Time to Say Goodbye!
Hello Everyone!
This is a goodbye post. 2 days ago I had 5 beers with my friends and I had no diarrhea or crazy gas and I thought yes that confirms it, I can put this behind now. So behold, it will be long post!
I had IBS for 10 years, then I cured myself. Everybody keeps saying do not say cured; say 'in remission' or 'treated'. No, I am cured. It has been 5 years now. Stop with the despair, I hate that. A lot of people here just gives in to depression, and is ready to give up so easily it honestly annoys me.
This is not a hopeless disease with no cure. The problem is, it is an umbrella term; whatever they cannot identify properly, they just label as IBS. It is bullshit!
Why does that happen though? Well, you have a set of symptoms which could be cause by many things such as SIBO, gut-microbiome disruption, BAM, post-infectious damage, gut-brain axis issues etc. In many parts of the world, you just get a 10 min discussion, and if you are lucky you get tested for a thing or 2, but then both the doctor and you just give up.
I really think that if you had a team like House MD's team testing and treating you for everything from most likely to least likely, you would eventually find your cure. Yes, cure! Not remission, not symptom-free, not some other bullshit word. Cured...
My Story
Let me tell you a bit about my story. I had IBS-D for 10 years and I just kept fighting against it. I have learned everything by reading and asking the doctors, and getting tested. I had many "clean" endoscopies, colonoscopies, breath tests, stool tests yada yada yada. All came back clean. Well nothing about IBS felt clean. There were many times I thought to myself "If this is life, I am ok not to live.". That was wrong because I had fallen into the same depression trap that we all fall at some point. Things feel hopeless and we just give up.
But my character is a bit persistent, so I got out of the depressive episodes quickly. I have tried so many stupid things you would not believe it. 90% of them did not work. I have wasted my time, wasted my money, risked my health.
I used many antibiotics, drank epsom salt - olive oil mixture, used a FULL bottle of -advertised as!- miracle probiotics, drank full glass of milk before going to bed because someone said it helped them. Antibiotics further destroyed my microbiome, that epsom salt mixture made me shit tiny stones, that probiotics did nothing but give me cold chills, and the milk gave me so much gas I was about to float.
DO NOT follow other people's posts, comments blindly. WHAT WORKED SOMEONE MOST PROBABLY WILL NOT WORK FOR YOU. Unless you have the exact same story as them, it is very unlikely.
It was not all bad though; I have tried L-glutamine for gut lining, Vitamin D+K for immune support, tried coupel of basic store-bought probiotics, heavily drank/ate kefir, yoghurt with live cultures, pickles. Cut dairy and sugary snacks as much as I could. Got prescribed rifaximin for SIBO. All these helped but mostly as shots in the dark. I got lucky.
You know what I have not tried that could easily helped me when I was so anxious to go to that tiny classroom of 10 people because I was sure that everybody would hear the growling coming from my stomach? Psyllium husk. Enteric-coated peppermint capsules daily. Nobody recommended these and I could have just managed my day-to-day at least.
In the end I discovered that I had persistent SIBO. Rifaximin would fix it, but without the proper dieat, microbiome support, and working out; I would go back to square 1. It took me 10 years to realize this and break the cycle, but I did.
My Recommendation
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, 2 GOLDEN RULES:
1) Do not give up. You do not have any terminal illnesses. This is just a complicated "umbrella" term that we get thrown, because many healthcare systems do not spare more than 10 mins per person. Many of us cannot even talk to the same doctor the next time. You have to be your own doctor.
2) Do not try things blindly. Do not look for a miracle pill, do not look for a miracle app. Do the work, be your own investigator. Treat your disease like a case to crack.
Just make sure you follow a path like this.
1) Understand what IBS is.
2) Understand IBS subtypes, and which one is yours.
3) Learn how to manage your symptoms today. Immediate relief based on subtype.
4) Learn how to stabilize your symptoms. Things that can help you in couple of days-weeks but are more stable in effect. Not a cure, just symptom treatment to keep living your life.
5) Check your diet. Jump on the FODMAP train, it is proven; but identify your trigger foods and do reintroduction. Do not just blindly skip eating anything on FODMAP list; often times it is just couple of the foods that trigger you.
6) Start your investigation. One topic at a time. Look back on the first time it started; did you get an infection? Did you lose a family member at that time? Is there anything you can tie to this? What are your specific symptoms? Does it fit to SIBO? IF yes, then go to your doctor and ask for the treatment. That did not work? Ok, next try post-infectious. No luck? That is fine, next try BAM? Always check with your doctor; they are not your enemies. The system jsut pushes them to be insanely efficient by sparing little time for the conversation with the patients.
7) When you find your cure or remission or nirvana or whatever you call it: How to stay healthy in that cured/remission state.
You get the idea. You do not need a miracle. You need structure. Do the work, and you will be free.
My Parting Gift
I will be honest with you: I have started working on an e-book for IBS as a side gig. A friend of mine asked me for advice, and at that time I realized how much I learned. And then using ai for research I have consolidated all that and created the book. I have also tried creating a youtube channel as the book is a bit heavy, but half-way through I got burned out. So I will not finish that.
I am not a doctor, I am a regular person; but everything mentioned in the book are based on actual studies done by real scientists. You can check the resources.
The book is absolutely free forever in this google drive link, hope it helps somebody: link
I am not selling you anything, but I want just one thing from you: Don't give up. Keep investigating!
TLDR: I had IBS for 10 years and am now cured. I am saying goodbye, there is a free book if you want with my humble wisdom attached to it. Good luck!