chronic stomach issues... what's wrong? - Digestive Disorders Message Board

savannah5799 · 10-20-2008, 08:14 PM

I was hoping someone could help me. I have been having stomach discomfort for several months now. I have painful gas, that seems to be very difficult to pass and when it does try to pass it feel as though it kinda "pops" about the last ver inches of my rectum. I also have some mild acid reflux issues. Sometimes I have a sharp pain in my lower left side, this really only occures before or during a BM. Recently I seem to be very thursty,(I am an endurance athlete, so I could just be dehydrated from my workouts).

I am a healthy 26 year old female. I am a runner and tend to eat healthy as well.

thanks for the help.

pendulum · 10-21-2008, 02:59 AM

I am sorry for what you're going through. Will you please post here what your current diet looks like? In other words, what do you normally eat and drink for each time? How many meals and snacks do you have in a day and when?

savannah5799 · 10-21-2008, 10:35 AM

I have varied my diet greatly over the last 3 months trying to adjust it to allivate some of the symptoms. I have had little success. My normal diet is oatmeal for breakfast(made with water), a sanwich or salad for lunch with fruit or pretzels, a light dinner or protien shake made with bananas, natural peanut butter, soy milk, and whey protien. My diet includes seveal snacks throught the day ranging from granola bars, pretzels, fruit, cereal, pb&J, and gram crackers. Thinking it was an allergy I eliminated oatmel, Peanut butter, soy, and wheat. This seemed to kinda help, but I couldn't figure it out exactly what was causing it. For the last three weeks or so, my diet has been awful. I would describe it as a fairly avergae american diet, fruit for breakfast, lunch out, generally soup or sanwhich, dinner is home cooked. Generally heavy but nutritious. Snacks seem to be candy.

I am trying to get back to my routine of health eating. Any recommendation as to what to eat and not eat would be very healpfull. My day often starts out with an uncomfortable BM, followed by relief. Then around 2 my stomach starts to get bloated again and stays that way. Often making me hungry, but unable to eat.

Could this beee IBS, lactose intolerance, or a food allergy?

Thanks for your help.

pendulum · 10-21-2008, 03:32 PM

Well, first of all I would put a stop to all the snacks.

Secondly, I would choose a day of the week and on that day I would only have soup for the three daily meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Try potatoes + carrots + celery, for instance, or any other vegetable that takes your fancy. Important thing: it must be a very well-cooked soup, almost like a cream and you must not eat anything else, but only the soup. For the rest of the time, rest as much as you can and avoid doing very hard work on that day.

For a diet, you might try this one:

breakfast: oatmeal (made with water or maybe almond milk, if you can get it) or toast + butter + herbal tea

no snack until lunch

lunch: a sandwich - two or three slices of bread (yeast-free is the best) + cold meat or boiled eggs + green veggies (lettuce, watercress, etc) or any other raw veggie (radishes, cucumber...) + (optional) dark chocolate or some fruit jam.

no snack until 17PM

17PM : fresh fruit (one kind, don't mix); if very cold weather, try dried fruit (dates or figs or raisins, pre-soaked)or banana.

no snack

dinner (2 hours later): rice or potatoes or pasta + beef or chicken or fish + green veggies + (optional) dark chocolate or fruit jam or (seldom) a granola bar.

no snack until bedtime

Good luck.