Its getting more and more annoying...please help!?

[morganandrew08]

Hey im an 18 year old guy with something which i have never actually been told the name for!!!....ive had i guesss u could call it a lazy bowel for my whole life...doctors said it would leave in my teens that it would "sort itself out"....shows wat they know!!....so im guess im asking is there someone out there that can help me...the pain is unbearable at times...while my diet isn the best i am not an overweight person...so please if anyone can suggest a procedure i can have done or something which has helped them i wud very much appreiciate it...thank you

[morganandrew08]

i would also like to say that the pain becomes unbearable when i go long periods without going....like the longest was two months...im really looking for a solution so any advice would be helpful thank you

[FurballsMom]

I would suggest finding a naturopath/nutritionist and work on finding the right diet for your body.  You may even find that you have food sensitivities.  I didn't find out that I had IBS 'til I was a little older than you are now.  I had the same symptoms that you're describing now.  Because I wasn't given enough information from the gastro doc that told me this years ago, my IBS subsequently got worse over time.  However, now that I've worked out what my food issues are and what kind of fiber therapy works for me, my IBS is much more manageable and I don't have as much pain in my colon as I used to have.  Metamucil is not just for old people, but it's also not the only fiber out there.  You don't have to buy a brand name, and it doesn't have to contain psyllium fiber--as long as it's fiber.  I use flaxseed meal, which I can simply add directly to my food.  You can also add it to water or other liquid and drink it like you would Metamucil.  I couldn't take Metamucil or Citracel, because psyllium and other ingredients aggravated my GERD.

A common problem to watch out for that people with IBS often have is gluten intolerance, which automatically means that you're lactose intolerant.  The two things simply go together.  If you find this out at your age, you're a step ahead of where I was at your age.  I mean, I was probably always gluten intolerant all along, but no one in my family was smart enough to pick up on this.  Many people with IBS also have Celiac, but I have learned that just because a person is gluten intolerant doesn't necessarily mean that a person has Celiac.  However, the treatment is the same whether it's Celiac or not, meaning that the person must avoid gluten and dairy products.  Fortunately, kids of your generation have access to the internet and sites like this one, which is really great by the way, and there are far more food products on the market that are truly gluten and dairy free.  So, if you find that you are gluten intolerant, which wouldn't surprise me one bit, there are more food choices available to you than you might think.  It might seem really hard at first, but with time you become accustomed to it.  I would bank on it that you're gluten intolerant, since this is such a common issue.

[joycekatherine]

Maybe you should see a gastroenterologist and have a colonoscopy, where they can actually look at your colon to make sure you don't have anything gumming up the works!!
I know that colonoscopies have a bad rap, but, I have had 5 or 6 and they are a breeze!!  You sleep thru the whole thing...good luck

[newly_diagnosed]

Hi, i'm a 34 year old female and have just been diagnosed as having IBS.  The doctor has recommended collefac to me which i've been taking for about four days but my symptoms don't really seem to be getting any better.  For a long time (since childhood) i've suffered from either constipation or diorreah and now on top of this am getting quite severe stomach cramps and a burning sensation when going to the toilet.  The doctor has told me to avoid tea and coffee (I also suffer from migranes so only drink de-caff anyway) to avoid wine (which I rarely drink) onions (which always upset my stomach) fried foods (which I rarely eat) and really high fibre foods (again which I rarely eat) I have been under a lot of stress recently and wonder if this may have caused my condition ?? I also have really embarrasing and painful wind.  Can anyone help me ? is there anything that I can take to ease my symptoms, i'm not sleeping at all well and feel quite desperate..

[FurballsMom]

Antispasmodic medications really help IBS, regardless if it's the kind with constipation or the kind with diarrhea or both.  I take Bentyl.  It's sedating, but it works really well when the other medications wouldn't work for me.  Some people do really well on a sublingual one called Levsin (generic is Hyocyamine).  It wasn't effective for me.  I believe there are others, but as Bentyl works well for me, that's the one I use.