[allyjellybelly]

My IBS is now long gone. I suffered with IBS-D for around 10 years but it is all fine now - and I sorted it out myself.After having to deal with digestive issues and frequent and often immediate trips to the toilet several times a day for several years, eventually my digestion completely collapsed.It was pretty horrendous at the time. Awful, awful pain every time I ate anything, then floaty stools followed by running diarrhea. I could hardly eat anything without reacting.When what few tests were done by the medical profession failed to find anything wrong (???), left to my own devices, through research I discovered a link between the stools and gluten intolerance.Immediately, I dumped gluten (and dairy because I knew I was intolerant to that) and within 6 hours the diarrhea had stopped and the pain had gone.Although I still couldn't eat very much because my digestion was in such a mess, gradually I have been able to rebuild it. Within two months I started following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) because carbs were still such an issue for me and that has been very beneficial.I have recently realised why. I believe that diarrhea is actually an extension of constipation, not the opposite of it. I have realised that most of my health issues over the years have been due to extreme dehydration.The diet helped because it removed all the foods that are particularly dehydrating to the body and need lots of water for digestion, such as grains, starches sugar and most dairy. Not only that, because it focuses on good wholesome natural foods and particularly fruit and vegetables, it was supplying foods with a higher water content.I have learned through my research that as well as much of the food in our Western diet being dehydrating, much of the drink is too. Sugar, or anything that turns to sugar in the body needs plenty of water for digestion (not only that but it doesn't add anything of any nutritional value either!). Fruit juices, unless extremely diluted, squashes, diet drinks, soft drinks and alcohol are also dehydrating. Tea and coffee are diuretic substances.So if we are eating foods that are dehydrating, and drinking drinks that are dehydrating then it is quite feasible that we are gradually eroding into our hydration 'bank'. We have all had those really sweet sickly drinks that leave you feeling thirstier than before you drank them? They have drawn more fluid out of the body than they have given us!The body is made up of something like 75% water. It is used for virtually every function in the body in some form. If the body is never quite getting enough then eventually it is going to impact in various ways. Gradually the thirst response becomes dulled - many people seem to interpret thirst as hunger and eat instead - but it is just the body asking for the fluids from fruit and vegetables!I actually mentioned to my husband about a year ago that every time I drank water it left me feeling thirstier. Of course it did! My body was crying out for water!The colour of urine may indicate an immediate dehydration issue, but it doesn't reflect long-term underlying dehydration. That impacts in other ways. Dehydrated joints contribute to arthritis, dehydration in the brain can contribute to headaches, migraines, brain-fog, mood swings and disturbances and possibly even Alzheimer's (where the brain is actually shrinking!). Dehydration at cellular level may contribute to many of our so-called 'auto-immune' diseases, when processes cease due to a lack of water to carry minerals and trace elements to the cells. People have been able to reverse certain A-I diseases simply by rehydrating. Even fatigue can be driven by dehydration.The digestion needs a lot of water. The body makes its stomach acid from water. The bicarbonates that are produced by the pancreas are made from water. The gut needs water to get the food through to the other end! Not only that, but these days people are often 'grazing' all day on food, so the poor stomach is churning out gallons of acid, and the pancreas gallons of bicarbonates to digest it all!Where does it get it from? What we drink and some of the food we eat.My theory is that where constipation is a chronic shortage of water as the food passes through the gut, diarrhea is such an acute shortage that it actually impacts to the point that the stomach can no longer digest certain foods, particularly carbohydrates. Therefore, it uses what available water it does get to get the undigested food through the gut and out the other end as quickly as possible. Those who suffer with IBS-D are quite used to seeing undigested food floating in the toilet bowl!After dumping the gluten and most carbs and the D stopped, I then gradually developed constipation. I couldn't figure out why. When I discovered the dehydration link the penny dropped.I have been gradually rehydrating now for three weeks and my digestion and elimination has never been better! It also seems to be benefitting my diabetes too with my night and morning levels in normal range (4.3-4.5). Between the rehydration and the low carb diet I have also been able to reduce my insulin and Metformin by two-thirds and I no longer need blood-pressure tablets (many of those are diuretic too and may actually be making things worse!). My high BP was due to dehydration!It's wonderful.Sounds weird, but I'm glad my digestion collapsed. It has been a long and quite stressful journey and a steep learning curve, but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.Although his concepts were viewed with suspicion by the 'Establishment', Dr Batmanghelidj, a medical Doctor who trained under no less than Sir Alexander Fleming and who sadly now has died, rediscovered the benefits of water and used it extensively in his clinical practice for the last thirty years of his life. The information on rehydrating came from his book 'Your body's many cries for water'. He tried desperately to get his concepts 'out there' but who could make any profit from giving people water??? Nobody wanted to know. Still, at 'grass-roots' level thousands have discovered the 'cure' and are quietly gaining much benefit from it. It is amazing what drinking 7 - 8 glasses of water a day instead of other drinks and taking a few pinches of real unrefined sea or rock salt can do!I mentioned this to a friend the other day who has asthma. She went home and started the protocol and within two days her cough had virtually gone and she hasn't had to use her inhaler for two weeks. She really notices it if she hasn't had enough water.By the way, you can't speed things up by drinking a lot of water - that could actually be dangerous. It has to be done gradually.

