Men with IBS

BUMP
Thought I'd throw this back up to the top for you. We don't have too many regular male members, but hopefully one will be around shortly.
Take care

Gotta go!, glad you are feeling better! I want to encourage you to take probiotics. They will help. They will help your D and soon enough they will help your gas. If you're skeptical about taking a pill then at least try eating yogurt or those yogurt milkshake things. Both have probiotics. If you can find Dannon Activia or anything that advertises probiotics, it would help you tremendously.

Acidophilus isn't in with the other probiotics (I agree, they're pricey to expensive); it's in with the the other herbal supplements most of the time. They should all be in alphabetical order by name, so look there for some (cheap). You don't have to say what you want it for; just say you are looking for acidophillus pills and someone will point you out.

Hello, first time poster here.

I've spent the last hour or so reading through this forum and have found so much good information. I'm really glad I found it.

I am a 40 year old male who has battled IBS-D for about the last 15 years. I've never really been diagnosed by a doctor with it, but it is something that runs in the family so I have just assumed I have it since my sysmptons are the same. I pretty much have the same symptons as most have stated here. I can go throug brief periods (2-7 days) without any problems, then out nowhere I begin having serious bouts of D that can last a few days. It stops my life in the sense that I'm afraid to go anywhere because I never know when it's going to hit me.

The only thing I've found that works is Immodium. I basically use it as a preventive tactic. When I am going out to eat, visiting friends, or basically going anywhere away from home for more than a few hours I will take 4 immodiums. This always seems to work and gives me the confidence to go away from home. The problem is that I end up paying for it after a few days because I become constipated and then that follows with very watery D. I've thought about taking it on a regular basis, but am always leary of taking medicines like that too often as I'm afraid of it having long-term effects on my liver.

I have never really heard of probiotics until reading this forum so I am definitely going to give that a try, maybe also the calcium. I just want to find something where I can have a somewhat normal lifestyle. I am tired of this problem controlling me and everything I do.

Hope it's okay for a female to pop in here, two suggestions:

Someone on the UC forum here suggested I try this probiotic and I swear by it - Renew Life, Ultimate Flora, either the 80 Billion Colon one (aqua box) or the 50 Billion Critical Care one (blue box). You find these at a health food store, in the chilled section near yogurt, oils, etc. BTW, Walgreens sells these probiotics but I would not recommend buying them there, why? Because Walgreens refuses to keep them in a fridge behind the counter, if they are stored at room temp, they lose their effectiveness. Google it, you'll see lots of links for the ones I suggested above.

Second suggestion may seem odd to men but here goes. Years ago on a colon cancer forum I read about an ultra thin pad that MEN and women were wearing, to keep their garments clean if they had a minor accident while rushing or waiting for a bathroom stall to open up. Yes, men were wearing them! You find these in the feminine aisle, Stayfree, Ultra Thin Overnight Pads (black bag with purple logo/lettering). I'm long past the actual need for their purpose but they have SAVED me countless times in dire situations and are much better than wearing depends. What's so useful about this pad is they have wings so they fan out wide where you need to secure them to your underwear and then they are extra-long and cover the rear area, where WE all seem to need coverage the most.

Good luck to you!

Post Edited (Marsky) : 2/17/2013 7:16:24 AM (GMT-7)