dealing with IBS?

I'm starting to think I have IBS as well as UC- reason being, I alternate between days of constipation & days of 10+ bm's. The days that I "go", it's all solid stool, no blood, formed, etc. I have urgency pretty much every time, which is also a symptom of IBS. And lots & lots of gas. My diet has been pretty unchanged for a long time now. So.... I do think there is definitely some active inflammation going on, but probably not as much as my symptoms warrant. Also, I've been under a HUGE amount of stress lately, which I know is wreaking havoc with my guts. But, there doesn't seem to be any clear-cut thing to do for IBS- any ideas, info, help??? I'm not looking to get on any meds, but just some dietary or lifestlye tips would be nice.

Well the obvious place to start with diet elimination is dairy and gluten. I see you drink kefir.
Try giving up all dairy (kefir, cheese, milk, yogurt, etc) for a week and see if your symptoms are the same or less.
Then you can proceed to the gluten.
Those are the biggest offenders but there are others: fructose(that can be in your probiotic as FOS), caffeine, yeast (like in beer or other stuff), the list can be long but start with the first two.

When I switched to non-caffeine tea I found that was worse than green tea (weak) for me. The natural stuff in chamomile or similar tea drives my colon wild. Go figure. It should be really good and healthy, maybe for others but not my colon.

Good luck differentiating between the two! I had both but aside from fevers,vomiting and bleeding; I could never tell what was IBS and what was UC. Diet never did anything to help either one, at least not that I was aware of. Fortunately when the colon went, both the disease and the disorder went with it.

Sue