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Help with IBS? Desperate.....

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:05 am
by georgie
Dear Dr Marshall,

I've suffered from IBS for about 12 years, at times very badly. I'm
presently suffering a particularly painful and lingering bout of intestinal
gas, for which my husband took me to Accident and Emergency 8 days ago
because I was in such pain. I had large amounts of antibiotics when I was
young (particularly penicillin) and, preferring to go down the 'alternative'
route to healing have since been reluctant to take them. I did take a course
about 5 years ago though, prescribed by a doctor/nutritionist, with some
trepidation, to rid my gut of a bacteria I can no longer remember the name
of. The result was my allergies (year-round hay fever, sensitivity to
dust/aerosols/perfume) which had hugely increased since my stomach problems
almost disappeared. The IBS remained. I have just 'recovered?' from a
stomach bug, which may have some influence over my lingering, at times still very painful intestinal gas,
I'm not sure, but I do know that I'm becoming desperate. I avoid the
'trigger foods' on a regular basis, I exercise 6 times a week (including
yoga), I've had a Barium Meal which illuminated no problems and have been
tested for Crohns and Celiac (which were negative), yet I see little improvement in my symptoms. My
friends and family are sick to death of me speaking about my stomach ache
and what I can and can't eat and I'm deeply embarrassed about complaining
about my health so much to them. I found your name on the ibsgroup.org forum
where a fellow sufferer claimed you were able to offer some advice and as a
result of that and a small medley of drugs, he believes he is completely
well.

Would you be kind enough to consider helping me?

Re: Help with IBS? Desperate.....

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 7:39 am
by Helico_expert
Hi,

IBS is a very grey area. It is still unclear how exactly it happened. We focus on H. pylori treatment and I am not sure how much association there is between H. pylori and IBS. It seems like some people do complain about IBS when they found out they were infected by H. pylori. To me, it sounded like a psychological effect?

in regards to your IBS symptoms, there is some useful information on the following websites and some alternative medications/treatments and therapies may be of help.

http://www.ibsgroup.org/ - there is some new information about Rifaximin on this website which you may be able to discuss with your GP.

http://www.ibis-australia.org/

Re: Help with IBS? Desperate.....

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 6:18 am
by HPgirl
Have you been tested for H Pylori?