I apologize in advance for this being such a long post but need your opinion. For years I've been convinced I have IBS but after talking to a friend who has Celiac Disease I feel that's a strong possibility for me as well. Here's my story:I'm male, 51 years old, and was told about 18 years ago by a physician that I have IBS. In the beginning I went from being normal to being very, very sick with multiple bouts of diarrhea per day that none of the over the counter meds would help -- but was later quickly put into check after taking predisone. All of this seemed to have begun after taking an antibiotic. At first the doctor thought I had ulcerative colitis after she found inflamation during a sigmoidoscopy she performed and I was put on a IBD med that for about a year which really did not do a thing. Then I had a colonoscopy at that time and it was determined I had IBS since the scope indicated no problems. Doctor said to increase my fiber intake such as taking Fibercon -- which I did and after a while things greatly improved. Later I was able to go off the Fibercon and seemed to be over the intestinal problems for the most part. I still had many bouts of urgent diarrhea, bloating, bad gas usually after eating a large meal or foods with spice. Other foods such as peanuts, Coke, eating a lot of candy and/or chocolate, foods with teriakaki sauce on it, and various other foods will kick it off. Well, for whatever reason, for the last 4 weeks I've been dealing with multiple bouts of diarrhea per day. For the first two weeks it was nothing but watery, explosive diarrhea several times per day blowing out yellowish particle material that mostly floats in the water and stinks to high heaven. Then for the past week the diarrhea BMs have become less watery but still explosive with particle material that floats. When I have a BM there is usually a huge amount of gas/air that comes out as well. I have always been a daily gas passer some of them very foul. When the need to have a BM suddenly hits, I have to find a john fast. I do have abdominal pain in various places in the abdomen right now but sometimes that's relieved after passing gas or having a BM, but for the most part the gut pain is present but not to a very high degree. By the way, over the counter meds to not help and neither is the Fibercon.I went to my GP doctor last week and he felt around and ordered a ultra sound of my abdomen which came out normal in terms of my gallbladder and liver. He was concerned it might be appendicitis but I'm pretty sure that's not it but it could be, I guess. After the tests were shown negative he's pretty much blown me off as it being IBS. Anyway, the diarrhea persists and a few days ago, when the need for a BM hit me, I did not make it to the toilet fast enough and literally messed my pants -- fortunately I was at home. Before that time as well as after there have been times where I've come close to not making it in time to the john. My symptoms are mainly:- Explosive, foul-smelling, sometimes watery but always very loose diarrhea that generates a particle-like matter that floats and some of it sinking and a lot of it gets plastered on the walls of the toilet. The color was a yellowish color for the first two weeks now it's the same consistency explained above but it's more of a yellowish-brown color now.- Pain and bloating but the pain is not too noticeable most of the time but is felt when pressure is applied to the abdomen and sometimes noticeable when there is no pressure on the abdomen.- General feeling of bloating but not all the time.- Weight loss -- about 6 pounds in last 3 weeks.- Lately I've had a lot of fatigue and feel zone-out (brain fog) in the afternoons.What do you think? Does this sound like IBS or Celiac Disease? By the way, I am on an antidepressant mostly for anxiety and some depression. I don't usually get bowel problems associated with the anxiety, though. I've been on antidepressants for about 10 years.Thanks for your help.
Need your help: IBS or Celiac Disease
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Have you done any dietary changes? I mean specifically the celiac diet? There are so many false-negatives with celiac testing anyway that you might just want to cut out gluten for awhile and see what happens. It can't hurt since a gluten-free diet is very healthy anyway. Lots of grains you can still eat, fresh vegetables, fruit, plain meat (no sauces unless you've made it yourself from scratch). You might start by cutting out basically everything except "plain" -- plain chicken, potatoes, banana, ric. See what happens.
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Was the weight loss during a time you weren't eating as much as usual (or might have been eating a bit less and didn't notice) or were you eating more than usual and should have been, if anything, gaining weight.Normal weight loss when you are eating less than usual is not a symptom of anything. A lot of people eat less when they have diarrhea and abdominal pain because it is hard to feel like eating when everything is in an uproar.Are you ever anemic when they do regular blood tests? That is much more common in celiac than IBS (although it can happen for a lot of reasons). You can't tell them apart by stool type. Every possible stool issue is seen in IBS.If you cut out gluten before you are tested you may not be able to get a reliable test. However some people don't care and many with IBS do better on a lower carb diet so cutting out the starch from wheat will make them feel better, especially if they don't replace that with a lot of other starchy foods.
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Yes, sorry... should have said that if you plan to get tested for celiac you should not cut out gluten beforehand. I guess it would depend on the timing. Might be worth trying the diet just to see. But then if you do feel better and the doctor then tells you to go back on gluten for a month or so before the test you're not going to want to do that. lol.. I'm supposed to have an endoscopy at the end of August and my doc said to go back on gluten for ONE MONTH beforehand. oy... and no way. I already know what I have, and even if I didn't -- I wouldn't care if it's celiac or "just" gluten-intolerance -- if I felt better without gluten then that's all that counts. (and, in case you're wondering why I'm here on this board, I was looking for some suggestions about constipation.)
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Well if the usual playing with fiber and water didn't do much for dealing with constipation you might consider an osmotic laxative (they just make stool hold water so it is easier to pass).Miralax is the usual pharmaceutical type of osmotic people use. If you like to stick to more natural sorts of things than Magnesium Oxide (most used) and you don't want it chelated or other things to make it better absorbed. You want some left over in the stool. You can take up to 1000 mgs a day (typical recommended maximum dose). Many people can go higher than that, but if your kidneys are not quite up to snuff you can build up some magnesium over time and it can mess up your heart rhythm which is typically a bad thing.
No, my diet/food-type consumption hasn't changed at all. I love doughnuts, cake, breads of all kinds, and many other things with gluten in them. I have a doctor's appt today with an MD gastro specialist. I'm going to urge him to have my blood tested for Celiac -- even though I know there's a good chance it will come out negative, as I hear this is the case more often than not. After that I will try a gluten free diet to see how it goes.
Opps! Working on this reply.
I'm not sure what's causing the weight loss. I've lost a lot of my appetite for things lately since getting hit with diarrhea so that may be it.I'm not sure if I'm anemic -- never been tested for it.You're right, maybe the first thing to do is cut out all the carbs I used to like to eat so much.
I really hope all of this is not celiac. It may be more healthy to cut out all gluten from my diet but it's also a pain to do it since so many of the things I like to eat have gluten in them and a gluten free diet would be very inconvenient. On the other hand, if that's what it is and having a gluten free diet is what it takes to help things, then I'll have to live with it and do what I have to do.I really do think all of this is just IBS related. But as I understand it, celiac disease and IBS can mimic each other and I'd like to rule out the possibility that this is not celiac. We'll see what the good doctor says today. I'll post what he says.Thank you, all.
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You have never had routine blood work as part of a physical and they never did any blood work of any kind when you went to the doctor for IBS symptoms? That is part of the standard blood work they generally do on people every so often. It isn't a specialized test. They often do a blood count when they take blood for any other reason so if they have ever checked your blood for anything you've probably been tested for anemia, even if they didn't tell you that was one of the many things routine blood work looks for.
Just got back from the dr. I am to go to the lab and give them a stool sample and have some blood work done. He's doing a celiac check as well as giardia, and a bunch of other things. I'm glad I went. He said he's not sure what it could be but celiac is one of them. Said he'll know better after the lab work is done.
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