2 replies to this topic

[Rupert Bear]

Advertisement

I have diarrhea, can you help?

 

I have Diabetes Type 1 and diarrhea.  The diabetes gets insulin and a low-carb diet, my BMI is 24, HbA1c around 5.5% and my Coronary Artery Calcium Score is zero.  Diabetes sorted – diarrhea, not so much … 

 

I got acid indigestion and diarrhea nearly three years ago.  A test found H. pylori and triple therapy got rid of it – no more acid indigestion but the diarrhea continued. 

 

Next year’s test found Candida kefyr 2+ but four months of Nystatin didn’t affect the diarrhea.  I had high Secretory IgA with normal elastase etc. so I’m likely Irritable Bowel Syndrome rather than Inflammatory Bowel Disease, thank Heavens.  There was no Lactobacillus and low SCFAs so I thought: dysbiosis.  I took probiotics (Prescript Assist, Bacillus coagulans, Jarrodophilus 25B, Elixa 500B) and fecal transplants.  Didn’t work – but the Elixa probiotics give me a great boost in mood.

 

So I thought: it must be food.  I began the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, eliminating most everything including alcohol, caffeine, dairy, nuts, chocolate and supplements.  No change except I got too thin.  I started loperimide 6 mg per day which allowed some weight gain and shifted the diarrhea from the middle of the night to the waking hours, a blessing.

 

I gave up on the SCD and started the FODMAPs diet which helped enough for me to notice that asparagus worsened both burping and diarrhea.  Subsequently, I had a four-day flare when I juiced a cucumber.  I had shorter flares when I ate celery, avocado, butternut squash, pea pods, lettuce and shrimp.  Without these foods, I have way less bloating and Bristol Stool Chart #5s (almost normal) – but the 6 mg of loperimide per day say I’m not out of the woods.   

 

BTW I don’t eat grains or beans or take fiber (makes it worse), and the following were found innocent by challenge: caffeine, alcohol, 90% chocolate, dairy, eggs, nuts and fatty foods.  Nor is it a lack of exercise, or stress or low stomach acid or exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (no steatorrhea) or bile acid malabsorption (ox-bile doesn’t make it worse).  GI Recovery which contains L-glutamine and some prebiotics seems to help.

 

I thought maybe Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth, but neem, allium, oil of oregano, undecenoic acid etc. were ineffective.  I added Lugol’s 5% solution in the hope that the iodine might kill bacteria in the small intestine – it might well have since a lactulose-hydrogen-methane SIBO breath test was flatline after this experiment, meaning, er, no bacteria at all which is unlikely!  However, a lactulose-mannitol leaky gut test was positive during an acute episode of diarrhea – and having leaky gut is associated with really, really bad diseases.  But the worst thing about is that my mood tanks, I’m irritable and forgetful and no good at lateral thinking when my diarrhea is ascendant.  So all I really know is … 

 

These foods somehow damage my guts and worsen my diarrhea:

Avocado          FODs  Fiber: 2.8g     Raw

Asparagus        FODs  Fiber: 1.7g     Cooked

Mange-tout peas  FODs  Fiber: 1.2g     Raw or cooked

Butternut squash FODs  Fiber: 2.8g     Cooked

Celery           FODs  Fiber: 0.6g     Raw

Cucumber          -    Fiber: 0.3g     Raw

Lettuce           -    Fiber: 0.9g     Raw

Shrimp            -    Fiber: 0.0g     Cooked

 

These foods don’t all have FODMAPs, they aren’t all raw or all cooked, they vary widely in fiber content, and every food is SCD-legal!  If there’s a common factor, it eludes me. 

 

Do you recognize what I’ve got?  If your solution works for me you will have my undying gratitude!

Edited by Jeffrey Roberts, 30 August 2015 - 10:45 AM.
Removed sentences about payment for help.

[Lorelei56]

IBSD is different for everyone and so are each individual's triggers. If someone comes up for a cure for it I would pay them anything.

[Rupert Bear]

Lorelei56 sorry you're having a bad time of it too!  Glad the bile binder helps.  Have you found any trigger foods?