 

[IBD/IBS Author]

Hi Ally,So glad to hear of your current successes. Yes, most people are chronically dehydrated and it's very enlightened of you to figure this out on your own. And you are even more correct that you cannot *fix* the problem in a day by simply downing glass after glass of water. It's a change in thinking and therefore a change in lifestyle. I am very grateful for Rx options as they helped me to get a very severe IBD - Colitis - flare-up that had lasted 2 years before Dx under control. Once I was able I, too, looked at diet, food intolerances, and gluten. I did an Elimination diet 10 years ago and it was well worth the hard work and effort it took. That said, it wasn't until 6 months ago that signs of gluten-intolerance crept up and after testing negative for Celiac disease I went on a gluten-free diet anyway and 5 months later am off all Rx meds., eating more fruit and veg than I've done in 10 years, and generally feeling overall better despite having both IBD and IBS. I don't think gluten-intolerance or Celiac are the problems for all IBS or IBD sufferers. Nor, is going gluten-free going to be a cure for all. But, I do think that since the medical community is finally becoming more aware of the problems that gluten can cause - it's estimated that 1 in 130 people have Celiac diease (an actual allergy to gluten), and noone is quite sure yet how many have a gluten intoerlance - it could be well worth it for all IBS and IBD sufferers to get tested for Celiac, and even if the tests comes back negative, as it did for me, go gluten-free for at least 2 months. Good for you. I'm happy and cheered to hear your success. And wish it for all here. Peace,Elizabeth

 

[allyjellybelly]

Hi Elizabeth.When I first went to my Doctor with my findings on the gluten intolerance, she had no clue about Celiac at all. I actually had to enlighten her about it - I lent her Peter Green's 'Celiac Epidemic' book to read.My test also came back negative, but when I spoke to her recently she had obviously been doing quite a bit of research on it since I initially spoke to her nearly two years ago and said that now she finds that she needs to get people tested maybe three or four times before they come up with a positive test result!Unfortunately that was way too late for me - and there is no way I would go back on it at the moment just to find out. Having said that, I know that although gluten is an issue, my problem is with carbohydrates in general, not just the gluten-based ones and I suspect I only react to the gluten aspect because of gut damage.I have to say that the 'gold-standard' testing procedure annoys me no end. The blood test result has to be greater than 10 in order to be labelled 'positive'. But anything that registers on the scale, however low it is, surely has to be positive. They set it at 10 because some of the 'healthy' control group also had a 'positive' reading. But how do they know that those people also weren't gluten intolerant without realising it? The thing is that things like gas and bloating, because 'everyone' gets them, are viewed as normal. But what if they aren't? What if they actually are a reaction, albeit mild, to gluten? I can understand why they did it like that - if they took any result as positive it would suggest that at least 75% of the population is Celiac, and they would have an epidemic on their hands! Talk about manipulating the data! By raising the threshhold though it means that only those few with the worst gut damage get diagnosed and everyone else falls into a 'black hole'!Interestingly, I am sure that I have been exposed to gluten this last week, but I did not react, so I am planning to do a gluten challenge in a few weeks when my body is more hydrated, just to see what happens. If the fact that I haven't been able to cope with carbs or sugars very well since long before I was diagnosed diabetic was all down to dehydration, then maybe the diabetes is too! Dr. B certainly was convinced of that.So I am watching the effect on my Diabetes with interest. I have been Diabetic for 12 years and on insulin for 6 so it is possible that there is too much damage for a proper recovery, but who knows? Watch this space on that one!Our high-carbohydrate, high-sugar Western diet is very dehydrating. Carbs and sugars need a lot of water for digestion. Cutting out most of the carb foods has enabled me to gradually claw my digestion back. I suspect that I may have been able to speed up the process had I realised the need to rehydrate, 2 years ago but better late than never!Ali.

