Indigestion for 2 Months

Hey crew,

I really need some insight here because I'm stressing out over some issues.

For the past 2 months, I've (32-year old male) been battling some digestive issues. It started with gas pains and then lead to constipation that lasted most of the time. In between all of this, I've had stomach bloating with lots and lots of belching.

I've had blood work (CBC, Lipse, Thyroid, Blood Sugar, Liver Panel) and a recent colonoscopy (biopsies normal) that revealed no issues outside of my liver test showing low AST/ALT results. This makes sense because it means I am dehydrated as I only drink loads of soda no water.

The GI doctor right now is saying diet. But, even after altering my diet with acid reducing medication, probiotics and digestive enzymes, I'm still getting stomach bloating with lots of belching. It happens when I wake up, it happens before I eat and it happens after I eat. It's to the point now where I feel full longer after certain meals and have developed this minty feeling in my mouth and throat. When I eat or lay down (sleep), it subsides until I stand up.

That said, I'm still having some constipation. But, even after I use the bathroom, I still have this bloating/belching. It's like relentless and will not seem to budge. I'm worried it's something major and my next step is another procedure such as an endoscopy to find out what's going on.

Any insight on whether this is normal or serious would be much appreciated. I'm not losing any weight, not having any pains in the stomach or chest, urine/stools look good, no nausea and I have a good appetite even though I know it may or may not lead to more stomach bloating.

Post Edited (Krael) : 12/27/2014 4:04:07 PM (GMT-7)

So have you eliminated dairy yet? Lactose intolerance is the most common food intolerance, and most adult humans are or will be lactose intolerant to some degree eventually. Lactose is found in milk & ice cream & soft cheese, less so in yogurt and hard cheese, very little in butter.

Try a lactose free diet for a day or two and see if it makes a difference.

Have you been tested for SIBO? Your story is very similar to mine, I would suggest trying to avoid all dairy, soda and complex carbohydrates and sugar. Antibiotics will kill off bad bacteria but then supplement with good probiotics.

Try magnesium to relieve constipation and gas until you get your gut healed.

I can recommend Jini Patel Thompson books on Amazon.

All the best

Pink

So you've improved your diet in the past week (does that mean you have eliminated soda and junk food?) but you are still drinking gatorade. Aside from quitting soda and adding fruits and veggies, what else are you eating?

To keep your bowel moving you need to exercise, drink plenty of water, and eat soluble and insoluble fiber.

You should quit the gatorade also. Nothing in there but a bunch of sugar.

Upper GI gas is annoying but if you are not losing weight, or passing blood, or suffering from fatigue I do not think you are dangerously ill. You can continue to work on improving your diet and lifestyle, and continue working with the DRs on solving this problem.

And stop eating all dairy for a day to see if it makes a difference.

Hi Krael

My first thought is something bacterial, that can create a lot of gas and indigestion. But in any case you should cut all sugar out of your diet. Throw out the Gatorade and just drink water. Secondly there are some good home remedies for stomach pain, one is DGL, the other is cabbage juice. After a few days on those your stomach should feel a lot better.

If it is something bacterial you should try other supplements like high dose probiotics, or Aloe Vera to kill it all off.

In terms of diet, you really need to get strict on it. Avoid raw fruit and veg, so no salads. Have your veg well cooked. Raw fibre is even more difficult than fat on the stomach and can cause a lot of stomach upset. I noticed a huge difference when I cut it out. Also avoid in particular chocolate, coffee, cigarettes, onions, tomatoes, garlic and spices, they are very irritating to the stomach.

I dont find fatty foods such a big problem but make sure you have your fatty meal just after taking your PPI, that's the safest time to have 'bad' foods.

If you have bad intestinal gas it would be worth looking at a low FODMAP diet, that eliminates a lot of foods that produce gas in the bowels, but I would try everything else first as its very restrictive and a pain to follow.

Krael:

You need to be more serious about your diet, and it's not going to get better in just a week. You said your teeth are bad, what do you think it's doing to your stomach? In the grand scheme of things with your digestive problems, two months is not a long time. There are a lot of people on this Forum that have had problems for most of their lives. You may want to try some anti-gas medication, like Gas-X, get serious with your diet, and there is no reason for you to continue drinking soda at all. You need to only drink water, at this point.

Any ideas on the high dose of probiotics and what that entails? Is that like taking 2 pills as posed to one?

Krael said...
What's a high dose of probiotics look like? I'm taking just one pill a day of Align Probiotic.

I wouldn't doubt if this was bacterial. My teeth are pretty bad and have always caused infections, mouth sores and so forth. If that has any weight on GI issues, I'd likely think that's why.

As for my diet, I'm surely trying. I am a software engineer and gamer. So, I don't do mornings. Eating a breakfast such as something I have to cook is surely not going to happen ahah. I'm way to busy and that's why I got the bars to help with the fiber. But for lunch and dinner, I am trying to improve on those. I ate a nice salad today and have various dried fruit and veggies to snack on in between.

It's good to know my symptoms for 2 months is not as major as I think it is. I mean, that's what I was trying to look for because to me, I have very little digestion issues. Now it's catching up to me when I hit 30!

I count high dose as about 20-50 billion a day. I'm using L Plantarum at the moment as its supposed to be very aggressive to other bacteria but is transient so if you stop taking it it will be gone from your system in a few days.

Cooked meals can be reheated, I usually cook enough for 3 meals at a time and then just put it in the fridge. If you hard boil a load of eggs they can be in the fridge for an easy breakfast. I would be careful on the fibre, it is the slowest thing to leave the stomach and I noticed my nausea and stomach pains got better when I avoided high fibre food like raw veg, oats etc. But everyones different.