Very curious-Could it be daily patterns? rather than what you eat?
#60969 - 04/14/04 07:10 AM
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OK here's my question...after reading the thread about trying (unsuccessfully) to find the trigger foods and having done a food diary myself and not had any success finding my own triggers, I really began thinking (ooohhh scary!) The ONLY thing that is a pattern for me is WHEN my symptoms strike. If it's going to be a bad day, my issues begin after lunch getting worse-sometimes unbearable-by supper, then tending to ease off by about 10 pm. Mornings I'm perfectly fine about 85% of the time. Always. No matter if I have steak for lunch, a salad, a tuna sandwich, soup or whatever, it begins after lunch! Could there be anything to daily bodily patterns that cause all this crap? (excuse the pun!) Sure, every once and a while there is a break in the pattern, but never more than for a day. 90% of the time though, if it's a 'bad day' for me, the daily pattern is exactly the same.
What's also wierd, and I know others have expressed this frustration also, is how I can go a couple weeks and feel great-regardless of food, then go months of feeling horrible. How can that happen when there are no significant changes to what I'm eating?
Does anyone else notice this?
Or maybe I'm just in denial about the food possiblility...
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OMG! I totally notice this. For instance, I used to drink a gallon of milk for my cereal in about 4 or 5 days. I did not have any problems every day. They came and went on different day, regardless of whether I drank milk or not.
Yeah, sometimes I will think a certain food triggered something, but if I eat it again, sometimes it doesn't cause me any pain or anything!
It makes you start to feel as if you're going crazy! For me, there doesn't seem to be any "one" thing that ALWAYS gives me pain or anything. It's SOOOOo annoying!!
So, yes, I definitely notice this, as you do.
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I'm right there with ya! For years I've eaten whatever I want with symptoms only a few times a year. And then a month ago, IBS has come back full force. Like you it seems to always be after lunch no matter what I eat. I skip a day or two here and there without symptoms but when it happens, it is almost always after lunch. Except for one day when I stuffed myself with pizza at dinner time and I was doubled over within an hour! I am going to try the food diary though----just to make sure! I think food probably is a factor but not the only factor. All I know is I'm having attacks almost every day now so i'm willing to try anything....anything means that right now I'm doing the very bland, "break the cycle" diet....rice, oatmeal, etc. Anyway, you're not alone ....I think your body cycle/pattern is a factor.
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Gotta say, that's me too. There are some obvious things that go right through me (big bowl of ice cream, a meal at McDonald's or Ivar's), but for my daily symptoms I can find no root cause (yet) -- the symptoms come and go even when the diet doesn't change. I'm feeling VERY frustrated.
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I went through this for 45 years until I finally understood I had IBS and discovered Heather's website. Up until then I was struggling to figure out what the triggers were.
Here is what I've learned. The trigger foods indeed do trigger attacks! But if you avoid all trigger foods, you can still get attacks ... for a number of reasons. For example, I'm absolutely amazed at how many people on this website, who claim to follow Heather's diet but complain about not feeling well, are eating prepared foods with additives/chemicals and are eating conventional foods that are not organic. Depending on how sensitive you are, additives and non-organic food may trigger IBS attacks. They do in my case. So, for example, even if you ate an IBS-safe food such as a boiled potato, you might get an attack if it was a conventional potato, not organic.
Unfortunately, even if you were to avoid all trigger foods, additives and non-organic food, you are still going to get attacks because... that's the nature of IBS. All you can do, as best you can, is follow a diet and lifestyle that minimizes the attacks and allows you to lead as normal a life as possible. This probably should include exercise and stress-reducing things like yoga. Heather's books best explain this.
As a side note, I view Heather's trigger foods as a guideline. We are all different so we all have varying levels of sensitivity to those foods. You have to figure out which of those foods cause you grief and which ones you can tolerate even if it's just in small quantities or in certain forms (for example, pureed or ground).
