Has anyone else w/ IBS-C had increased bloating, gas and pain w/ acacia?
#187919 - 06/21/05 02:04 PM
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lithelady
Reged: 08/15/03
Posts: 339
Loc: Novato, CA
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I had been on it for at least 9-10 months and had built up to a dose of 2 tsp upon arising, and then 3 tsp before lunch and dinner. 4 weeks ago I tapered off of it b/c I was beginning to think that it might be the reason for my my gas and bloating becoming worse as the day progressed.
I've been less bloated since being off of it on SOME days but not consistently. So, now I don't know what to think and am wondering if others w/ IBS-C have thought that the acacia made their bloating and gas worse? 
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Many years of C-IBS and pain too for past 2 years-
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That was quite a high dose btw. Is a US tsp still 5ml? Cos if that was British it's the equivalent of 2.7 T a day...or 20g SF. That's ALOT. I know some C's need that much or more, but maybe you didn't?
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A tsp of acacia is 2.5g, so yes, she's taking 20g SFS a day.
I personally only take 12.5-13, and I'm a big C'er.
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Elizabeth
all those years it wasn't IBS - it was celiac!
send me an email: liz@dopple.net
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The only time I had increased gas and bloating with the Acacia is while increasing dosing. However, I found out my body could only handle a total of about 18g (I take it 2 1/2 teaspoons before each meal). When I tried to take more than that, I noticed problems. So, I backed off and now have no problems.
You might want to back down the dosage a bit and see if you don't improve. I'm fine as long as I don't increase any further. Sorry you are hurting.
--------------------
God is Faithful!
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I haven't noticed more bloating on acacia, but then I've been at the same dose (1 T, twice a day) for a long time. Are you getting enough fluids? Heather's newsletter this week talked about how important they are for us C'ers. Plus, summertime will dehyrate you something fierce....
--AC
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why Acacia is so helpful to some, and so untolerable for others. Some swear this product has turned their lives around, while others have had horrible attacks, pain, bloat and gas form it. Some Cers say it helps...while other Cers say it makes them more C. I just don't get it. I know we are all different...but shouldn't a product that is a good, gentle SFS be safe for everyone? 
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It's really the same with every SFS, Cyndy. Some people can tolerate a certain brand while others can't. That said Acacia is gentler than most brands so more people seem to be ok with it, but not everyone. Unfortunately there's no one-size-fits-all sfs
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...that in this instance, lithelady's problem is probably due to too high a SFS dose!
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another type of SF food . Therefore, I thought the body would react to it kindly and accept it as a gentle SF buffer, like all SF foods.
I guess I don't understand how a purely soluble supplement can be irritating to the body when SF foods are suppose to soothe the gut, since I was viewing the Acacia as a "food".
With this viewpoint, I can see where it might be more popular with D folks where C people might find they need something with more insoluble fiber, like psyllium, to help push things along...but I thought Acacia might be gentler and that I could get my IF from food sources instead. But again, this was with the frame of mind that Acacia was more like a safe SF food.
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Acacia is a SFS...and the least food like one as it's almost completely SF (which has no calories as it's not absorbed)! Acacia is more widely tolerated than any other SFS available. HOWEVER, with IBS, you can find someone who is intolerant of pretty much anything!
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has referred to Acacia as a substance the same as any other SF foods. Like when she says it is safe for pregnant women to use it because the body digests it like it any SF food. I'm probably misinterpreting something?
And I know others use Acacia as a SF buffer before consuming IF foods. So, I thought it was equavalent to a soluble fiber food and, therefore, would be safe and non irritating to everyone. Does that make any sense?
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Yeah, but what I was saying is that you can find IBSers who have problems with all the individual SF foods as well! We're all so individual.
With IBS, there is NOTHING that works for everyone. Acacia works for more people than most other SFSs and that's as good as it gets.
Also, re. taking Acacia while pg...it's perfectly safe and although it's likely to go down better than other SFSs, there's no guarantee that it will help the pg woman's IBS. WOn't it def. won't do is harm the baby.
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and I compare it to a soluble fiber food because so many people mistakenly think of a supplement as a drug. Soluble fiber is not a drug. Soluble fiber is naturally found in lots of foods. So taking a soluble fiber supplement is like eating a food.
And you're also right that lots of folks use Acacia as a buffer before meals. That's a great way to use it, and exactly how I take it.
- H
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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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Okay, now I'm a little confused. LitheLady is taking 8 teaspoons which is what I take. Are you saying that 8 teaspoons is too high a dose, period, or that if someone is suffering from pain, bloating, gas it's a sign to cut back on the SFS whatever the dose is?
Thanks.
