Soluble Fiber Supplement required to feel better?
#357418 - 04/06/10 07:28 AM
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Cyndy
Reged: 03/05/05
Posts: 1301
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Is a SFS a necessity to feeling better? Does everyone need one in order to reach the goal of controling the IBS?
Please respond with your personal experience. I just have not seemed to have found one that I can tolerate and I fear this dooms me to a life with bad IBS forever. 
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I get all of my soluble fiber from my diet and I don't take a soluble fiber supplement. I use to take one but it didn't seem to make much difference. The biggest improvement came when I reduced consumption of insoluble fiber foods.
The UK GI IBS guidelines suggests that fiber supplements are of marginal benefit and the US GI guidelines say there is weak evidence to show that psyllium is moderately effective.
It is possible to manage IBS symptoms through fiber in the diet.
Are you IBS-D, IBS-C or IBS-A? What SFSs have you tried? What problems are you experiencing with SFSs?
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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
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You can definitely try to just use soluble fiber foods to manage your symptoms. I did that for years (before even realizing what my safe foods had in common, and before I was even diagnosed).
But, I am much more stable with a supplement. In particular, if I take my fiber right before a meal I can tolerate more insoluble fiber foods than without the supplement.
There are lots of shades of gray with IBS - even with the same person, different times of life and circumstances can require different things.
Focus on your soluble fiber foods first. Try a wide range of 100% soluble fibers with nothing else added to them, in small doses. A little trial and error will probably give you lots of helpful info.
XXOO
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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You are the only one on here that I know that doesn't take an SFS. That is what concerns me. It seems like for most people, it has helped so much.
I'm IBS-C. I have tried acacia, benefiber, fibercon, fiberchoice, citrucel, equalactin, psyllium, and some other one from a health food store. I can't really explain the symptoms I get. They don't seem to help me go and if anything they give me more bloat and problems.
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Thanks, Heather. Were you able to "tolerate" or find help from any other ones before you were introduced to acacia. If I recall, you can even do psyllium, right?
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whether you take one or not. Thanks.
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That is interesting to hear. Particularly that even Equalactin that contains the non-fermentable calcium polycarbophil soluble fiber is a problem too. I presume you used each one you tried for a 2-3 weeks because many SFS are known to cause some bloating, etc for the first week or so.
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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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I can tolerate all versions but inulin and FOS. Those make me feel like I'm having a heart attack from the bloating and pressure.
I don't like psyllium, as I find it really unpleasant and goopy to take, and the ones that are flavored to mask that have so many additives I don't want to use them. But the psyllium itself doesn't cause problems for me.
I do best with the Tummy Fiber, I used to like Benefiber (when it was guar gum, have not used it in years now so I don''t know how I'd like the new wheat dextrin version). I also liked Equalactin and Fibercon tablets, though I'd be taking fistfuls of them to get a high enough dose, which is both expensive and impractical.
I basically find following the IBS diet to be critical - nothing would compensate for abandoning that. But using a soluble fiber supplement (and for me, the peppermint oil capsules and the peppermint tea) give me even more dietary freedom and digestive stability. The combination works far better than just the diet, or just supplements, alone.
- 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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Heather, your description of what inulin and FOS do to you is EXACTLY how I feel if I have psyllium. I thought I was crazy and the doctor didn't seem to think it was related, but I had an awful pressure in my chest and bloating the week that I started taking Metamucil.
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Belinda
IBS-A since 1986 (age 8)
Recently realized I could do
something about it!
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Sometimes starting at a low dose and gradually increasing prevents it, sometimes it's just because that particular type of fiber supplement is not going to work with your body.
Oddly, I don't even normally get bloating as a part of IBS at all. The only thing that's ever triggered it is inulin/FOS supplements.
I really wish psyllium were not still the front-line recommended fiber from docs. It's the oldest one around, and it's the most familiar to docs, and (most frustratingly) it's still the one used most often as a "soluble" fiber supplement in research studies (even though it's only 2/3 soluble). Drives me crazy, because I think it skews the study results.
- 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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