u/WhatsUpDude24

I started using Zyn when i was about 18-19, and i used for a solid 4 years. It started off as one pouch a week, then it slowly morphed into several pouches a day. I tried to quit several times during those 4 years, but i just never fully committed. But this time im done for good, and im fully committing to that for one main reason: i believe Zyn had been the cause to my severe abdominal/stomach pain, constipation and unpredictable bowel movements.

About 10 months ago, i went to see a doctor and i described the symptoms i had been dealing with. She was pretty confident i had IBS, which at the time i didn’t believe her bc i thought it might have been something else. Long story short, i eventually went to see a GI and we did every test imaginable to see what was going on with me (ultrasounds, MRIs, breathing tests, colonoscopy/endoscopy etc.) Before i did all of these tests, my GI also thought i probably had IBS, but since that IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion, we had to rule out other stuff. After doing all of those tests, everything came back normal and that i was “perfectly healthy.”

Id say probably about 6 months ago the thought crossed my mind that Zyn could be causing these issues, but i was in denial. I just didn’t want it to be true. I would try to rationalize it in my head saying like “there’s no way Zyn is the problem because it doesn’t make my friends have these same abdominal/stomach issues I’m dealing with.” But i had to realize, as simple as it sounds, that it affects everyone differently. Eventually my abdominal pain got so bad to the point where i had no choice, but to quit.

The first few days are annoying (and i knew that going into it bc I’ve tried to quit before for other reasons). The worst part for me though, besides the cravings, was how tired and sluggish i felt for those first couple weeks. But once you get past that, it gets way easier. I’d be lying if i didn’t say I’ve had cravings to have one since that 2 week period, but that craving is not nearly as strong as it was on day 3. I just have to remind myself why i quit in the first place, and what that alternative looks like if i started using again.

As for my abdominal/stomach pain and unpredictable bowel issues, that is still continuing to somewhat progress. It’s really annoying because i think Zyn is what gave me IBS (and now i think I’m lactose intolerant), so it might just be something i have to deal with for a while. I’m trying to remain positive though, especially since i was zynning for almost 5 years, so it probably takes some time for body to readjust to using the bathroom with having nicotine in my system constantly.

It’s funny bc most people I’ve seen post on this thread say they are having difficulty pooping once they quit Zyn, which is kinda how it started out for me, but now I’m having the opposite problem. Each morning when i wake up, i normally have several bowel movements, which is super annoying because it just delays me from being productive haha. Anyways, thanks for reading this rant and I’d love to hear yalls stories

I've been struggling with bloating, abdomen/stomach pain, and constipation for almost 10 months now, but I am now finally starting to get some answers (i think lol). Just received the results from my lactose breath test, and it said i tested positive for lactose malabsorption (hydrogen at 49 ppm). From my brief research, i found out that the presence of lactose malabsorption doesn't automatically mean you are lactose intolerant, but i'm starting to think i may be. As soon as i found this out, i immediately cut out all lactose from my diet. You may be thinking why didn't i try to cut out lactose in these past 10 months, and my answer to that would be i thought i did lol. I didn't realize until a few days ago how much stuff i eat (besides the obvious ones like milk, butter, cheese etc.) contains lactose in it, so when i tried to "cut out all lactose" in the past, i was probably still accidentally consuming it. So three days ago i started my strict lactose free diet, and i must say those first days on that diet i felt virtually back to 100%. However, throughout the day yesterday i started to feel the same lactose induced symptoms i had been dealing with for months now and had several bowel movements, but the thing is i didn't eat any lactose yesterday. I keep a food log and i have been eating the same stuff these past few days, so thats why i am confused.

How long does it normally take for the lactose induced symptoms to completely go away after starting a lactose free diet?

Also wondering if anyone has had success using Lactaid pills before they eat food that may potentially contain lactose in it?

