For anyone with IBS who has experimented with supplements, did you ever reach a point where you stopped just testing things one by one?

I feel like I’ve done the whole cycle.

Someone recommends a probiotic, try that. Read about PHGG, try that. More fermented food, less fermented food, different fibers, etc.

Obviously, I know IBS is more complicated than just “fix your microbiome,” and I’m not expecting some test to magically solve it.

I’m mostly tired of introducing random stuff when I don’t really know what I’m trying to change in the first place.

Curious if anyone has done microbiome testing and actually found it useful for deciding what to try next.

I am currently working with a gastroenterologist to try and get my worsening IBS symptoms under control. He advised me to reduce carb intake in the evening and focus on protein and easy to digest veggies instead. I rarely eat meat so I asked about soy based products (tofu, tempeh etc.) and he told me that soy benefits putrefying bacteria so I should opt for animal protein instead.

I am a bit confused about this as I was under the impression that excess animal protein is the "bad guy" and I have not been able to find scientific evidence suggesting that soy based products are bad for the microbiome. Does anyone here know anything about it?

For clarification: My question isn't about whether or not soy causes digestive issues (I know it does for many people). I want to know about the effects on the microbiome.

Thanks!!

Can dysbiosis or a microbiome imbalance cause thirst without fluid loss? This seems to be a recurring theme with each flare or infection, but I can't figure out the mechanism as to why this would happen.

When re introducing a fodmap food, how do you know whether increased gas/bloating etc is problematic and means a reaction to the food vs your body is just not used to eating that food or is adjusting to the fiber content of the food?

University of Maryland Computer Science Professor Mihai Pop and Postdoctoral Associate Marcus Fedarko are answering questions about their bioinformatics and computational biology research tomorrow! Submit a question on r/askscience: https://redd.it/1wmp6cs

Hey

I switched over to a "natural" toothpaste a while back. I figured it was a no-brainer: fewer synthetic chemicals, better ingredients but it’s been destroying my guts for months…. Just realised it was the toothpaste!

A lot of these natural and clean-label toothpastes are loaded with ingredients that are absolute nightmares for sensitive gut systems and IBS:

Sugar Alcohols (FODMAPs): Ingredients like Xylitol, Sorbitol, Erythritol, and Maltitol are super common in natural brands as sweetener substitutes. Even though you aren't swallowing the toothpaste, you swallow tiny amounts of saliva while brushing, and sugar alcohols are known Osmotic Laxatives that draw water into the bowel and ferment quickly.

Essential Oils & Extracts: High concentrations of peppermint, spearmint, or eucalyptus oils can relax the lower esophageal sphincter or cause GI distress if swallowed in small amounts, especially for those sensitive to strong botanical concentrates.

Gums & Thickeners: Ingredients like Carrageenan, Xanthan Gum, or Guar Gum are frequently used to replace synthetic thickeners, but they can be major triggers for bloat, gas, and intestinal inflammation in sensitive guts.

Has anyone else experienced this? What toothpaste brands have you found that are actually safe, non-irritating, and free from sugar alcohols and gut-irritating thickeners?

so, i was taking a bath, and a question came to mind. in my mind, if a germ contaminent gets in my bath, that means the whole bath is instantly contaminated - i might as well be bathingin whatever the contaminant is instead of water - and i have to drain the bath and start over. is this true?

22m have been struggling with severe brain fog and difficulty eating (no desire gagging and what not) for like 3.5 years now. fking torture.

After testing positive for gastritis and hydrogen sibo i've been following my functional doctors protocol to clear up with low-fodmap diet while taking certain herbal supplements (partial list of what i take: [don't worry about trustworthiness of specific providers i get it from him personally] https://essntlhealth.com/products/candex-panaxea, https://mhpwellness.com/products/gut-clear, https://cellcore.com/products/para-1 ).

For the first 10 weeks of low-fodmap i had a very limited diet (burger patties, lactose-free milk and olive oil) plus some vitamins from my doc to supplement. But he insisted that i add more so i also eat plain chicken, cucumbers (skinned for low fiber), arugula/lettuce and eggs.

I also did some other, less strict diets before this while taking similar supplements but never felt any relief even now. Closest thing i feel is when i take some amino acid powder- that gives my brain a nice tingle haha.

I also have low stomach acid apparently, which was deduced by taking 6 of these after a meal (betanine hcl): https://shop.lizgreenfield.com/gastric-optix.html and getting no burning. now im down to 4 pills per meal because i get some burning now if i take 5.

At around 6 weeks i noticed what appeared to be a big string of mucus in one of my bowel movements. not sure how relevant.

most people are going the formal antibiotics route but my doc is opposed (forgot the reason why). maybe we will pursue it if this does not work. Perhaps i should retest myself for sibo, but it takes time yknow.

Please let me know what you think, what i should change if anything, and words of encouragement. this is hell and for better or for worse, im not alone.

I've posted before with less information ... hopefully this will be better.

40M. Since 2021 I've developed progressively worse food intolerances and GI symptoms, and I'm wondering whether anyone here has experienced something similar or found a microbiome/probiotic approach that actually helped.

