functional bowel disorder

[subhalakshmi]

i have been suffering from functional bowel disorder for 3 years. i frequent going to toilet.i always feel like going to toilet again after i had my bowels in the morning.i feel lethargic. i,m mentally down,i always fear going out,i'm always worried that i will feel like rushing to toilet in the middle of exam. i want suggestions on speedy recovery

[patient915]

I agree with FurballsMom that trying a gluten free diet would be a good idea.

[subhalakshmi]

thank you so much. i really appreciate your suggestion.

[FurballsMom]

You're on the right track.  Try not to get over stressed about it.  I have functional disorder in the entire GI tract.  Keep trying different dietary elimination diets and such.  After this many years, I still battle with it myself.

You might consider going gluten free.  Gluten bothers a lot of people, whether they have Celiac or not.  The blood test for Celiac is not very reliable.  It tests positive for some people, but it misses a lot of people.  You can have gluten intolerance without having Celiac, too.  Gluten annoys my whole GI tract something awful.  My IBS swings the opposite direction, so I have IBS-C.  Nevertheless, the same foods still bother me as would for anyone with IBS-D.  

I would recommend staying away from citrus, too.  Because if you have functional GI issues, you are likely to start having GERD issues in a few years, too.  Citrus can irritate the colon as much as it does the upper part of the tract.

Going gluten free now should help improve your symptoms, if you are sensitive or intolerant to gluten--whether you have Celiac or not.  Don't let doubting doctors mess with your mind.  You will know whether going gluten free helps or not by your symptoms improving or not.  The one reason my PCP believes me about gluten is because my eczema greatly improved staying away from gluten, so there was visible evidence that didn't need specialized testing.  I no longer get the giant blisters on the heels of my hands, due to the gluten irritating the eczema along with the GI tract.

I recommend going gluten free as soon as you're able, because the longer you eat it, if you have Celiac, the more damage is done to the villi in the small intestine, and the harder it is to improve your symptoms.  I have read about cases of people who tested negative in all manners of testing, but as soon as going gluten and casein free, the symptoms greatly improved.  But, someone telling her story on a different website said she still has some bouts of tummy troubles that she can only assume was from all the years of not knowing and her continuing to eat gluten.

Some doctors claim this gluten free thing is a "diet fad" and some will discourage you from doing it.  I don't know what their beef is, because if you feel better without it, it's helpful and not harmful to you.  There are plenty of gluten free carbohydrates out there, so it's not about eliminating carbohydrates from your diet.  You're just removing the ones with gluten protein in them.  

I also recommend joining the Celiac forum and reading the information about Celiac on that forum.  I think you might be dealing with Celiac more so than IBS.

[subhalakshmi]

yes i have been consulting a gastrointestinalist, i have undergone both endoscopy and colonoscopy, my doctor advice to take probiotics,ioperamide, vitamins and not to take milk,spices,fats. i follow his advice strictly but i don't seem to recover fully even after 3 years.so i'm very worried.