Alcohol and D

Hi Cooper,
Welcome to Healing Well :)
Wow, thats very interesting... I have never heard of having to drink alcohol in order to eat. And that it makes your D go away. I have always had the exact opposite with vodka (makes me run for the toilet the next morning with D) although I can tolerate vodka stomachwise more than any other liquor just not intestine wise I guess.
You sound like you have a very severe case of IBS-D since you take both Lomotil and Imodium. Am curious how many times do you have D without the meds and how many times with the meds? I hope you keep posting and I'm sure you'll get more reactions to your post since we all tend to lean the opposite way with alcohol and symptoms.
Take Care

Thanks for the replies.  This is the first time I have ever posted to any group.  I don't know why the Vodka works to immediately either stop the D or allow me to eat and not have D.  My only guess is that it relaxes what ever is causing the IBS in my body.  I am a type A high strung person.  I have D every morning without the Lomotil and Imodium.  My 20 year old son died 4 years ago and I found that when I was put on Elavil that symptoms got better.  But I continually had to increase the dose to the point I felt like a zombie and got off of it.  If I eat anything during the day, no matter what food it is, I immediately get D and am bound to the house until I take 4 to 7 Lomotil and 2 or 3 doses of Imodium.  I only take the liquid Imodium for the faster effect. 

I think that adhesions have a lot of affect with this.  I had a laperotomy where they cut open your stomach for endometriosis.  I have had 4 laperoscopies as well.  The adhesions they found with each surgery were huge.  I was very lucky to be able to have my son after the first surgery. 

Thank you for the replies. I am 50 years young and this is the first time I have ever spoken with anyone that knows how I feel.

My husband had problems eating without drinking in that whenever we would go out to eat like breakfast or lunch where he did not have a drink he had to go before we left the restaurant. He didn't eat breakfast at home except on weekends and then he liked to have a couple Bloody Mary's, with lunch he had wine if home and of course for dinner he had some vodka's. I could never figure it out and he was just used to it. He was never diagnosed with IBS cause he never went to a Dr. The only thing I could figure out was that the alcohol had a sedative effect on his stomach and kept it from spasming. I had a friend that was on opiates for years because of IBS-D. Finally she had a Dr .that told her to add Metamucil everyday and her IbS-D went away. I would guess that the opiates worked somewhat like the alcohol. The only problem is the alcohol and what it is doing to the liver and to the stomach after many years, not to mention the heart. I don't think it should be the solution to the problem as it will probably cause worse problems down the line. I should add that after my husband died from a heart attack and they did an autopsy they did find his gall bladder blocked by a huge stone and many other stones along the wall of the gall bladder. He never complained of gall bladder like symptoms except a slight pain in the upper left shoulder when he ate sometimes. He said it was gas but I am pretty sure now it was from his heart as he died of left sided heart failure and it was probably the heart not pumping correctly although the only time I ever saw him put his hand there was after he ate in the evening.

Post Edited (Canyonbabe711) : 3/23/2006 7:21:34 PM (GMT-7)

I think we have at least one other member here who also has endometreosis, who has lesions and who has very bad IBS as well. Either the lesions are on the intestines as well (or scar tissue has attached to the intestines) or the hormone flucuations/problems cause worse IBS. Pretty much all of the women here, endo or not, have worse IBS around, during or just after their periods, so there's defininitely a link between female hormones and IBS. (I take BC that keeps me from having periods, so I don't seem to have any variations outside of what I eat and stress.)

Did you have a total hysterectomy?

Here's a weird story for you: my mother had surgery some 10 years or so after having her uterus out. They found a piece of endometreosis that had been floating around lose in her amdomen all that time had grown a fibroid tumor (she used to get those a lot) and that the tumor had gotten so big it had attached to her small intestines (thus why she was having pain and IBS-like problems). They took it out without incident and took out her ovaries at the same time for good measure. Her doctor has said he had never heard of such a thing and was going to do a medical journal write-up on it.

So, you never can tell how your female parts may be affecting your intestines; it's all bunched in there together.

I wonder why they haven't done a total hysterectomy on you? Can't get it out for the lesions? I mean, with you already in/past meopause, it wouldn't be a big deal in terms of hormone adjustment. My mother's ovaries never functioned properly anyways, so she's felt better since getting them out and going on hormones. The less you have in there to mess up, the better off you'll be!