IBS despite primal, and I'm about to lose my mind! page 3

[Alex Good]

I've noticed that too much liquid fat has that effect on me. So cut back on the broth and only drink half of the bacon fat.

[MamaGrok]

More great thoughts; keep 'em comin!

Have you looked into histamine and mast cell involvement? ...
The list of high histamine foods is a tough one to take...just a warning...but if you wanted to test it would be where I'd start.

I have never heard of this. Would it be possible to give me a one or two sentence summary? I doubt many food lists could get shorter than mine, lol. Although if pork & beef were off it... !!

But I found gluten traces in my body lotion.

This dry-skinned gal hasn't needed lotion since 2010, miracle of miracles! I use nothing on my body & hair but CO, ACV, & baking soda.

But just for kicks, so you're saying you get digestive symptoms when you get gluten on your body?

Have you gotten an MRI?. I first got a CT Scan and found nothing, but then I got an MRI and they found a polyp on my gallbladder. I have to conclude that's what's giving me the pain, although it could be different on your case.

I will definitely look down that line of action. Thank you!

i have been trying the whole IF thing lately..its kinda helped..but somedays i feel like by me not eating all day at work, i'm almost asking for a binge when i get home..especially when i'm tired & in a lazy "lets just watch a movie" kinda mood..which def doesnt help the bloat/negative self image issues i have.

If you have binge tendencies, I would NOT skip breakfast. Ever. IMO, IF'ing is great, for those without binge tendencies. Eating a big breakfast ended my decade-long battle with binge eating disorder. I IF lunch and have no desire for snacks. Life is totally changed!

(and get off those diet cokes, girl!)

have you had your hormone levels checked...maybe something to do with premenopause? is it worse during different times in your cycle?

I'm still very much in the midst of my fertile years, and prog/estr are pretty smack on, but some oddities, like bizarrely low pregnenolone & crazy high SHBG. It kicks up the first few days of the cycle, or seems to, but might be my imagination. I read once that is common in females.

MamaG, are you still nursing the last Grokette? I've thought for a while now that you're exhibiting some deficiency symptom - it's not what you eat, but what you digest.

...A course of antibiotics actually helped rid me of H.pylori and settled me down for a decade, but needed repeating last year. Have you been tested for the little bug?

Still nursing the almost-3-year-old, only negligibly. The stool test was totally negative for H. pylori, but yes, I don't digest well. Again, severe fat malabsorption, veg maldigestion, and recently I've noticed I don't digest nuts, just like dd. (They come out the same size they exited my teeth. Good thing I chew well!)

You said you were diagnosed with "severe fat malabsorption", then said "FCLO, high fat...have been my way of life for 5 years now." Isn't your diet contraindicated given your problem absorbing fats?

Are you under a doctor's care? I would rule out any liver issues. Does your blood work come back normal for your liver? If they can't find anything, then maybe work with a naturopathic doctor. You could also consult with Chris Kresser.

Do you have any other symptoms besides digestive issues? Are you tired, run down etc?
Have you tried digestive enzymes?

I ate high fat for 4.5 years before I learned about the malabsorption. Still, I don't have fatty stools, or pale stools. But I greatly decreased fat intake a few months ago, except for coconut oil. I think I still really, really need fats, especially to battle the cravings which ruled my life for so long, but am missing something (proper gall bladder function?) that should be making that absorption happen. I don't think lowering the intake is necessarily called for, but I certainly might be missing something.

Liver & pancreas enzymes all turn out well within range. I agree; liver was the first place I looked.

I tried a very alternative-minded MD, but he did all this muscle testing voodoo (sorry; I came in open-minded, but at some point, he brought in another lady to stand between me & him, using her like an extension cord, and I noticed he held my fingers differently if he wanted to "show" me that I was "weakened" by something ... it was like a quack show) and prescribed me homeopathy (I'm into evidence, not alternative for the sake of alternative) and dang, now I'm all turned off.

I would love to find a good one.

[meeme]

Momagrok here is a link to discussion and information regarding the subject of mast cell, degranulation and high histamine.

Here is the first one.. just scroll down to the body of the post.

I flush in my face (feel hot) when I'm reacting to a food...it doesn't always lead to bowel issues because I control this with diet and benadryl when needed. Otherwise I'd be in big trouble and have a very low quality of life. Check out the thread, it's by someone who did a test to see if this mast cell issue was part of her problem. As it turned out, it was.

Here is a second link to a google search with lists of high and low histamine foods....

[Primal123]

Sounds like what happens to me when I eat something I am allergic to. Sometimes the reaction happens immediately other times it's the next morning. (So I guess those are just intolerances not allergies), Might you be intolerant or allergic to something you are consuming? Coconut oil? fclo? .... I'd try eliminating things waiting three weeks and adding back one at a time.