I was hoping lactose intolerance was the sole problem, but after yesterday im worried it may be that + IBS (or something else)

Hello world! I have been struggling with abdominal pain, constipation, and stomach pain for almost 10 months now. At first i thought it was something i ate, and that it would eventually just blow over. However, after feeling this pain for almost a month, i decided to go in to see a doctor. The first doctor i saw was fairly confident that i had IBS and that it was most likely stress induced. This came as a shock to me because at this point in my life i did not have any work obligations i.e. i was pretty relaxed lol (i had just finished flight school and was waiting for orders to move to my next duty station). This doctor did prescribe me this fiber supplement that i tried for several weeks, but i did not see any improvement. However, i will say when she suggested it might be stress, there was an upcoming training i had to complete called SERE. For my military guys they know what that entails, but for anyone who may not it is essentially a week long course where you practice surviving in shitty conditions and being a prisoner of war. Long story short, it is not fun, and you always hear horror stories from your buddies that are ahead of you in training. So, yes, at the time it was plausible that my nervousness toward this training was causing my abdominal/stomach pain and constipation.

My time at SERE was not fun, and on top of that my abdominal and stomach pain was acting up a lot. I also shit my pants twice while in captivity, so that was sick haha. During the training, you do not eat much food at all, and during the last 60ish hours of training i did not eat a single bite of food, except for one saltine cracker. When we finally completed the training, i stuffed my face with food, which in hindsight was not smart. A few hours later, i had severe abdominal pain, like 10/10. We were in the process of returning our gear and i literally could not walk it was so bad. That level of pain lasted for probably a couple of hours. The next day we were headed back to our new duty station, and i remember feeling very good. Once i got home, i was symptom free for like 4-5 days. I’m talking not a single ounce of pain. That was the first time in for months i had gone over a 12 hour period without some sort of abdominal or stomach pain. At that moment i was like, wow maybe i was just super stressed out about SERE. But then after that 5th day my symptoms went back to the same old pain.

When i got to my new duty station, i went to see another general doctor and described my symptoms and what i had tried so far. This new doctor believed i had IBS also, and he prescribed me dicyclomine (which i feel like never really helped and it made me extremely tired). He also was straight up with me and said that he’s not a specialist, so he got me a referral to go see a GI out in town.

When i had my first appointment with my GI, he was also convinced i had IBS and that it was most likely stress induced. Although i was inclined to disagree with him, i wanted to give him a chance because after all he’s the professional. He also prescribed me some lubiprostone (which to this date is the one drug that has provided me the most reprieve—not a ton but some for sure, but it is still not a complete problem solver). I also begin experimenting with my diet and cutting out certain foods. I would cut stuff out for a couple weeks (like gluten, lactose etc.) and i would log how i felt throughout the day. (I also stopped drinking for several weeks and quit using nicotine, but neither made a difference.) I did this for about a couple months, and didn’t see much improvement in how i felt. At this point i was still meeting with my GI, and i had a pelvic and abdominal ultrasound, which both came back good. As time continued to pass and i kept dealing with pain, i was convinced this may be a bigger problem than the doctors i have seen are making it out to be. I scheduled a colonoscopy and endoscopy, and the only thing that came out of that was that i have acute and chronic duodenitis, which my GI made it seem like was not a big deal. From there, we ordered some breathing tests (SIBO, lactose and fructose), and i am currently waiting on the results from those tests.

This leads me all to say that during my preparation for these breathing tests, you have to follow a strict 12 hour diet the day prior to collecting your breath samples. During my preparation, the only things i would eat
Breakfast: eggs with salt and pepper and white bread.
Lunch: grilled chicken and white rice with salt and pepper
Dinner: ground beef and white rice with salt and pepper

Since i had to do this 12 hour diet three times for the three separate tests, that’s when I realized that i had felt amazing the next day after following this diet. The last time i felt this good was during those 4-5 days after SERE which was 5 months ago. This led me to exploring the low FODMAP diet, which i had heard of before but never really understood what it meant. I’ve seen conflicting things online about the low FODMAP diet, so i don’t really know what to believe. What i do know is that diet i followed was definitely a game changer. I’m just worried that following a low FODMAP diet for too long, I’ll be missing out on key nutrients. Also, if I’m being honest, salt and pepper can only do so much for me, and i feel like every sort of seasoning or sauce is high in FODMAP, so if anyone has suggestions please lmk!

Anyways, this felt really good to get this out there and i would appreciate any feedback, stories of your own or comments yall might have!

