In this guide, I will walk you through everything that I have done to treat my Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation.
If getting back to enjoying bread, legumes / pulses, cruciferous vegetables, high FODMAP fruits and dairy without the suffering, and relieve chronic constipation sounds good to you, read on.
- The symptoms I had
- What foods I couldn't eat (that I'm able to now)
- What happens in the long run if you leave this condition untreated
- What most are doing wrong about treating the issue
Let's get to it.
The Symptoms
I've been dealing with IBS for most of my life, but I have been dealing with so many other health issues as well, that I just temporarily neglected it. The symptoms I had whenever I ate a food that triggered a flare up, was:
- Bloating
- Flatulence
- Trapped Gas
- Constipation
- Abdominal Pain
- Fatigue
- Insomnia
Needless to say, it was sucking the life right out of me. It was exhausting, and kept me awake at night.
Effects on Quality of Life
When left untreated, this condition can truly affect your quality of life in many ways:
The embarrassing stuff
Let's start with the embarrassing stuff.
- Occasional fecal impactions
- Haemorrhoids
- Anal Fissures
- Organ Prolapse
And I've been through most of this stuff. I will make a separate post on how to treat and prevent haemorrhoids naturally, but treating your IBS condition, should be your first step.
Weight Gain
When your body can't process, digest nor excrete the food you're eating, then it's very common to gain weight, have trouble losing that weight and also develop Metabolic Syndrome.
If your body can't process the nutrients of the food properly, they won't go to the right places (think: energy, muscle tissue and so forth). So your body will just dump them in the fat cells instead. On top of that, when you're dealing with chronic constipation, your belly gets distended with fecal accumulation.
Nutrient Malabsorption and Deficiencies
This goes in line with the fact that your body is not digesting the food properly. It doesn't matter what or how much you eat, if your body doesn't absorb the nutrients from your food, you as might as well not have eaten at all.
This also holds true if you're trying to build muscle. Instead of throwing the towel and blame it on genetics or being a hard-gainer, or spend money on useless supplements and consuming extraordinary amounts of protein, maybe you should check whether your body actually digests and metabolizes the protein and other nutrients in an efficient manner.
Weakened Immune System with Increased Risk of Diseases and Infections
Studies (and my own personal experience) have shown that IBS is correlated with changes to the immune system profile. That can mean an elevated risk of diseases and chronic infections. Fixing the root cause of IBS, which is to balance out the gut's flora, can help immensely in illness prevention.
Restrictive Diet
A huge workaround for me was to avoid all the foods that triggered a flare up. Of course, that meant having a very strict diet that is not easy for most people to adhere to in the long term, not to mention the risk for nutrient deficiencies.
Fatigue
When my digestive system keeps struggling to process the food I've eaten, and as I mentioned nutrients not being absorbed properly, then I have to deal with chronic fatigue and weakness too. All of the above frustrations lead to the last but not least effect on my life, which is:
Depression and Anxiety
You can't eat what everyone else is eating, you look 8 months pregnant, you keep gaining weight even though you're always hungry, you spend half your life in the bathroom, and then you come out all too exhausted to get any work done. So yes, it definitely affects your mental health as well.
My Trigger Foods
- Dairy
- Any type of processed sugars, sweeteners and sugar alcohols
- Chewing gum
- Specific vegetables, such as cauliflower, cabbage etc.
- A lot of fruits (apples, watermelons, apricots, peaches, nectarines, pomegranates etc)
- All the pulses and legumes
- All the grains (pasta, rice, quinoa, bread, oats, bulgur wheat)
- Almost any type of processed food and junk food
Foods I can now eat after my treatment
The foods I can now eat without issues are:
- All dairy
- All vegetables
- All fruits
- All legumes and pulses
- Some grains, such as whole wheat bread and oats
The rest of the trigger foods I avoid as they don't offer much nutritionally, and they affect my overall health in a negative way.
Wrong Approach
Unfortunately, doctors tell you that IBS is not curable, so they just try to treat the symptoms with medication such as laxatives, painkillers and even antidepressants, all of which don't treat the root cause of IBS but may also cause side-effects as well.
Another thing they do is tell you to load up on fiber and even take fiber supplements like psyllium husks (ispaghol). First of all, there is such a thing as too much fiber and it's unique for each individual. Secondly, fiber needs to be taken in combination with the right probiotics. You need the right bacteria in your gut to feed off from the prebiotics in order to see results.
In some instances, excess fiber on its own can worsen the symptoms. Which is why some people assume it's best to avoid fiber entirely instead, which is also a big mistake. I keep hearing the argument that "fiber is not needed because the body can't digest it anyways", but that doesn't mean it's not needed by the body. I'll make a separate video / article explaining why we need fiber and the best foods to get it from.
I personally found that going through the supplement route was not helpful in the slightest. Digestive enzymes, probiotic and synbiotic supplements, fiber supplements, none of them helped with my symptoms and I've tried different kinds.
One thing we are forced to do when having IBS is to go on a low-FODMAP diet to avoid having another painful flare up. That also means we end up deprived from important nutrients and for some people, it's not an easy diet to maintain.
Some also assume that eating smaller frequent meals can help, but what all that does is put our digestive organs to work all day long, which is one of the reasons IBS sufferers feel tired all day.
Another thing I've noticed lately, is that a lot of people go into restrictive diets such as the carnivore diet or the vegan diet to get some relief, but again, that doesn't fix the root cause for IBS. All that diet does, is avoid the foods that trigger an IBS attack and the entire group of those foods, so instead of fixing the issue, they just increase the risk for nutrient deficiencies.
Conclusion
IBS-C is a chronic condition that can seriously affect the quality of life of a person, and if left untreated it can increase the risks for other chronic diseases. The science of modern medicine does not provide a cure for this condition, but only some temporary relief through medication.
However, I have managed to treat my condition in a way that I can now eat pretty much anything I want, without any of the IBS symptoms. To get the full details on how I achieved that, stay tuned for part 2 of this guide.
Part 3 - Meal frequency and portions here.
Part 4 - The dangers of processed foods and restrictive diets here.
Disclaimer: This YT channel & Blog are a documentation of my health journey. The content is based on what worked for me and is for informational purposes only, not a replacement for medical advice from a professional.
I’m NOT a doctor, nutritionist, dietitian, coach, nor a personal trainer. Furthermore, we are all different and my results may not reflect your own. Any action you take upon the information provided by ZenGainz is strictly at your own risk.