--------------------
[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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When some IBSers say acacia makes them worse, I've always wanted to know: at what point? I mean, let's say you've been eating a high SF diet for a while and then you start having 1/4 teaspoon of acacia a day. Do you immediately get more gas, bloating, cramping? If so, then at such a low dose, it almost seems like that would be an allergy, doesn't it? I'd think that in the context of a high SF diet anyhow, 1/4 teaspoon of acacia would just get lost in the noise so it hardly seems like it could be just the fiber-ness of it.
Or does the gas, bloating, cramping not happen until you've worked your way up quite a bit?
--------------------
[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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...other people need a VERY high dose. What I was saying is that if you're having lots of bloating and you think your SFS might be contributing (esp. if it's Acacia rather than, say, psyllium) and you're on a high dose, it might be worth trying a lower dose.
Remember that for most people, Heather recommends 12-15g SF from a SFS a day. So 20g a day is a high dose.
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Thanks for the clarification, Linz. I know my dose is high compared to most - especially for D - but it's working for me for now, so I'm not going to mess with success. Maybe I really have a LOT of water to sop up!
--------------------
[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Sand,
I was on the lowest dose of acaia and I got the major cramps/D on the 3rd day of taking it. I get plenty of soluble fiber on a dialy basis, so it's not that I'm not used to SF. It was rejected by my body, I feel pretty sure about that!
Laura
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I had to start at 1/4 tsp. Were you eating anything else that could have caused the cramping?
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Formerly HanSolo. IBS, OCD, Bipolar, PTSD times 3.
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Which is very annoying. Btw, what dose were you on...1/4 tsp once a day?
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Quote:
When some IBSers say acacia makes them worse, I've always wanted to know: at what point? I mean, let's say you've been eating a high SF diet for a while and then you start having 1/4 teaspoon of acacia a day. Do you immediately get more gas, bloating, cramping? If so, then at such a low dose, it almost seems like that would be an allergy, doesn't it? I'd think that in the context of a high SF diet anyhow, 1/4 teaspoon of acacia would just get lost in the noise so it hardly seems like it could be just the fiber-ness of it.
Or does the gas, bloating, cramping not happen until you've worked your way up quite a bit?
I haven't tried acacia, but I've tried several other fiber supplements. I started at an incredibly low dose and every time ended up with D, gas, and agonizing cramps (the kind where you wish you were dead). Generally it was within a day or so. My diet is very high-SF. In fact, that is probably 90% of my diet. (I know, I know, not healthy.)
Note, I haven't tried every fiber supplement -- I've stayed away from the ones with artificial sweeteners and psyllium. But if the "safe" ones cause such a bad reaction in me I hate to think what the iffier ones would do. Force my husband to finally start work on that second bathroom, maybe. 
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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I haven't tried acacia, but I've tried several other fiber supplements. I started at an incredibly low dose and every time ended up with D, gas, and agonizing cramps (the kind where you wish you were dead). Generally it was within a day or so. My diet is very high-SF. In fact, that is probably 90% of my diet. (I know, I know, not healthy.)
See, this is so interesting. A half-cup of applesauce contains 1 gram of SF; 1/2 cup of oatmeal contains 2 grams of soluble fiber. One-quarter teaspoon of acacia - which seems to have more SF per teaspoon than any other SFS - has .625 grams of SF. Presumably, if you took different SFS they contained different kinds of fiber so how could it be an allergy? And if you started at a low dose, you were getting far less than 1 gram of SF. Why would a body tolerate a high-SF diet, but rebel when confronted with less than 1 gram of SF from an SFS? I really want to be around when "they" finally figure out IBS and can answer that one.
Quote:
Note, I haven't tried every fiber supplement -- I've stayed away from the ones with artificial sweeteners and psyllium. But if the "safe" ones cause such a bad reaction in me I hate to think what the iffier ones would do. Force my husband to finally start work on that second bathroom, maybe.
LOL. I know that feeling - there's nothing like being an IBS person in a two-person house with one bathroom.
--------------------
[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Quote:
Sand,
I was on the lowest dose of acaia and I got the major cramps/D on the 3rd day of taking it. I get plenty of soluble fiber on a dialy basis, so it's not that I'm not used to SF. It was rejected by my body, I feel pretty sure about that!
Laura
When you say "the lowest dose", do you mean the 1/4 teaspoon I used in my question or do you mean the lowest maximum dose given on the packaging? If you were on the lowest maximum dose, I assume you were okay while you worked up to it and then suddenly hit some magic amount and started having problems?
--------------------
[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Hi Sand,
I actually do mean 1/4 tsp. I never did work up to a higher dose. The cramps were the worst I'd had in quite some time and I had not eaten anything unsafe, so I had to blame it on the acacia. Haven't tried it again since and I doubt I will. I know it's very confusing. How can such a small amount cause such a big reaction, but sometimes you've gotta listen to your gut and I it told me "No"!
