As above really . First had it 6 months ago and been fine for ages but it's back with vengance. Last time I was off the bke for weeks due to being unable to eat and it took ages to get my strength/ fitness back and really don't want to go through that again so any advice or tips appreciated.

Try using slippery elm bark powder and/or turmeric powder. Both 1tbsp in water, its minging but it works well, both do.

My fianceé has had IBS for years and she swears by Buscopan, wont leave home without it 😆

Dont suffer with it myself but girlfriend does/has done in the past. With her, it's definelty related to stress, and clears up pretty soon after. She uses peppermint oil and says its helps a little.

Yep, i suffer really bad with it, controlling my life quite a lot 🙁

Try cutting out bread and other carbs like pasta, any maybe spuds. I find bread gives me the trots pronto.. Need to wait about 2 days and it clears up.

Zoolander
You are close to describing the effects of being prescribed Pentasa (mesalazine). If you are on Pentasa then just stop taking it and the problem will go away.

Try cutting out bread and other carbs like pasta, any maybe spuds. I find bread gives me the trots pronto.. Need to wait about 2 days and it clears up.

+1000000

I found oats cause me the biggest problem.

Cheers all. Like the idea of turmeric, although I'll admit to googling it first incase it was a windup! Curry to fix your gut? Surely not. But I may try that. Also I may leave the pasta and bread alone as well, which is a shame as carbs make up a big part of my diet.
Not on any medication at present. But am off to see the quack in a mo so will see what they say. It's annoying as they say excersise is good to prevent it and I cycle 6 days a week and it's only now I've got it again that I don't have the energy to get on the bike. They say stress can cause it and if there's one thing that makes me stressy it being hungry – so a double catch 22 really as at the moment I can't find any food that agrees with me.

Try cutting out bread and other carbs like pasta, any maybe spuds.

This, and the bit about stress. I have also found exercise really helps – which is a bit of a fecker cos I've not been well and not really been able to go out biking for ages.

colpermin (peppermint capsules)
supermarket, no prescription, one a day just helps i find.

got me back after a bad spell of it years ago.

red wine in moderation helped me too! (mainly as a relaxation 'aid')

dont eat spicey food either it will make it worse ! i was bad about 4 years ago, started with the muscle stomach cramps like someone was squeezing your stomach-i remmeber i had that every day for 6 months solid once- not good for your soul either feeling like that.. they gave me peppermint tablets ? then some other white tablets (cant remmeber the name now, wierd never really worked but after many months you begin to notice and take note of wot your eating and cut out certain foods from your diet….. i dont suffer nearly as bad as i used to… spicey foods/ mayonaise/salad cream, lamb, pork, tomatoes, rice, bolagnaise sauce, some cheeses, quite a few other things on the list too i cant have, so yeah its a 'change of diet' you have to go through (and everyone is different so start cutting foods out that you definately know disagrees with you…and work from there onwards. also immodium does work when your really bad..take 2 initially then 1 in the morning and maybe 1 at nite time for a couple of days…..gudluck… i blame the early 1980,s for crap food…. since then food has become better…. but you dont notice till years later, then when you reach middle age these kind of things creep up on you…. …

I suffered for a few years after a trip to Thailand (post-infection IBS), it really controlled my life. I take Holland and Barrett enzyme formula tablets before lunch and dinner and it made almost all symptoms go away and is pretty cheap/easy to get hold of. And no – I don't work for H+B, but when you find something that helps, or identify your trigger foods etc it can transform your life.

+1 for beer/alcohol as relaxation aid – but some people find it to be their trigger…

runs in my family although i don't think i suffer. aloe vera gel seems to be a brilliant way to prevent it. my family buy forever living products because thay are far more pure.

needs to be fitted into your life (need to take it every day 15 mins before food) but seems to have fixed all sorts of digestive tract disorders.

I initially read that as ITB syndrome and was going to recommend a course of stretching and massage. That would not be a good look for IBS….

I find loperamide works really well, I take one when symptoms start and it usually puts bowel back into normal rhythum, used to take one a day but now just when I need it

Horrible thing to get though, ruins your social and bike life

Stress & iceberg lettuce does it for me (separately, I'll add), but tend to manage without any meds. Used buscopan in the past.

I avoid lettuce in my diet in general, but particularly Iceberg, and the white stalk bits that restaurants just chop up & throw in. I also find that eating a higher fibre diet in general (cereals etc) helps, if I go for any period of time without a decent fibre intake then I'll be in agony, such as a couple of days cheap travel etc.

Peppermint oil capsules after/before a meal and a low-fat diet. Even then you can still feel the effects sometimes, but it's the best way to control it for me.

+1 for Teddy, i have had it on and off for years. it is worse when under stress and diet is a big factor as described above. peppermint is a big help, hi strenght like colperine, i also have colofac on hand, you can get it in boots.

Bread and Pasta can cause big upsets for me.
Have used Buscopan & Mebeverine, which didn't do much, but am now taking Aloe Vera which is working wonders!

Honestly, the turmeric thing is very good as is slippery elm bark – both natural instead of 'drugs'. Your choice. Stress is my trigger.

chillies don't help 😯

As above, rotate your diet a lot. Different people have different triggers. It took me a while to find mine, I tried dropping pasta and wheat products, wasn't them (yay), tried cutting out alcohol, wasn't that (YAY), tried cutting out chocolate, wasn't that (double yay!). Loads more. At one point I was living on a water and salad diet (which cured it), I then started adding foodstuffs back in to find which one would start it.