Unfortunately, you won't find these things out overnight. As I say, it took me 45 years to know exactly what triggers the attacks, and even so I often get sick for no apparent reason. However, the difference now is I don't unknowingly provoke an attack by eating something that will bother me. I am now educated through Heather's website and books (and through my own personal experience) to know what is likely to cause me grief and I stay away from it. Interestingly, I can sometimes eat a potential trigger food for several days before it bothers me. As I say, we are all different. However, we are joined by the common demonimator of having IBS, and Heather's diet provides an excellent, universal guide for the do's and don'ts of IBS.
Belinda
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Oh yes, I notice those days/weeks/months when things just don't seen to settle as well no matter what I do. That's why I think our IBS symptoms are caused by a combination of our bodies AND the food we eat. I know what you mean about times of the day that are troublesome. I can often eat something in the afternoon and have no trouble and then have it at night and feel terrible (HFCS is one of those things). That's because night is my bad time. BUT, that said, I think if I was eating bad things all the time I would be feeling worse no matter what time of the day it was! I know, because I went through that before starting the diet. So although there are many variables we CAN'T control, there are some we can, so we might as well do as much for our bodies as possible. That's my stance on it. 
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"Anyone can exercise, but this kind of lethargy takes real discipline." -Garfield
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It sounds very similar to what a lot of us experience when we first wake up. We immediately begin to think about how we're going to make it through the day with the inevitable cramps, so our conscious mind is telling our subconscious to cramp up -- and that's exactly what happens. Each and every morning! ARGH!
Could it be that you've become used to the afternoon cramping, such that your subconscious has gotten the message that after the noon meal it's time to cramp up? If your conscious mind tells your subconscious the same thing over and over again, pretty soon the subconscious gets the message loud and clear.
I really believe in the hypnotherapy program. Have you given it any consideration? It broke my regular morning cramping totally. It did a lot more than that for me, but we're dealing here with only that one issue.
Check out the posts in the hypnosis board, especially the success stories (and, yes, mine is there too). The CDs cost only $100, SOOOO well worth it, believe me! In fact, I'm just about to start Michael's next program for those who have gone through the IBS Audio 100.
Based on what you've said in your post, I think the hypnosis would help you a lot.
Bev
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<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~letsrow/smily3481.gif">Bevvy
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I am actually seriously considering the hypnotherapy...it sounds like it works very well...and is exactly what I need..just for stress and anxiety relief if nothing else.I have a weird and (hopefully not too stupid!) question for you about hypnotherapy. I'm pregnant right now...do you think hypnotherapy is a bad idea while pregnant? (I wish I was one of the lucky one's whose IBS got better with pregnancy...but it has NOT) I really know nothing about hypnotherapy, and will do LOTS of checking into it before I actually decide to do it if I do it before the baby is born...but what's your opinion? Anyone else?
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I agree with everybody else - my body confuses the heck out of me! I have been keeping a food diary for about a month now and still haven't found anything. I can go days of eating nothing but rice, white toast and herbal teas and be sick as a dog. 6 months ago, though, I could eat Pizza Hut pizza (if I took a lactase pill) and hamburgers and fries.
Just last week, when I was going through a particularly hard time, I could swear I smelled McDonalds cheeseburgers with pickles (I dunno why, I just thought I smelled it all night) so I got a major craving. So on the weekend, I went out and ate one. I passed on the fries and drink, just had some water and took peppermint capsules but I ate a _double_ cheeseburger (with pickles!) and I was fine. I was worried all night, but I was fine. Fine the next day too.
I am starting to think that even though food is obviously also an issue, my main trigger (or whatever) is stress. My worst attacks are always from upset, not from food. If I am upset, and eating poorly than I get to the point where I want to die I feel so sick but that's another story.
Maybe it's true that if you are eating well all the time, and say you've had a bunch of insoluble fiber in the morning and some gentle exercise and you eat something you shouldn't, your body can tolerate it. If you did it again, though, it'd say, "No way, girlfriend!!". I don't know for sure, and don't really want to test it.. That one cheeseburger I had was probably the best thing I think I've eaten in 3 months but I'm not going after another!
--Steph
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~~I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell-I know right now you can't tell~~Matchbox 20
IBS-D,pain.
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this topic actually just came up on the hypno board - you might want to check those posts.
- Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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