Laura
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Someone else was...Dalia or Panda I think??? Anyway, not worth pushing allergies. Btw, do you get hayfever?
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This really does sound like an allergy. Ouch! And I absolutely agree that when your gut says, "No", you have to listen. It has such an ugly way of punishing you if you don't!
--------------------
[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Quote:
Quote:
I haven't tried acacia, but I've tried several other fiber supplements. I started at an incredibly low dose and every time ended up with D, gas, and agonizing cramps (the kind where you wish you were dead). Generally it was within a day or so. My diet is very high-SF. In fact, that is probably 90% of my diet. (I know, I know, not healthy.)
See, this is so interesting. A half-cup of applesauce contains 1 gram of SF; 1/2 cup of oatmeal contains 2 grams of soluble fiber. One-quarter teaspoon of acacia - which seems to have more SF per teaspoon than any other SFS - has .625 grams of SF. Presumably, if you took different SFS they contained different kinds of fiber so how could it be an allergy? And if you started at a low dose, you were getting far less than 1 gram of SF. Why would a body tolerate a high-SF diet, but rebel when confronted with less than 1 gram of SF from an SFS? I really want to be around when "they" finally figure out IBS and can answer that one.
This doesn't make sense to me, either. It makes me mad because I still haven't stabilized and SFSes are supposed to help so much! I keep going back to the SFS shelves at the store to see if there is anything new or that I have missed. The pharmacy people probably know me by sight and feel sorry for the girl who must have hideous C to be always hanging around the laxatives! 
I do have a definite bad reaction to gums, which I didn't figure out until I realized I always had an attack if I ate even a small amount of gummi candy. But, that only explains the SFSes that are guar gum or arabic gum (are there any other kinds?). Maybe it's just the "etc." stuff in the other fibers? I think Heather says Acacia and Benefiber are the only 100% fibers out there.
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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I thought I was taking only 12 gms but realized that I was on 20 when I compared the doses of acacia per tsp on the bag vs the can. Here's Heather's repy to me question about this difference back on 4/26:
here's the difference. There are 7.5 grams of fiber in one level tablespoon of Acacia, or 2.5 grams in one level teaspoon. The can label reflects these numbers.
The bag label reflects a SCANT tablespoon dose, not a LEVEL tablespoon, and one scant tablespoon has 4.5 grams. Is this confusing? Darn right it is! Which is why we are re-designing the Acacia bag label so that it will be exactly the same as the can label. The new bags will be out in a few weeks.
Sorry for the confusion.
- H
However, I stopped rather than decreased my dosage b/c at the end of April I also read a post from someone who said that acacia caused her to have alot of gas.
I've worked up to 2 T per day of Benefiber (6 gms total) over past 2 months and I'm still having daily bloat that increases thru the day but much less gas. I'm not sure what to do now b/c I'm still in pain alot of days.
--------------------
Many years of C-IBS and pain too for past 2 years-
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...you need to keep on increasing your dose slowly until you get to around 10g at least. 6g probably isn't enough to help much with cramps.
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I posted this question below and Heather gave this reply:
This is exactly right and I compare it to a soluble fiber food because so many people mistakenly think of a supplement as a drug. Soluble fiber is not a drug. Soluble fiber is naturally found in lots of foods. So taking a soluble fiber supplement is like eating a food.
And you're also right that lots of folks use Acacia as a buffer before meals. That's a great way to use it, and exactly how I take it."
So, it still doesn't make sense to me why if we can eat soluble fiber food why a little amount of acacia or benefiber could cause us to bloat and be gassy. SFS is supposedly just an SF food, so why the bad reactions in so many of us?
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Quote:
But, that only explains the SFSes that are guar gum or arabic gum (are there any other kinds?). Maybe it's just the "etc." stuff in the other fibers? I think Heather says Acacia and Benefiber are the only 100% fibers out there.
I'm not sure if these are rhetorical questions, but you can take a look at Heather's SF FAQ for info on what's in the different SFS.
--------------------
[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Quote:
Quote:
But, that only explains the SFSes that are guar gum or arabic gum (are there any other kinds?). Maybe it's just the "etc." stuff in the other fibers? I think Heather says Acacia and Benefiber are the only 100% fibers out there.
I'm not sure if these are rhetorical questions, but you can take a look at Heather's SF FAQ for info on what's in the different SFS.
oops, I wasn't making too much sense, was I? I was wondering if there are any other types of "gums" besides guar and arabic. Also wondering if the non-fiber ingredients in fiber supplements might be bothering me since the fiber types themselves are different. I am going to go ahead and try Acacia -- I've been reluctant to because it's so expensive, but the $$$ is worth the risk, I think. Cross your fingers for me.
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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--------------------
[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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