Possible IBS? 4+ weeks

Digestive health
1

Hi there, first time poster but I'm just looking for some advice/reassurance. I'm a 20 year old male and pretty physically active - I play football and baseball weekly and go swimming at least twice a week. My diet isn't spectacular; I'm a student so my food budget isn't that good, but I tend to have a very mixed diet, with a fair few vegetables and fruits but also a decent number of kebabs/pizzas etc.

I've always had slightly inconsistent bowels and bowel movements, sometimes having large, solid stools but having diarrhea occasionally as well. Never any blood, no mucus or anything, and it's been like that for as long as I can remember. Maybe that's even normal, I'm not sure. I also had occasional bouts of constipation which lasted a few days at most.

About 4 weeks ago, I developed severe constipation, worse than I'd ever had in my life. For 3 straight weeks, I didn't have a single 'decent' bowel movement. I would sit on the toilet for perhaps half an hour at a time, only managing to squeeze through a tiny bit of diarrhea or thin stool. I even tried sitting in different positions, including with my legs up, to try and assist the bowels. My diet hadn't changed particularly in the lead up to this change in bowel movements, though I had started focusing on my university coursework and exam revision.

After these 3 weeks, I went on holiday to Spain with my family. During the 10 days I was there, I developed more regular meal times (as a student living on my own, I often stayed up to late hours such as 4am and beyond) and sleeping times but although the constipation eased up slightly, it still greatly persisted.

I bought a bag of prunes and ate several each day and the constipation largely disappeared, though the stool was often diarrhea and had little form (sausage shape like usual). Nonetheless, it allowed me to empty my bowels and feel better. After not eating the prunes for a couple of days however, I noticed the constipation began to return and I found myself straining again when using the toilet.

I'm now home from Spain and terrified that this constipation/diarrhea cycle is something serious. I have little abdominal pain - only the usual when I've not had a bowel movement for a lengthy period of time, and few other symptoms. I find if I haven't had a bowel movement for a long time my appetite decreases due to the bloating feeling. I've always been anemic to a degree due to a rare, non-dangerous blood condition I have, but have not noticed any increased weakness, dizziness or loss of motor functions. I have also THOROUGHLY checked my stools for signs of blood (both dark and fresh) and have not found anything more than a few spots on the tissue paper after straining for a long time. The stool, when passed, is a fresh brown colour most of the time.

I'm scared however that this could be something very serious, but was wondering if this could be a case of IBS? I'm not a regular smoker or drinker (socially at most) and there is no family history of colon cancer as far as I'm aware of.

Any help, advice or reassurance would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

2

Hello MKorp,

First of all stop worrying. You are a healthy young man and are just not used to thinking about llifestyle and how it affects your insides. At about your age, I went on a trip to Greece and because of diet change and probably not drinking enough water, I became constipated for the whole time, 10 days!.. that I was there. On the flight home, I had to recline the whole way. I went through the same, same symptoms as you. It was very trying and I, too was worried it was something serious. But if you think of your bowels as pipes with muscles that move along the walls, to expel its contents, you can understand that if the contents are thick and heavy like mud, it will be hard to pass. It can build up and build up until there is very little movement and just a bit squeezes by. This is stool which is rotting waste and that is not good for your health in any way. You want it to pass through in a day or two. 

Because you need a thorough clean out, I would take 3 or 4 magnesium citrate tablets at bedtime. Magnesium is a mineral that is in certain foods but unless we eat a lot of those foods, we have a hard time getting sufficient magnesium in our diets. (nuts, seeds, lentils, bananas...) You will have no pain when you go to the bathroom the next morning. Everything will move along smoothly and nicely in one fell swoop! No more straining! You should be aiming for a footlong poo...like the Africans who eat a very high roughage diet. I take 2 or 3 every night at bedtime and I am as right as rain and feel lighter and healthier for it.

Btw, magnesium is a great brain food. My daughter swears that when she took magnesium citrate the night before an exam, she was better able to concentrate and her exam results were much better.

It is warmer weather and my guess is that you sweat a lot when you play sports. You have to replace that loss of water by drinking much more in this season. 

