Digestive tract disorders

[Wooley]

Dear All

Since November 2008 I have been suffering with what has been diagnosed (in March) as suspected "gastritis" I've been trying various treatments and now ... well it's triggered off suspected IBS as well so basically I'm walking around feeling like I have at least one twisting knife sticking in me the whole time.

I'm on day 3 of treatment for IBS so hopefully that will help...

Not even sure why I am writing this apart from to explain my recent absence from here really, I haven't been near my computer so much recently, as along with the health issues there have been other things going on which I won't go into here. I don't think all the stress will have helped with the IBS either.

One good thing that has come of it is I have modified my diet to make it much more healthy and I am losing weight already so I am pleased about that.

Anyway... if anyone has some tips as far as any of the above is concerned I would be greatful.

Wooley

[anthropositor]

So sorry, Wooley, to hear of your intransigent plumbing difficulties.  While my gastrointestinal tract treats me better than I deserve, my mother had lifelong difficulties with hers, culminating with a variety of extreme surgical unpleasantries.  I can't help but note that my mother was rather the antithesis of myself in regard to dependence on physicians.  I could not enumerate the number of medications she had used over the years, nor could I guess how many doctors attended her steadily worsening condition.  Most of the pharmaceuticals she was prescribed were to treat intestinal disorders in one location or another, ranging from stomach to colon. 

Looking back, I lament that she was not led to focus more on the role of stress and her own emotional responses to it.  We cannot always prevent or even reduce stress in our lives.  But we can do something about our responses to it.

In my own responses to extreme stressors, I tend usually to attack the source, strategize, flee, or pretend for a while that it is not happening, or some combination of all four.  My particular methods work well for me, at least with regard to the gastrointestinal system, maintaining a reasonable blood pressure, and so on.  But the stroke didn't come out of nowhere.  I clearly was not paying close enough attention to what was happening.  The stroke, the lesions on my hands and arms, of several years duration, were symptoms of some of my bodily systems impending failures.  Certainly, the blindness was stressful, and was caused, certainly, by deficiencies and imbalances.  The fact that I try to get something positive out of whatever adversity strikes, does not mean it's fun or that I want to do it again.

My advice is to do whatever you can to reduce over-all stress, and to get in touch, as best you can, with your gut response to it.  As you succeed, you may find the treatments and medications will become redundant.  Good luck. 

[Wooley]

Thanks Anthro,

I know that stress has a lot to do with it as I even feel my stomach twinging when I am stressed out. Unfortunately though, the stress factors in my life are currently my children if I am honest, so it's difficult to keep that under control.

I have heard that exercise helps with stress though and I am going to step up my levels of exercise. I'm also going to try and be a bit more selfish and have a bit of time for myself more often. I haven't really been doing that at all in recent years...

I hope you are well.

 

Wooley

[CalamityJane]

Hi Woo, I've been wondering where you are. Now I know, and I'm sorry to hear you have IBS.

I have it as well, and have for years. Comes and goes, often related to stress. I always have Immodium in my cupboard, and Acidophilus in the fridge. Sometimes the bouts are short-lived, but can go on for ages at times it seems.

I also used to have a drug called Bentylol. It was excellent in calming the spasms.

I feel for you Woo. Yes, do try exercise once you are stable......it does amazing things. Never would have thought it..........

 
Jane

[itchychick]

So sorry to hear this Woo. 

I think you are wise to try and deal with stress first.  It's absolutely poisonous to health - in all aspects.  What about trying some yoga (even at home, on a DVD?) or some calming breathing throughout the day.  There are lots of books to help with strategies... and they may not be too onerous to incorporate.

I had some recurring stomach issues as a teenager/young adult, due to medication I would be on for bouts at a time.  For me the answer was really bland food, and eaten in very small portions, many times throughout the day.  If I ate anything that was heavy or greasy (that was the worst), I had such pain that I could only relieve it by vomiting.... ugh.  For me, antacids helped too, but those drugs are not really meant to be long term fixes.

Good luck

[anthropositor]

Thanks Wooley,
I am well, as far as I can tell, and think I am getting weller.  But with regard to the digestive system, it is not because I developed any special tricks or methods.  If I did so, it is certainly not because I knew what I was doing.  I think my Mom's difficulties got me alert to the possibilities and dangers awaiting me if I wasn't careful.  I noticed at a fairly young age that she tended to internalize her problems and then continue as if the internalized difficulties no longer existed.

I don't recall ever paying much attention to any dietary advice my mother passed on to me.  I'm afraid I threw the baby out with the bathwater.  As a child, I was not fond of cooked vegetables.  I ate as few as I could get away with.  When I left home, exceedingly early in life, I was as carnivorous as I could be, while still not missing opportunities to eat when they presented themselves.

But, looked at from an evolutionary perspective, my eating habits were probably pretty normal.  I was not what one would call a picky eater.  But, when necessary, I could effortlessly go for days without food.  I won't say that I never felt inconvenienced by this, but I doubt it did me any real harm.  It may have even done me some good, not to have developed regular eating habits as a routine.  So, I'm just speculating here, but even over the most recent couple thousand years, famines and serious food shortages have been very frequent.  We are well adjusted to dealing with them.  Now, we have the opposite problem.  For those in affluent societies, there is no need to experience extended fasts at all.  The typical person eats three regular meals a day.  That is the thing that is not natural.

Another thing that is not at all natural is the extreme refinement of the diets we consume.  Almost all of us need more bulk or fiber in our food than we get.  And although I eat multi-grain foods and lots of fruits, I too was still short on fiber until I started wolfing down so much raw or dried Shmooo. 

I haven't done any comprehensive nutrient analyses of the leaves.  Frankly, I would have to work out how to do that.  I can only tell the health value by how I feel as time goes on.  And after a year, I can see no downside to the Shmooo consumption.  For those who don't have it, I can only suggest more fresh vegetables, more fruits, more fiber (both soluble and insoluble).

But for those already experiencing digestive difficulties, it is a lot more complicated than just increasing these things in general.  It must be done very carefully, with close attention to the possibility for problems.  I don't think it would be easy for most people to subsist, more often than not, on a single main meal per day, with perhaps a half dozen snacks of fruit, or leaves, or multigrain foods.  That is just what works best for me.  And those who have been undergoing some medications for relief have even more complications to deal with.

With the lack of difficulties I have had with Shmooo, it would be easy for me to conclude that it is a magic bullet, that it would be good for virtually everyone.  That may not be true.  Just as there are people for whom peanuts pose life-threatening problems even in trace amounts, there could be the isolated individual for whom Shmooo might be a liability of some sort.  And even after thousands of people have used it, that possibility remains.  And this is not only true of foods.  Look at the frequency with which we hear of medications being recalled, after years in the marketplace, because serious new liabilities have surfaced.

I have no idea what were the initial forces that impacted my Mom's intestinal tract.  Some of them happened before I was born.  All I know is that the condition got steadily worse over the decades.  It could be that all the medical and surgical ministrations gave her extra years she might otherwise not have had.  But I don't think so.  I think it is more likely that these interventions distracted her from doing prudent things she might otherwise have discovered, had her belief in the miracles of medical science not been so absolute.  And throughout all those years, the least emphasis was on what she could do for herself to deal with stress.

I expect that, to the extent you can address the stresses in your life successfully, you will see steady improvement in your situation.  The possibilities afforded by new medications are much more remote than effectively coping with stress and understanding your own individual set of dietary needs.