Hello world! I have been struggling with abdominal pain, constipation, and stomach pain for almost 10 months now. At first i thought it was something i ate, and that it would eventually just blow over. However, after feeling this pain for almost a month, i decided to go in to see a doctor. The first doctor i saw was fairly confident that i had IBS and that it was most likely stress induced. This came as a shock to me because at this point in my life i did not have any work obligations i.e. i was pretty relaxed lol (i had just finished flight school and was waiting for orders to move to my next duty station). This doctor did prescribe me this fiber supplement that i tried for several weeks, but i did not see any improvement. However, i will say when she suggested it might be stress, there was an upcoming training i had to complete called SERE. For my military guys they know what that entails, but for anyone who may not it is essentially a week long course where you practice surviving in shitty conditions and being a prisoner of war. Long story short, it is not fun, and you always hear horror stories from your buddies that are ahead of you in training. So, yes, at the time it was plausible that my nervousness toward this training was causing my abdominal/stomach pain and constipation.

My time at SERE was not fun, and on top of that my abdominal and stomach pain was acting up a lot. I also shit my pants twice while in captivity, so that was sick haha. During the training, you do not eat much food at all, and during the last 60ish hours of training i did not eat a single bite of food, except for one saltine cracker. When we finally completed the training, i stuffed my face with food, which in hindsight was not smart. A few hours later, i had severe abdominal pain, like 10/10. We were in the process of returning our gear and i literally could not walk it was so bad. That level of pain lasted for probably a couple of hours. The next day we were headed back to our new duty station, and i remember feeling very good. Once i got home, i was symptom free for like 4-5 days. I’m talking not a single ounce of pain. That was the first time in for months i had gone over a 12 hour period without some sort of abdominal or stomach pain. At that moment i was like, wow maybe i was just super stressed out about SERE. But then after that 5th day my symptoms went back to the same old pain.

When i got to my new duty station, i went to see another general doctor and described my symptoms and what i had tried so far. This new doctor believed i had IBS also, and he prescribed me dicyclomine (which i feel like never really helped and it made me extremely tired). He also was straight up with me and said that he’s not a specialist, so he got me a referral to go see a GI out in town.

When i had my first appointment with my GI, he was also convinced i had IBS and that it was most likely stress induced. Although i was inclined to disagree with him, i wanted to give him a chance because after all he’s the professional. He also prescribed me some lubiprostone (which to this date is the one drug that has provided me the most reprieve—not a ton but some for sure, but it is still not a complete problem solver). I also begin experimenting with my diet and cutting out certain foods. I would cut stuff out for a couple weeks (like gluten, lactose etc.) and i would log how i felt throughout the day. (I also stopped drinking for several weeks and quit using nicotine, but neither made a difference.) I did this for about a couple months, and didn’t see much improvement in how i felt. At this point i was still meeting with my GI, and i had a pelvic and abdominal ultrasound, which both came back good. As time continued to pass and i kept dealing with pain, i was convinced this may be a bigger problem than the doctors i have seen are making it out to be. I scheduled a colonoscopy and endoscopy, and the only thing that came out of that was that i have acute and chronic duodenitis, which my GI made it seem like was not a big deal. From there, we ordered some breathing tests (SIBO, lactose and fructose), and i am currently waiting on the results from those tests.

This leads me all to say that during my preparation for these breathing tests, you have to follow a strict 12 hour diet the day prior to collecting your breath samples. During my preparation, the only things i would eat
Breakfast: eggs with salt and pepper and white bread.
Lunch: grilled chicken and white rice with salt and pepper
Dinner: ground beef and white rice with salt and pepper

Since i had to do this 12 hour diet three times for the three separate tests, that’s when I realized that i had felt amazing the next day after following this diet. The last time i felt this good was during those 4-5 days after SERE which was 5 months ago. This led me to exploring the low FODMAP diet, which i had heard of before but never really understood what it meant. I’ve seen conflicting things online about the low FODMAP diet, so i don’t really know what to believe. What i do know is that diet i followed was definitely a game changer. I’m just worried that following a low FODMAP diet for too long, I’ll be missing out on key nutrients. Also, if I’m being honest, salt and pepper can only do so much for me, and i feel like every sort of seasoning or sauce is high in FODMAP, so if anyone has suggestions please lmk!

Anyways, this felt really good to get this out there and i would appreciate any feedback, stories of your own or comments yall might have!