Culture of IBS and Yogurt

This may fall into the category as TMI for some folks, if so, move along and have a great day. :-)

Irritable Bowel Syndrome — IBS as folks like to call it so as to not use the word ‘bowel’ — is exactly that, a syndrome.

The term syndrome is most often used when the reason that the features occur together has not yet been discovered. — Wikipedia

In other words, physicians ain’t got no clue yet. This provides ample opportunity for folks to publish information, personal observations, etc. and present them as factual. But they aren’t. My first google experience with ‘IBS’ was about what i expected; lots of pages with conflicting information.

This is my observation.

Yogurt cured my IBS symptoms.

Rewind a bit. I’ve dealt with IBS symptoms for some 10 years or so. I’ve also dealt with my loving bride telling me to go to the doctor for years. I finally stopped ignoring her and made an appointment. She said “they do have medications you know.” Okie doke.

The doc and i chatted, he listened and palpated, and after a few minutes he says its probably IBS. I’m thinking to myself, “yeah, great, now tell me something i don’t know.”

So here’s what he told me.

1. Keep a notebook of what you eat and flag foods that trigger symptoms.


2. Try some drugs. In my case Levsin for starters, but with the option to call back for an alternative. Start with “as needed” not to exceed the prescribed dosage.


3. Yogurt. There are some trials underway using good bacteria to offset some potentially bad intestinal bacteria. The trials involve large quantities of good bacteria, but yogurt could help. They are also using large doses of antibiotics to treat the same thing.
   

   He also warned that IBS can be related to some lactose intolerance and yogurt could make it worse.

I was already keeping a notebook and wasn’t seeing any food correlations.

So, i got the Rx filled and started taking the Levsin “as needed”. No good. I then took it as prescribed; better, but certainly not enough to deal with the side effects.

The following week, i bought some yogurt at the store. The rest, as they say, is history. I have been symptom free for weeks now.

Like i said, this is my observation. Yogurt could kill you, particularly if the container is left open for months in your refrigerator and you accidently grab it while going for that tub of cream cheese to curl up with in front of the TV late at night.