Questions about triggers
#367841 - 07/19/12 10:39 PM
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I've been reading "IBS--The First Year" and studying this site, and I have two questions I've not found answers to:
•Is a person's trigger always a trigger for them?
This has confused me for years, as I suspect a few foods cause flares for me, but because they don't ALWAYS cause a flare--and in fact they often don't--I'm not sure whether they're actually a trigger. Coffee, for example. It's my most likely trigger, yet 50% of the time when I drink it, I have no reaction. Or at least not a strong enough one to be bothered. Even more nebulous: dairy. 95 percent of the time, no trouble. On occasion, trouble. Or maybe the trouble is caused by something else . . . which brings me to my next question:
•how quickly is an abnormal gastrocolic reflex kicked off by a trigger? Is it always immediate? Or can it occur sometime within 24 hours of eating? 48 hours? 72? It would help me identify my triggers if I knew the timeframe for a reaction.
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Great question ~
You will get some different replies based on everyone's personal experience -
From speaking with IBS sufferers, I have found that there are different triggers for different people - overall - this is not the same as people who have food intolerances/allergies, etc.
In my experience, and speaking with other sufferers - A trigger is a food that the brain-gut perceives as causing problems - we know this because sometimes if a person has the food unknowingly, it may not cause the reaction. At one point, every food was a 'trigger' causing IBS symptoms for me, and I was down to crackers and water. It was not the food, but the act of eating that caused the symptoms for me. This is not to say that there aren't specific foods that cause problems for people, but they may be different for different people. Coffee is known to be a trigger for some, but it could be that some coffee has more strength, taken with or without food, time of day (first thing in the morning on an empty stomach) - but is this then IBS, or just a reaction to coffee?
So it is my experience, and based on what you mention, that foods are not necessarily a trigger but the act of eating - triggers are not necessarily common to all people, or to you all the time - so what you mention is common.
Supposedly, the food you eat takes a good 24 - 48 hours to make its way - but I have had people tell me they 'see' evidence of their food pretty quickly - as in goes right through them. So is it that the 'trigger' causes the problem itself, or is it that the trigger food 'triggers' the gastro response of making the previous food 'move.'
I have had IBS symptoms happen mid-way during a meal - the food I was eating was fine - it was the 'eating' that made me have to go.
To find out one avenue to working with trigger foods, consider the brain-gut connection in addition to any dietary modifications you may consider. Once I did hypnotherapy, I could eat ANYTHING - no more triggers - and again, everything was a trigger for me 12 years ago....
Others will give you their experience which will be different from mine, so your mileage may vary as they say!!!
Hope this helped! 
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My Journey and Success with the IBS Audio Program Hypnotherapy Program: www.helpforibs.com/messageboards/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=hypnotherapy&Number=224850
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The symptoms from eating a trigger food can occur shortly after consumption to 1 day or so later. Also, some foods may not trigger symptoms until they have been consumed a few times in a row.
Over the past decade there has been considerable research into classifying foods that can cause bloating and gas triggering symptoms in individuals with functional bowel disorder like IBS. Recently clinical trials in the UK and Australia have tested a dietary management approach to manage functional bowel disorder such as IBS. This approach is called the FODMAP approach. You can read details of this approach in the first two links in my signature. Many of us on the board integrate the FODMAP approach with Heather's Eating for IBS diet with reasonable success. The clinical trials report that the FODMAP diet reduces IBS symptoms 70-80%. A large clinical trial is about to get underway in the US.
The FODMAP diet does not deal with common IBS triggers like caffeine, alcohol, insoluble fiber, high fat, etc. Heather's diet deals with these triggers exceptional well. The FODMAP diet assumes these types of trigger foods will be dealt with by the attending health care professional.
There are five FODMAP groups. Not ever one is sensitive to foods in all the groups. To determine which of the five groups one is sensitive to an elimination approach is used. This is explained in the articles.
FYI - in some instance the gastrocolic reflex can be triggered simply by the process of eating irrespective of what is eaten.
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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Thanks, Syl. It is from reading about FODMAPS that I asked those questions. In all the categories I saw, there are foods that have never seemed to cause symptoms for me. Yet other foods that possibly have. I realized it's the same with Heather's lists of triggers.
I can see there are no easy answers. I've done an elimination diet for food intolerances in the past, but it was loaded with insoluble fiber and high in some fats like avocados and olive oil. I felt fine while on it, and only one item came up as questionable when I added it back in: beef.
You mention something else that rings true for me: "a few times in a row." That has often been the case for me with coffee. Such a gateway substance for me! If I stay off, I don't crave it. But one cup one day--and I want another the next day. One cup one day and I feel fine, a cup the next I feel fine, a cup the third . . . very risky.
Anyway, thanks. My instincts and previous self-research tell me that coffee (caf or decaf), alcohol and red meat are pretty solid triggers, at least after consecutive offenses, and that insoluble fiber and healthier fats are less so. Just trying Heather's approach, with the soluble fiber cushioning, is very new for me, so I'm going to start there before I explore FODMAPS too much further, especially since there's nothing obvious in the FODMAPS charts.
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Thank you, Marilyn. I do plan to get the hypnosis audio, after I've gotten a little more established with the acacia fiber and peppermint.
You named the question I ask myself all the time: Is this IBS or just a reaction to coffee? For example, when coffee bothers me, it happens later in the day, in the form of nausea. Same with wine. Half a glass one night, and the nausea might set in the next day. For awhile there, I was having a partial glass of wine every Thursday night with a friend, and Fridays were often guessy for me. There are enough things that might set me off, though, that I think I can pretty safely say it's not just coffee.
It's a conundrum, for sure!
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I'm thinking about trying some decaf coffee/organic cottage cheese even though probly triggers for me.
Do some with ibs tolerate those things?
Having ibs and diet restrictions... don't agree that you won't feel deprived. If you have cravings for a specific food usually substitutes don't satisfy completely!
Who has given these food items a try?
Thanks.
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ibs-D & bloating,mucus,gerd,incomplete evacuation.
diet-no preservatives,no table salt,homemade cooking,grains-sushi rice,rice flour,oatmeal,gluten&soy free
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Cottage cheese has a high amount of lactose which can cause cramps and D in individuals with lactose intolerance. It and all dairy products can be a problem and they are best avoided.
Decaf coffee is okay for some but not for everyone. It still contains some caffeine.
I don't often feel deprived because following Heather's EFI diet and the FODMAP diet I have much much less pain and other GI symptoms. So when I feel deprived I remind myself how uncomfortable and painful it can be eating IBS unfriendly foods.
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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Which dairy products can I try?
Thanks
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ibs-D & bloating,mucus,gerd,incomplete evacuation.
diet-no preservatives,no table salt,homemade cooking,grains-sushi rice,rice flour,oatmeal,gluten&soy free
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Can I eat dairy if it's skim or lactose free? What about yogurt?
--------------------
STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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