Symptoms of IBS include

• Abdominal pain or cramping
• A bloated feeling
• Gas (flatulence)
• Diarrhea or constipation — sometimes alternating bouts of constipation and diarrhea
• Mucus in the stool

Typically you either fall into IBS-C (constipation) or IBS-D (diarrhea).

Over the past 4 years, I’ve been battling a pretty bad case of IBS-C. Anytime I would eat anything, I would get severe stabbing pain and cramping in my upper left abdominal quadrant (right under the bottom rib)  so much so that I often gave up eating halfway through a meal. The only thing that would relieve the pain was using the bathroom (taking a dump) but it was pretty common that I would not be able to use the bathroom for 2-3 days in a row. Because of the pain, and eating less, I lost a ton of weight (around 30lbs) since college. I visited numerous doctors to try to figure out what was wrong. “There’s not really any organs there…” was the typical response. I had extensive blood work done, ultra-sound scans of all the vital organs in the affected area. I thought the worst, maybe significant problems with my colon or pancreas.  All tests came back negative for anything. In fact, all the tests showed wass that I was supposedly “healthy”.

I scoured the internet for solutions and tried nearly everything suggested and continued to suffer silently. I learned that IBS is sometimes caused by a treatment of antibiotics wiping out your intestinal flora. I had serious case of strep throat a few months before my symptoms started which was treated with very powerful antibiotics. I deduced that this may have been the culprit. I tried probiotics to try to replenish the good intestinal flora but it didn’t really help and instead gave me bouts of heartburn. The pain continued. In fact no-one except my girlfriend knew just how miserable I was every single day. The daily pain lead to anxiety, panic attacks, depression and the feeling that I would never feel well again. The weight loss didn’t help either and it significantly hurt my self confidence as more and more people asked if I was sick.

I never intended to talk or write about it publicly but in the past 6 months, through trial and error I’ve managed to almost completely get rid of my IBS and the pain and suffering it brought. Hopefully what I’ve done can be replicated to help others who suffer silently daily.

Here’s what I discovered through trial and error worked to get rid of my symptoms:

1. Exercise. This was my first major breakthrough. I noticed that when I worked out, either cardio or weight training, my symptoms wouldn’t be so bad. I told my doctor this and he said, “well that’s weird…”

I’m not sure why it works, maybe its stress reduction, endorphin release, or just getting the blood pumping. Who knows, all I know is getting daily exercise made drastic improvements to my IBS symptoms. I now try to walk for at least 15-30 minutes every day and weight train whenever I can.

2. Clean up my diet. My diet and what I put into my body had  never been good. I was always “blessed” with a fast metabolism so I could always pretty much eat whatever I wanted and not gain weight. I would eat tons of fried foods, hamburgers, ice cream, etc. Pretty much anything that is considered bad for you, I would eat because I never saw any weight gain so I though I was ok. Through trial and error I noticed my abdominal pain was worse when I ate certain things. Though that I did more research and discovered a few things and made several drastic changes to my diet.

• Cut out almost all red meats - I cut down my red meat intake significantly. I used to love eating Rib Eyes, hamburgers, etc but I noticed after eating these things the pain would be worse than normal. Doing some research showed about some of the negative affects red meat consumption has on your body and how hard it is for your body to digest. Recent studies have also shown that red meat consumption may be a contributing factor to the development of certain cancers. I cut it almost completely out of my diet and it has helped tremendously. I now eat a lot of whole soy foods as well as fish, chicken and turkey.
• Cut out almost all dairy products - I used to LOVE dairy products, Ice cream, cheese, etc. The problem is cow’s milk is actually HORRIBLE for you. First off, to make a cow constantly produce milk, you need to make its body think its constantly pregnant and that’s done through hormone therapy. When you drink milk you’re getting that stuff as well. Not only that, casein, one of the primary proteins in cows milk causes a human body to secret excessive mucus. Have you ever noticed increased mucus after drinking milk? That’s casein. Most adults cannot process lactose, the primary sugar in milk and it causes excessive gas production in your gut. I can go on and on about why cow’s milk is bad but the research is there. I now drink almond milk and try not to use cheese on many things. I still love cheese but I use it sparingly or eat it only on occasion (less than once a week).
• Eat more fruits and vegetables – This is one of those things like flossing; you know its good for you, but you just don’t do it. The big benefit of fruits and veggies is that not only are you getting more vitamins in, most of these things are good sources of natural insoluble dietary fiber. This helps keep the pipes clean and stuff continuously moving in your gut.

Eating healthier made me feel much better but its also hard to get enough calories eating healthy. This is good if you can lose a few pounds but for me, someone who had already lost so much weight, this caused me to become even more underweight. Now that I’ve got my symptoms under control I’ve begun to try to eat more calories (healthy stuff though), to put some lbs back on. It’s much harder (and more expensive) to gain weight eating healthy whole foods but it’s something I’m determined to do.

3. Stress Management. Starting and running your own business is one of the most fulfilling things you can ever do in life. It’s also something that will throw your mental state way off balance. It’s an emotional roller coaster. One day it’ll seem like everything is going great, the next day your site is getting bombarded by spammers and you’re up at 2:30 in the morning deleting users. There are so many things to think about and worry about every day, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Everyone responds to it differently, for me it made my digestion poor. I’ve come up with many different things to deal with stress, it’ll be different for everyone but I’ve taken up daily walks, gardening, breathing exercises. It’ll be different for everyone but try to figure out ways to manage your stress.

4. Poop when you need to poop. Working a desk job sometimes you don’t feel comfortable pooping in public restrooms. Holding it in is not good. Sounds like common sense but I doubt I’m the only one that did so. Moving back to Kauai and working from home let me poop when I need to poop and not have to hold it in anymore.

These simple things have greatly improved my quality of life. I’m not longer dreading the pain caused by eating. If you’re suffering from IBS, I hope you try these things and they work out as well for you as it did for me. I also highly recommend reading 8 Weeks to Optimum Health by Dr Andrew Weil. I’ve recently discovered the book and it contains many of the recommendations I found out on my own. He is much more schooled than I am so he’s able to better explain it in more detail, it’s really fascinating stuff. I know IBS is hardly anything serious, it’s not life threatening or devastating like cancer, but quality if life is something you take for granted until it is gone.

I don’t look it because I’m still very underweight but now I feel healthier than I have in years. Give me a few months with my new diet exercise routines, I’m hoping to look it too.

Earlier this year, I made a conscious decision to improve my quality of life and at least try to start feeling better again. I went to the doctor again to check out my symptoms, and he sent me through a ringer of tests, blood work, ultrasounds (which was performed by a friend from college… awkward). All the tests came back normal. At the same time, I began lifting light weights again. Since I did not have access to the full gym that I did in college, I bought a cheap dumbbell set and improvised with things around me, doing pull ups on a dog kennel, etc.

I also started to try to eat healthier. I cut down significantly on my red meat and carb intake. Sure I still eat a steak of Kalua pig plate once in a while but I eat a lot more chicken, turkey and fish for my protein. I eat out less and cook a lot more. I also eat a lot more vegetables and consciously try to put them into the things I cook.

It’s been about half a year in and although I don’t really seem to have gained much weight yet (probably because I still don’t get enough calories in a day), I feel much better than I did at the start of the year. The changes in my diet seems to have made the biggest impact in my over all health. My IBS symptoms are almost completely gone now and I just feel better.

My goal is to gain back 10 lbs of muscle by the end of the 2010. I’m currently experimenting with a modified High Intensity Training workout to see if that can help with the weight gain. Maybe one day I’ll post my before and after pictures.