Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

I'm really sorry you're feeling so bad right now {HUGS}, BUT the fact that you're getting such good results with the diet so soon is a really good sign! For the peppermint tea - glad to hear it helped! You might try drinking herbal teas - peppermint, chammomile and fennel are all really good choices here - all day long, as in 4 or 5 cups a day, and this may over a few days start to help prevent the bloating to some degree. Worth a try anyway.

When people say they are stable on these boards they usually mean that they are not having D or C or pain, and some mean that they are bloat free too. However even stable people occassionally get bloated - but certainly not constantly. Generally people's definition of their own stability is some level of normalcy, like you didn't have IBS (although you obviously still have to keep following all diet and lifestyle stuff).

Do a search for Digestive Advantage - it's come up a lot simply because it's so appealing and promising as a "cure". Unfortunatley it's no wonder drug - just a probiotic and a digestive enzyme. It would probably help as much as taking those two things separately would (and people definitely do find help with those things) - but it's not a cure.

Rather those who are stable (and I would consider myself pretty much stable at this point) got there with a combination of things: diet, stress management, medications for some, soluble fiber supplements, plus enzymes, probiotics, herbs etc. How long does it take? It's taken me about a year. It takes some people less time, some people more. However while I'm on my way to stability now, I did see progressively positive results after a few weeks and as long as I stayed strict with the diet things just keep getting better.

These are your signs that it's working, remedies for your skepticism. We KNOW that IBS can be terrible and embarassing and cause you to miss out on social events. How do we know? By the very fact that you are on an IBS discussion board you should simply assume that we all know what you're going through because we're all going through it too.

And we're dealing with it. If you're looking for a miracle cure, you need to change your outlook or you will never be satisfied. Instead, rejoice in the small gains you make each day - in those 20 mins you felt great today, and each day those 20 mins will grow until soon you'll have whole days when you feel good. Don't consider it a sacrifice - you'll only fail if you look at it that way. Consider it doing something really good for your body and your body will give you results.

I can't make any promises here obviously and clearly this all depends on you - your commitment to this and your willingness to change. And in that I wish you all the best of luck.

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