 

[Patman75]

Good news. Glad to hear your doing so well. I use SCD as part of my diet foundation and stay away from Gluten. It all helps me.Keep up the good work.

 

[IBD/IBS Author]

Ali,I couldn't have said any of that better myself. Dr. Alesio Fasano is an Italian doctor who figured out the Celiac thing back in Europe. When he came to the U.S. to introduce the idea to doctors here they basically told him he was nuts and shut the door on him. Thank goodness he didn't go away and slowly but surely this gluten thing/diet thing/carb thing is becoming not only better understood, but understood at all. When I was first Dx'd with IBD 10 years ago I was told diet had nothing to do with it. For me, that was WRONG! I figured out within months by way of the Elimination diet that certain foods were issues for me, although at the time gluten wasn't one of those. For me, gluten hasn't been an issue until the past year. And in all honesty, I don't really need to know if I definitively have Celiac or not. I know going gluten-free has made me feel better, being off my IBD meds for the first time in 10 years is amazing, and I even have one of my doctors who is actually questioning my IBD Dx. Today, gluten-free, I can eat fruits and veggies I couldn't eat for nearly 10 years. That's amazing too.I'm just so glad you've gotten where you are. I'm proud of you and thank you for sharing your success with the other members of the board. Diet isn't a cure-all for everyone with IBD or IBS problems, but I really do think some could benefit from this line of thinking. Cheers,Elizabeth

 

[mrae]

Allyjellybelly....I would like to try the low carb but I can't eat high fat so what do people eat that are trying out the low carb for the issue with ibs-d? I can eat Chicken from the can and am reintroducing eggs, usually eat egg whites but when it comes to bacon or pork chops or hamburger meat it messes my stomach up, not to dramatically but I can tell a difference. So can you give me an example of what you eat on a regular basis? I know I don't drink enough water at all so today I have started drinking water. I am aiming for 4 20 oz water bottles per day but I am starting out slow and working my way up. Right now I take lomotil but would really like to try to figure out how to help my ibs-d more naturally. Sometimes I can eat something one day and its fine and when I eat it again it messes me up so I have been sticking to carbs, thats all I eat. On occasion I eat the Chicken or something but not that often. I need a little guidience on this if you don't mind. Everything you wrote makes alot of since and I have read alot about the low carb for ibs-d and the affects of not having enough water.

 

[overitnow]

So I am watching the effect on my Diabetes with interest. I have been Diabetic for 12 years and on insulin for 6 so it is possible that there is too much damage for a proper recovery, but who knows? Watch this space on that one!Ali.

I want to wish you good luck with this. My brother is a Type 2 and has managed for the last 3 or 4 years to not have to medicate through the use of a low carb approach. (I use supplements because I can and am too lazy to attack my diet.) It will be interesting to see what happens to your sugars in the process. I expect that even if you don't get a proper recovery you will see some real improvements in your blood work.Mark

 

[allyjellybelly]

Well, yes Elizabeth but I do think that it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing. Which came first, the carbs and gluten issue or the dehydration? My money is on the dehydration.Yes, I have long had issues with carbs, but I am sure that even in my twenties I was dehydrated and that meant that I couldn't digest them very well. Maybe I have a body that needs loads of water - or maybe my body's ability to absorb it is impaired, I haven't a clue.Mind you, although I haven't yet found any 'proof', I feel that I may be struggling with parasites of some kind and may well have had them with me for years too. Not enough investigation has been done in that area, and to be quite honest, the Medical Profession, well, certainly here in the UK, does not seem to be very interested or understand much about them and are pretty dismissive - I think they think I am imagining things!Years ago, people would take 'de-worming' stuff at least twice a year, but these days we are more likely to give it to the family dog than take it ourselves! Thing is, if the dog has them, then we probably do too!

