Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Was my multivitamin causing IBS-C??!!!

I've been suffering from IBS-C for most of my adult life (I'm 34) and have tried EVERYTHING and spent MASSIVE amounts of money trying to find relief. I tried dietary changes, various supplements, Michael Mahoney's hypnotherapy, drugs when I got desperate, even acupuncture. NOTHING worked. The only time I found true relief (i.e., I wasn't bloated with gas and had strong, healthy peristalsis and completely normal bowel movements) was right after major surgery. I actually posted on this message board a while back about how I thought that the anesthesia had "reset" my brain-gut connection so that I had normal bowel function again. But my IBS-C returned about a week or so after surgery. I never made the connection that the surgeon had required me to stop taking my multivitamin until a week after my surgery (it would interfere with blood clotting)! Just a couple days ago it hit me that that's probably the connection--but I was skeptical because in all the online literature, weak peristalsis is blamed on vitamin deficiency, but not on vitamin presence. But since nothing else had worked for me, and the connection seemed pretty strong, I decided not to take my multivitamin that day. By that evening, I felt something I hadn't felt in a LONG time: the presence of gas in my transverse colon, and a flat lower abdomen. I know those things sound uncomfortable, but with my version of IBS-C, I would always have that "pregnant" look of huge distension in the lower abdomen and I never felt gas traveling in big bubbles in my transverse colon. This morning, as I write this, is my second day without a multivitamin and I feel wonderful!!!! I actually passed gas when I peed, which NEVER happens with my IBS-C. And the gas wasn't extremely stinky as it used to be--in fact it barely had a smell. I haven't pooped yet but my intestines definitely feel like they're "working" now, with the healthy gurglings that I missed. It might be premature to claim this is my cure, but the changes so far have been so amazingly dramatic that I thought I'd share with everyone. Anyone have an idea why the multivitamin would be the culprit??

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