[Guest]

Hello, I'm 20 years old and going to college and working. My whole life I have had a very bad diet of fast food and just a lack of healthy foods. I have been playing top level sports until I graduated high school in 2014. My diet got worse once I entered college because of the fast paced lifestyle, and I stopped exercising. I've had no problems with digestion until the beginning of 2016. One day, our of nowhere I started having a constant burning sensation in my stomach and random D, not C. Once I got sick of the burning upset stomachs, I completely dropped coffee, fried, fast, citrus, and you know, the well known triggers. The burning and indigestion got so bad I had to see a doctor. I was tired of taking tums and pepto.

Of course, my doctor prescribed me 20mg of omeprazole. I took it once in the morning for a few months. Burning remained. I had only had heartburn like twice. Most of the burning resided in my stomach area. Focusing on work and school and other things was very difficult. I called my doctor had him refer me to a GI. My GI was very confused because it didn't sound like traditional acid reflux, so he told me to double my omeprazole doses to two 20mg pills a day. Plus, he scheduled an endoscopy and stomach emptying test. I asked him if digestive enzymes or probiotics could help, he told me, "No. your body produces enough of that on your own." And also told me to not take supplements like Ginger or L-glutamine, DGL, because they aren't FDA regulated and could be modified for profits.

Endoscopy...results came back normal, slight inflammation, nothing abnormal.

Stomach emptying test...Normal.

My GI then referred me to a dietician to start a low FODMAP diet. I did this diet for a week and a half and gave up. My IBS symptoms started to escalate.

So, I continue the 40mg of omeprazole a day. And after a while I start getting abdominal pain, D, and C, and LOTS of gas. BUT, MY BURNING COMPLETELY WENT AWAY. I call my primary doctor and he said to try Culturelle. and possibly add metamucil to the diet. So, I started the culturelle. First three days were absolutely terrible, I'm assuming from the "Die-Off" of the bad bacteria. Lots of nausea and diarrhea. Once that subsided, the culturelle started working, no more D or C. Still some trapped gas which causes some upset stomachs but a lot less than before.

I also added Rainbow Light Super Digestive Enzymes(once before a large meal or maybe a problem food), Ginger Supplements, DGL Licorice Root, L-Glutamine, Chamomile Tea (Outstanding and helps a lot) and Ginger Tea. I also have been going to the gym 4-5 days a week.

Along with adding these supplements, I have slowly been weening off the omeprazole and as of right now I'm back down to 10mg a day. I slowly weened off this because I personally believe this stuff created an environment in my gut without stomach acid which made it easy for bad bacteria to over colonize. This is called SIBO. Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth. Many people who take PPI's end up with IBS symptoms which can be confused with SIBO. Whether or not i have IBS or SIBO is beyond me, but taking those probiotics helped me so much.

The only symptoms I deal with now is trapped gas, and every once in a while I will have a bad day but my symptoms are highly manage-able. I also added some activia yogurt to my diet just for the heck of it. I'm still not 100% and can't eat what I used too, but I'm on the road to recovery. I came to this forum to see if any of you guys have tips on fine tuning my recovery process. I just bought Lactobacillus Acidophilus Pearls. I'm starting those tomorrow.

 

[jaumeb]

Good story. The forum is full of ideas. Imho the Weston A Price Foudation has good dietary guidelines.

 

[laylow]

I have a somewhat similar story. It all started with a feeling of incomplete evacuation. I then was constipated and straining on the toilet (since this was new to me) and ended up having a hemorrhoid which has decreased and is now a skin tag. Turns out this feeling may have been more due to trapped gas, more on that later. After dealing with this almost everyday for a few months I made some dietary changes, cutting milk and peanuts were the main ones. All the while I had some minor diarrhea issues (a few times a month) and gas issues. About a month later, I noticed specific issues with my stomach. I had gurgling, tenderness, and at times nausea and pain. I was prescribed Nexium, which seemed to make my gas worse and didn't help with the stomach issues. I dropped the Nexium and tried many other things like cabbage juice, mastic gum DGL, etc, none which helped. Somewhere in between then and now, I developed a much more severe gas problem, affecting me almost everyday. Finally, I was given 3 breath tests and I tested positive for Fructose Malabsorption. Since then, I have been on a low FODMAP diet (little over a week) with mixed results. My stomach tenderness is still there, although the gurgling has mostly stopped and I have not had the pain or nausea in awhile. My main issues now are gas and tenesmus (which I believe is caused by trapped gas) and the tender stomach which is also accompanied by rib pain. I will report back if I get any improvement from my low FODMAP elimination diet. I also ordered Iberogast and will be trying that as well.

 

[jaumeb]

Laylow, let me know if the iberogast works.

 

[laylow]

I used the Iberogast a few times, just to see if it would be a "life saver." I didn't honestly think it would be, but you gotta try! Anyway, I didn't see a whole lot of improvement using it, but haven't tested it much. I want to give the low fodmap diet a little more time on it's own before introducing another variable. I will save it for when I am further along in the fodmap to see if it will help with anything.