 

[allyjellybelly]

Mrae

I would like to try the low carb but I can't eat high fat so what do people eat that are trying out the low carb for the issue with ibs-d? I can eat Chicken from the can and am reintroducing eggs, usually eat egg whites but when it comes to bacon or pork chops or hamburger meat it messes my stomach up, not to dramatically but I can tell a difference. So can you give me an example of what you eat on a regular basis? I know I don't drink enough water at all so today I have started drinking water. I am aiming for 4 20 oz water bottles per day but I am starting out slow and working my way up. Right now I take lomotil but would really like to try to figure out how to help my ibs-d more naturally. Sometimes I can eat something one day and its fine and when I eat it again it messes me up so I have been sticking to carbs, thats all I eat. On occasion I eat the Chicken or something but not that often. I need a little guidience on this if you don't mind. Everything you wrote makes alot of since and I have read alot about the low carb for ibs-d and the affects of not having enough water.

Well, when it was obvious that just dumping the gluten and dairy wasn't enough, I realised that I really had to reign in the carbs. Two months later I picked up on information about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and started that and that really helped.Because it removes grains, starches, sugars and most dairy from the diet it is naturally low-carb. The problem is that people panic and think that there is nothing left to eat, which couldn't be further from the truth.If D is an issue then the diet starts gently with chicken soup, cooked carrots and home-made applesauce for about 5 days. That is usually enough to get the existing stuff out of the system and halt the diarrhea. From then on, other foods can gradually be reintroduced one at a time so that a range of different foods can be added.The website for the SCD is 'breaking the vicious cycle'. Elaine Gottschall, who started the diet, was given it back in the 50's to help her little girl who was dying of Ulcerative Colitis and who had been given up on by the Medical Profession. Within 4 years Judy was well and has remained so ever since. She grows her own fruit and veg though and makes sure that she keeps fairly well within the SCD guidelines of good, wholesome meat, fish, poultry, eggs, fruit, vegetables, nuts, honey and probiotic yogurt, with occasional forays into other foods. Elaine was so impressed with the diet she became a biochemist so that she could study the diet and figure out why it worked.My take on it is that it works because it removes the foods that need a lot of water for digestion and give it a chance to recover. Certainly rehydrating would also make a big difference too.When my digestion collapsed, there was little I could eat - eggs, meat and nuts were particularly problematic, but within weeks I was able to cope with the eggs, and the meat and nuts came some months later - especially after I started to introduce coconut oil. I also found that raw fruit and veg smoothies were helpful.I eat quite normally - my breakfast consists usually of an apple and sometimes a banana. Lunchtime I have a couple of scrambled eggs or boiled eggs, or one or two rice cakes with some tinned fish, pate, egg, ham, perhaps a little cottage cheese or brie (dairy used to bind me up, but since I have been having the water I cope with it ok now).Dinner is normal with meat, fish or poultry and a selection of vegetables. I avoid the carby stuff - rice, potato, pasta, etc., although I occasionally have a spoonful of rice or potato if my blood sugar is low enough. I rarely eat dessert, but if I do it will be something like some greek probiotic yogurt and a handful of berries. Occasionally I may make something with nut flour and honey for sweetener - almond or hazelnut (filbert), perhaps a cake or some muffins. Blueberry pancakes made with almond flour (ground almonds), honey, eggs and blueberries and a little baking soda are good and relatively low-carb, well, at least carbs that the body can cope with easier.There are quite a lot of SCD recipes out there - either on the BTVC website, or on 'Pecanbread' website or the SCD recipe website and others. It is surprising what you can do with these lovely natural foods.The thing is, if you look at the food the posh chefs cook and serve, it is all made with natural food - they recognise the benefits of it. They rarely if ever use anything processed. I have several good cookbooks and they all use fresh ingredients.It does entail a bit more work and some cooking, but what price is good health? It has to be worth the extra effort. It doesn't really cost any more, because now I am not wasting half my money on processed rubbish! I also have found that the more nutritious the food (and the extra water I am now drinking) the less my body actually needs. If it can't get the nutrition it needs it will force us to keep eating. If virtually all we eat are nutritionally 'dead' carbs then we are bound to be constantly hungry.

