Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Hello. I am a 21 year old female who was just diagnosed with IBS last year after a series of tests and two years of pain. I feel completely alone. The Doctor's can't help, and I don't know anyone else with this problem - especially someone my age. I feel like everything I eat makes me sick and I am unable to really monitor and trace what causes my gas pains, excessive bloating, and chronic constipation. I started exercising to help relieve some of the pain and it worked for a while. I'd lose weight, but because I was always constipated the weight loss didn't show - at least not according to the scale. Before I saw a specialist I was prescribed Prilosec and miralax. It worked at making me have bowel movements, but it always hurt and never felt as satisfying as once going to the bathroom felt. I tried taking smaller doses so that I wasn't constantly going diarrhea. Soon my doctor finally sent me to a GI specialist who performed a colonoscopy on me and found nothing to be wrong and just assumed I has IBS. He prescribed me medimucil, but it doesn't really help much. If anyone could just please give me some guidance I would appreciate it. I just want to feel better and have some control.

IBS can be tricky because everyone responds differently to foods and/or medicines. But I can give you a few tips to see if they can help.

IBS symptoms are mainly food driven and it is recommended that people who suffer from IBS consume a lot of fiber to help regulate their bowels. Fiber supplements can help but you also need to eat lots of fruits and veggies. Also, drinking a lot of water can help along with physical activity - especially laying on the floor and raising your knees to your chest, straighten your legs and repeat. Stool softeners can help with C as well. Massage your gut - start from the right and work your way around to the left.

To help determine which foods are causing your C to become worse, try keeping a food diary. Record everything you eat and see if you can find a common culprit. Sometimes you won't find any common food because IBS can be fickle but its worth a try.

I have IBS-D but suffer from constipation on occasion from Diverticular disease and having constipation, in my opinion, is worse than having D. It makes you just feel horrible!