[jammies]

Is it possible you have an intolerance to one of the proteins you are eating? Pork, egg, or fish can occasionally cause issues for people.

Also, have you had a colonoscopy? Is it possible you have an autoimmune GI disorder? How about a HIDA scan to see if your gall-bladder is emptying correctly after stimulation?

You could try to get some IgG food allergy testing. Perhaps you have a strong reaction to a primal food?

So sorry that you are suffering. Don't give up - you'll figure it out!!!

[lopisheep]

I was thinking a histamine issue like Meeme.

Also, have you ever tried cutting out ALL pickled and fermented of any kind for a week or so and having lots of fun meats, vegetables, and a few fruits and healthy oils. Even maybe a sweet potato or two, but nothing fermented or pickled. Just a thought.

I do wish you the best on this. It's hard to be eating right and then be in pain.

Between everyone on this lovely forum, you're bound to find just what you need to make your insides happy:-)

[BestBetter]

So sorry you're dealing with this, IBS is a bitch.

I was one of the few who actually got a much WORSE IBS issue after going paleo/primal, so I totally sympathize with the hair-pulling frustration.

I discovered that some of my big triggers were: fiber, eating too much at once, traveling + stress. Now, it seems like you've done enough elimination tests to determine that fiber isn't the issue for you, but are your issues affected at all by the volume you eat? I never used to have problems eating huge meals, then I started IFing, sometimes eating one insanely large meal per day (thinking the down time would be good for my digestive system) but this backfired and ended up triggering some nasty flares. As a result, now, I have to keep my portions on the small side, or else I get pain and tenderness and bloating for the rest of the day. Have you tried eating really small portions spaced throughout the day? I wonder if you'd still get the same reaction.

Just brainstorming here, and trying to remember some of the things I experimented with/tried, besides the stuff already mentioned...

Have you ever tried a digestive enzyme with HCl Betaine? This was one of the things I tried, because I was reading that not having enough stomach acid can throw a monkey wrench into the digestion process and cause pain and bloating...it didn't make a difference for me, but it did help my father in law.


I know you were wading through those cold rivers and spot icing a while ago, are you still doing that? When I was really bloated, I noticed that icing my abdomen helped to reduce the inflammation, so I'm wondering if this would give you any relief.

The only other thing I can think of right now is stress. There's a pretty clear correlation between IBS and stress - have you noticed any connection between your flares and stressful periods in your life? I never noticed the connection personally while it was happeing, but in retrospect, thinking about the timing of my worse IBS episodes, it's ridiculously obvious to me now that they coincided with some extremely stressful life events. I wonder if doing something like yoga, or meditation, or deep breathing could be of help (also, I realized that stress and IBS was a self-perpetuating cycle, because the worse the IBS got, the more stressed out about it I was, and then the worse the IBS got...)

I'll keep trying to think of anything that could be helpful...

[Blackcatbone]

Do you cook with coconut oil? CO has antibacterial properties, which can be helpful, but it can also exacerbate IBS for some. A few months ago I tried to eat small amounts on its own, just a teaspoon, and I spent the following day barely able to sit up I was so dizzy, and running to the bathroom. I have no idea if it was some kind of die off or if it just went through me, but if you use it for cooking it may be having an effect.

I was going to suggest digestive enzymes as well, although I've never tried them as some things scare me due to how badly I react to them, but I've heard good things from others. Probiotics, prebiotics, all have an awful effect and I react badly to just about every thing that's supposed to be good for the guts. Do you take any supplements?

[sbhikes]

Did anybody post this link yet?
Reasons for your worsening stomach problems on a paleo/ low-carb/ ancestral/ gaps/ etc. diet | Melissa McEwen's on food anthropology, economics, and culture

[Blackcatbone]

Did anybody post this link yet?
Reasons for your worsening stomach problems on a paleo/ low-carb/ ancestral/ gaps/ etc. diet | Melissa McEwen's on food anthropology, economics, and culture

Funny, but in one of the threads I posted to this morning I was considering saying something along these lines. Just because a food is paleo-approved doesn't mean it can't cause problems, especially when it comes to FODMAPs. People following a FODMAP diet quickly learn that it isn't something that can be learned quickly. And just because it's paleo-approved doesn't mean a person should eat buckets of it. I see this a lot with coconut products, which tend to be super-high fiber, and the oil which can definitely cause issues. Not saying this is the issue here, but from someone coming from a fairly SAD diet to eat cruciferous veg, coconut flour products, coconut oil and high FODMAP foods all washed down with larger amounts of fat than they're used to, it's often a recipe for bowel disaster.