 

[allyjellybelly]

I want to wish you good luck with this. My brother is a Type 2 and has managed for the last 3 or 4 years to not have to medicate through the use of a low carb approach. (I use supplements because I can and am too lazy to attack my diet.) It will be interesting to see what happens to your sugars in the process. I expect that even if you don't get a proper recovery you will see some real improvements in your blood work.

Yes, I have already seen benefits in my blood sugar levels. The low-carb approach has meant that I have been able to reduce my insulin and metformin by two-thirds.Since starting the water and salt regime it has been noticeable that my BG levels have stabilised to a lower level - my reading at night is generally now between 4.3 - 4.5, which is well within normal non-diabetic range and it is the same when I wake up the next morning.Because I am now fat-burning instead of carb-burning, I no longer get the BG swings and have no hypos either. I just have one injection late afternoon or early evening. It does mean that it can get a bit higher during the day sometimes - going up occasionally to 8 or 9 but usually below that number at 6 - 7, but it is always back down by the time I go to bed.Before all this, I had real problems getting it out of double figures, so to get it into normal range now is fantastic.

 

[ziggy7]

allyjellybellyyou have type 2 diabetes? may i recommend trying out the Atkins diet many type 2 diabetics have become completely 100% drug free because of this diet and slowly have there insulin resistant cells reversed

it is also low carb and you also must drink lots of water while on the diethttp://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/with in a week or soo your blood sugar levels should greatly stabalize and no longer spike and as for your insulin injections you will come off them slowly not all at oncealso know that insulin is a fat storing hormone so your fat loss will not be as fast as other people who are not type 2 diabetic'sand also before starting the atkins diet you must have a kidney creatinine level test done this is to see if your type 2 diabetes has damaged your kidneys to the point of not being able to handle protein so if you do have an impaired kidney then you will need to do a speical version of atkins that is lower in proteinhttp://www.biblelife.org/diabetes.htmhttp://www.biblelife.org/bowel.htmhttp://www.biblelife.org/leakygut.htmedit: oh i read alittle more of what you typed so you are already benefiting greatly from low carb that is great!

also the atkins forums are full of great info too so you should give it a look over i have learned lots of health things there

 

[allyjellybelly]

I did the Atkins diet a few years ago and did well on it - until I listened to those ever-present sceptics who said that being on it too long can damage the kidneys, etc., etc., so I started to reintroduce the carbs and the diet fell apart.What I have realised is the reason it worked was because it was essentially low-carb and provided a lot of water - which is basically what I am doing now, except I don't go overboard on the protein (and never did even on Atkins) (...too much of a good thing and all that...).The SCD is basically a healing diet. It is not designed for weight loss or gain (although that does often seem to stabilise when following the diet). It is mainly aimed at those with gut and digestive issues - which IBS comes under the banner of, of course, but has been found to be beneficial for all sorts of health issues.I know that it has been used successfully in treating Schizophrenia and Bipolar issues, depression, arthritis and joint problems, Autism and ASD, thyroid problems, gut issues - colitis, Crohn's, diverticulitis, IBS, etc., and many other health problems.Glad you went back and read my other posts. It does help to know what you are responding to!!

 

[ziggy7]

Atkins is not a high protein diet xD its high fat , mediun protein , low carb % based like 65% fat , 30% protein , 5% carbsthat % is easy to get btw chicken eggs are 61% fat and so onAtkins is a healing diet too it takes you to your natural healthy weightand people will always attack things that work and take money away from them like the diseases you sated and the ones i state type 2 diabetes , heart dieases , obesty . IBS , etc etc all are prevented or reversed or 100% managed or even cured with no drugs what so ever this causes for massive attacks and law suits on diets like these that take so much money away from the health care system and drug companies

http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=112669eskimos eat a diet of up to 80% fat and they have great health and dont suffer from any of them illnessesanyways after looking at the foods you said you eat i support you and the SCD diet

thanks for posting it will help alot of people