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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 6/23/2007 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
My brother had serious diaharrea back in June of last year. He is 60 years old. He also has on going belching, excessive gas. The diaharrea lasted a few weeks and then went away, although not completely , very soft stools. His diaharrea retured a few weeks ago, very severe, but then subsided as it did last June. The belching, however, is on going. He is scheduled for a colonoscopy next week, but he is very apprehensive about the results. He did have his stool checked by a GP for some type of infection and it came back negative. Thoughts please
Posted 6/23/2007 5:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hi jimbuck,
Welcome to HealingWell! :-)
Is your brother on any medication? A lot of times "older" people begin having D when they start medication. Antibiotics are notorious for giving people D. Sometimes it can take months for people's GI tracts to recover.
Does your brother have acid reflux? That causes a lot of belching. *Acid reflux meds can cause D.* I'm not sure that belching is necessarily listed as an IBS symptom, BUT I do it a lot. There must be a connection there too.
You might suggest your brother try getting his gut back in balance with yogurt. Dannon Activia is great and even has a guarantee that things will begin to function normally in 2 weeks.

At your brother's age it is a fantastic idea to be scoped. Better to be safe than sorry.
Posted 6/25/2007 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
Hi jimbuck,

I wanted to add my welcome as well. It's nice to see how much you care about your brother. I'm glad to hear that your brother's test came back negative for infection. IBS is uncommon to develop later in life however it is not impossible. Like Lil said, a scope is a good idea to rule out any cancers. I hope that everything turns out well. The burping can be caused by gas and a lot of the gassy foods also can cause diarrhea symptoms. You may want to google for foods that cause gas and maybe he can eliminate some of those foods to see if the symptoms improve. Please let us know how his scope goes.

Take Care
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