel physically, psychologically, and emotionally better and more in charge of our health instead of it being in charge of us.

I have dealt with it for about that long as well, but it’s been much better in the last year or so.

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I’ve seen 4 different gastroenterologists and had numerous tests from blood work, stool samples, and two colonoscopies.

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Usually fruitless when the issue is IBS.

For me, it’s a complex issue, and I don’t believe i have an underlying physiological cause that continues to exist, other than being a generally sensitive person.

Once I realized that it was a “syndrome”, with all that implies, that helped.

A few practical things I suggest:
- completely avoid all things that have high fructose. Years back I took a weight gain supplement that was high in fructose and it destroyed me and set me back for years.
- drink at least 1/2 gallon of water per day, more if you work outside or exercise. I was forced to drink more water for a reason last year, and it changed my life.
- keep GasX around at all times.