Eventually, it turned out to be coffee. Which I wasn't that bothered about cutting out. I can have one cup a day, any more than that and my IBS kicks in majorly.

It's horrible though. I remember on one solo 24 hour event I spent almost an hour lying on my stomach in the solo competitor tent desperately willing it to bugger off. I would have probably won if it hadn't been for that. 😉

If we are talking Irritable Bastard Syndrome then you have come to the right place…. kin loads of em on here! 😉

Cheers all. Quack recomended colfac so am giving that a go and to be honest am much improved, if still a little fragile today. Am kind of on a self imposed salad and fruit diet until it's gone again as well. Behind hungry doesn't half get me down though.
Definately need to work out what the trigger is though as I can't be dealing with this shit to often (excuse pun please). So far I'm thinking stress or coffee. It's not alchohol – otherwise I'd have it every weekend , pasta is a possibility though – really hope not though! On the good side appear to be oranges , they're about the only thing I can eat without feeling ropey at the minute.

Thanks for all the advice though.
And lol @ maxray I have both types for sure!

yeah, the closest one is useless. Just sells 100 quid full suss gas pipe specials and kiddy bikes. I generally buy online.

Had it many years ago, and touch wood haven't had a reoccurance in at least 7 years now. Tend to find eating white bread/pasta sets it off big time and mine was definitely stress related.

Used Buscopan and Colifac, both were ok, but felt drugged up most of the time. Found peppermint oil worked fantastically well. Also had little white tabs from the local homeopath which seemed to do the trick, but I can't remember what they were called.

As said above really, cut all the heavily processed carbs and teach yourself some relaxation techniques and you should be good to go.

Pardon my ignorance, but there have been so many different suggestions for causes and treatments that I'm led to wonder if it isn't several different conditions with similar syptoms ?

You're about right – IBS is a bit of a catch-all term.

I rarely get cramps, but last time I had a solid dump was over Christmas…so I'll be taking a cork with me to the Download festival this weekend.

Have any of you folks run into problems with bone density loss ?

I'm about due to go back to the doctor (or should that be quack..).
I went for a once-over recently as a part of a longterm national survey/research project (Biobank, if anyone's heard of it), found out my bone density is marginal :((( – I'm 47, no indicator otherwise, up to 5 years ago was regularly cycling, doing weights.

My suspicion is it's IBS/absorption related – my IBS kicked off about 5 years ago around the time we moved house. Went to see the doctor several months later relating dizziness/fatigue/dodgy guts – who reckoned stress – but who didn't seem much interested. Saw a different GP at the same surgery re bowel behavior a year or two later – a bit dismissive too. I'm mainly lost the diziness bit (possibly a sleep issue), I've now managed to get a little more energy to do weights in the gym now- but only after kicking myself up the arse up with a 11-mile cycle commute.

Fortunately (depending on how you look at it) – anyone with reduced bone density *ought* to be now checked out for celiac disease:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Coeliac-disease/Pages/Diagnosis.aspx
– which I've only just discovered…armed with that I'm gonna start hassled the p*xy doctor again (or more likely, register elsewhere).

Pardon my ignorance, but there have been so many different suggestions for causes and treatments that I'm led to wonder if it isn't several different conditions with similar syptoms ?

Could well be Simon

I suffered with what my GP called IBS for 2-3 years, only after chatting to a friend who had Colitis & asking my GP to look into this, I then found out what was actually wrong with me.

Worth pushing to get checked, even if it comes back neg.

Good luck Zoolander btw.

Something that occured to me about the difficulty of identifying the true cause of IBS (or similar syptoms) is that things that we might take for granted as safe / OK and do not normaly question, such as drinking water.
Even if the water has been treated and should be safe it can be, with old houses, that the supply pipes are asbestos cement, lead or so corroded that contamination is entering the supply.
In the case of asbestos cement the fibres being eroded from the aging pipes can cause some health effects. Lead is still a problem, even if the last few feet of pipe into the house are new (not lead) and your water company have no lead in their mains supply pipes it can still be in the bit of pipe under your garden from the mains to your house that no one has looked at.
Plus there is the other problem of living in a very rural location and having a private water supply of very questionable quality.
http://www.privatewatersupplies.gov.uk/private_water/CCC_FirstPage.jsp

yep anything with 'peppermint' in it can help a ttle, and stick to a low fat/low sugar diet…
eating lamb is also bad for ibs sufferers-tho everyone is different.. stay of fatty meats and rich spices -dont have a 'plate' full of rice either cos this also bloats up your stomach very quickly… reduce your meal sizes to 'smaller portion… anything with mayonaise added to it is a defo NO NO ! 'cream' based foods shud be eliminated too… reduce intake of beer ! i suffered with I.B.S a few years ago really bad…. and was on tablets from hospital for months… not really helped but over the months years you begin to notice a change in your food pattern- where you start to cut out foods that you think may not be gud for you….. it takes along time but in the end you stay away from 'Bad foods' that upset your stomach or that you mite be allergic to or aggrivate the lining of the stomach….. my hubby has just recently started having severe cramps in the stomach for no apparent reason… i think its a middle age thing…I.B.S suddenly hits you around the age of 40-and upwards…… so yeah cutting out certain foods from diet helps alot.. oh and 'stress' also plays a major factor with I.B.S too…

wife was 'diagnosed' as having IBS years ago, suffered for ages with it-nothing really worked. Tried cutting out wheat/gluten and has been fine since. Follows a strict gluten free diet.
Gluten/celiac is quite mis-understood/mis diagnosed, it was only by chance reading something that made her try it