I am wondering if anyone here is either a doctor with experience working with IBS or if anyone knows of a good doctor who works with IBS. Please PM me.
Where are you?
You might be able to find a good gastro-enterologist through the Crohn’s/Colitis Foundation.
Louisville, KY
Bumping this back up since I have recieved no PM’s and my last thread disappeared into the abyss with no responses.
irritable bowel syndrome can be quite annoying on a long ride.
Actually the problems only occur the first time I eat every day. It makes it tough to race, play soccer, make plans, etc. when you know this will happen. I usually race on an energy bar, drink and gels before hand.
Have you ever tried using Citrucel? It is a fiber additive you mix with water and can drink the night before morning training. For some reason it helps the irritation and I think absorbs excess water in the colon.
I have had terrible digestive problems since 1999 when I got sick from water in the Middle East. I have been to two G.I. specialists and the second one pretty much said, “Not much we can do to treat this except take the Citrucel in the morning and the evening.”
My eating habits are very poor and I think my symptoms would be reduced if I ate better but I know the Citrucel helps a great deal. So does regular exercise.
I feel your pain though. When the symptoms are really bad they are incapacitating. Mine has gotten about 30% better during the last two years, but I am always dealing with it. Large meals are out of the question. I have to eat a little at a time and watch what I eat.
The Citrucel does help though. When I was really hurting I would wake up on race day and just hope for a “good stomach day”. If I had a bad stomach it was utter misery.
There are a couple good books that address this. Eating right for a Bad Gut by James Scala is my favorite. The author has been involved with a couple different Mt Everest ascents, the US Ski Team, and with the NASA Space Shuttle programs. I went through a lot of problems with this for about 3 years and after reading his book and following some of the recommendations, I haven’t had any problems. It has been about 4 years for me now too. I actually found an address for Dr Scala through the books publisher and exchanged letters and then emails with him regarding Colitis and training/racing Ironman. The email no longer works but I haven’t had any problems so haven’t had to contact him. Best advice I can give you from it all is to take 1 scoop of metamucil 3 times a day to begin with and you will see immediate differences. Lifestyle/diet changes might also be necessary to really get you back to normal operations. I will PM you an email that he sent to me that I kept. Good luck.
and I thought this thread was about ilio-tibial band syndrome…and I was joking…
a cheese pizza binds me up good. .