 You need to keep REGULAR and ....everything will be fine. To keep your insides working well you can do the following:

1. Eat 6 - 10 servings of vegetables and fruits per day. No more beige meals! Only delicious, jewel coloured vegetables on your dinner plate.  Keep a cabbage on hand and slice off a chunk and put some mayo and lemon juice with salt and pepper on it and a shake of onion bits...and there is a wonderful and healthy salad that you can incorporate into your diet on a daily basis. 

2.Exercise every day which you do.

3. Limit constipation causing foods such as white rice, cured meats which are  salty like ham, salami, hot dogs, too much meat in general, salty foods like crisps, dairy and in the meantime, tea until you get things under control.

4. omit dairy products from your diet if you can...or limit them and replace them with delicious almond milk.

5. Drink plenty of water. (I have a pitcher by my computer so first thing in the morning I drink down 2 full glasses). For every cup of coffee or tea, both of which are diuretics (cause you to pee) you have to take one cup of water to replace the water lost.,...and then drink a cup of liquid such as water to be a cup ahead.

 6. I often take 1 tsp of psyllium husks (Metamucil or Fybogel being the expensive but identical alternative) in the afternoon in a tall glass of water. 

7. Take 2 -3 tablets of magnesium before bed. In the morning you will produce a foot long, soft, stool that passes in 3 seconds. And that's it, no pain, no cramping. Everything should pass easily. You will need to gauge whether to take 2 or 3 tablets of magnesium often depending on how bulky your stool was from the previous day. You will learn that in order to avoid the intense cramping,  you need to be on top of your bowel activity.

I don't know that you have IBS. I think you just let yourself get badly constipated. IBS involves intense and painful cramping. This can happen if you get constipated but I don't think you have anything chronic like IBS. You just need to get regualr and you will be absolutely fine. ]

If we all just drank plenty of water, filled our dinner plates with colourful veggies (no beige meals) and moved our bodies more, we would be fine. Listen to your body.  Treat your bowels well and they will thank you. Good luck!`

3

Hi Robin, thanks for the quick and detailed response! Everything you've said makes sense... I've never really been too focused on my diet, my toilet routines and the such, and I think it could be the case that I've allowed myself to become badly constipated like you mentioned, especially since I am often doing university work or out of the house at night so my toilet times are often erratic. I'm quite a frequent dairy product consumer (eat a lot of cheese and I drink milk by the gallon!) and as you can imagine, as a student I eat quite a lot of processed foods and snacks like crisps and other fatty foods. I'm also a big meat eater (almost every meal I have features either chicken/pork/beef) so these things could all have been factors in my constipation.

I'll follow all the steps you've advised and try to eat healthier and stay active and hydrated and see how it goes. I'll also grab some magnesium tablets as soon as I can.

Thank you again for the advice and reassurance - it's been a pretty worrying few weeks so I really appreciate your help and time!

4

You are far too young to have anything serously wrong with you. Your body just can't take so much 'abuse'. I'm sure in the past when you were at home more often for meals, you ate salads, broccoli, vegetable soups, cabbage, eggplant etc...which your mother made There was a bowl of fruit on the table and you could just pass by and take an apple. Try to eat as you did at home (maybe better) by preparing fruits and veggies that are on hand. Wash and cut up celery and carrots and keep them in a bag in the fridge. Wash fruits and keep them in the fridge to keep them fresher...except for bananas which will go brown. Since you are not overweight (I presume), you can afford to drink a glass of juice instead of milk in the morning. You can cook brown rice and take a cooked chicken breast or piece of leftover steak and cut it up into the cooked rice with some green onions and soy sauce and with a big salad of GREEN lettuce (never iceberg) and tomatoes, you have a meal for two (half a chicken breast each. That helps you go easy on the meat. Replace lots of your meat with vegetables. Buy beets in a jar and have one or two at lunch or dinner. Yum! Your plate should look colourful. 

Try to wean yourself off so much constipating cheese by replacing it with something filling like bananas or a smoothie. How about avocado with a vinaigrette poured into the cup of it and eaten with a spoon. That's filling and very nutritious. Keep walnuts, almonds and pumpkin seeds in bowls on the table and by your computer. Fill up on that instead of crisps. Drink a beer instead of a glass of milk...seriously! There are lots of B vitamins in beer. Bring food from home!

Good luck!

Robin