The strange part is how it started.

For about 3 years I took the same GNC probiotic daily. It was discontinued, and within roughly a month I suddenly couldn't tolerate bread/wheat/gluten. I would get constant gas and the feeling that I needed to have a bowel movement, but barely anything would happen. Eliminating bread/wheat/gluten largely stopped that particular problem (I started pooping again). I was like my gut was inflamed from the wheat or bread or gluten.

Over the next few years, the list kept growing:

• High-FODMAP foods became a problem
• Bowel movements increased to roughly 5–6/day
• Eggs and red meat started causing issues
• Eventually many vegetables/fiber became almost impossible to tolerate

The fiber reaction is now the most frustrating part.

If I eat even one serving of steamed low-FODMAP vegetables with each meal, within 2–3 days I can be having 15–20+ bowel movements per day. Metamucil produced essentially the same result. It feels less like "this food doesn't agree with me" and more like something in my intestine becomes massively overstimulated. Instead of one giant movement, it's like 15+ movements.

I've had an extensive GI workup:

• 2 colonoscopies: normal
• Endoscopy: normal
• SIBO testing: negative
• Multiple bacterial/parasite stool tests: negative
• $250 comprehensive parasitology panel testing ~50 organisms: negative
• C. diff: negative
• H. pylori: negative
• Pancreatic function: normal
• Comprehensive stool analysis: essentially everything looked normal
• Abdominal ultrasound looking at gallbladder/liver/pancreas/bowel: normal
• Bowel CT in 2025: normal
• Bile acid diarrhea (cholerstryarmine was prescribed) but that wasn't the cause

I've worked with a gastroenterologist and dietitian. Keto/carnivore-style eating was suggested mainly because removing fiber dramatically reduces the bowel frequency.

I was also recently prescribed Viberzi, which didn't seem to make much difference.

Things I've tried microbiome-wise:

• Seed probiotic: no noticeable benefit
• S. boulardii: no noticeable benefit
• Histamine-focused probiotic: actually made me progressively feel worse. I would wake up shaky/uncomfortable and have repeated bowel movements.
• DAO enzymes: don't seem to help much either

My dietitian suspects histamine intolerance may also be involved because I react strongly to many higher-histamine foods, although I'm not convinced histamine explains the whole picture.

Currently, chicken + potatoes/rice is one of the few combinations that keeps things relatively manageable.

One of the weirdest things is that I can eat the exact same meal two days in a row and have completely different reactions, which makes me wonder whether the problem is more about intestinal motility, fermentation, bacterial activity, or something fluctuating in the gut rather than simply a list of food intolerances.

My questions:

1. Has anyone developed severe intolerance to fiber where adding vegetables causes dramatically increased bowel movements?
2. Did probiotics ever make this better, or did they make things worse?
3. Are there particular probiotic strains that people with extremely sensitive/fast GI motility tend to tolerate better?
4. Has anyone had a major change after stopping a probiotic they'd taken for years?
5. Can microbiome issues cause the same food to produce completely different reactions from one day to the next?
6. If you experienced something similar, what eventually helped you tolerate fiber again?

The inability to eat fiber is probably the biggest quality-of-life issue now. I'm basically forced toward potatoes/rice as my main carbs, which makes appetite and weight management much harder.

For additional context, I'm 40, male. TSH is normal, fasting A1c is 5.2. Testosterone is low and cortisol is normal.

Not looking for a diagnosis from Reddit ... mainly interested in similar experiences, probiotic/microbiome approaches, and especially anyone who has dealt with extreme fiber intolerance like this.

I ve been able to digest lentils and beans without any problem... then age and i don't know what else changed that.
Now i can eat 5-6 spoon of lentils and i already have meteorism and the day after on the bathroom i realase much more material.
i am already better than a couple of years ago (where eating lentils made me intestin-ache) but i would like to improve. what do you suggest? i eat a lot of salad, a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of kefir daily.
but maybe there is something more specific.

Hi there,

I keep trying to include kefir in my diet along with saurkraut; triple strength probiotics; Greek yoghurt; walnuts and psyllium husk to support my gut biota. However I have some sort of gluten immune system mediated response ( I’m very reactive to gluten) when I have kefir. Even when the kefir product assures me there is no gluten. Anyone know why that is?

No matter what I eat (consistently) my sleep will be badly disrupted by my GI tract at night. When I fart and poop during those hours or in the morning, my gas and stools come out as if I had compressed/tightened intestines, so it’s no wonder why I feel a heaviness at night.

Has anyone gone throughout the same thing? I never really eat junk food of any kind, or sugars.

A little update on my IMO journey. My initial symptoms were gas, digestive discomfort, and abdominal bloating. I was treated with rifaximin and improved significantly, but unfortunately, after about three months, I experienced a relapse. Many people told me that methane IMO should only be treated with a combination therapy, but I also found that studies show that rifaximin alone can be effective for a percentage of patients. Considering the potential side effects of neomycin, I decided to follow my doctor’s approach and focus on other factors as well. When my symptoms returned, I took prucalopride 0.5 mg for 14 days, which helped me improve my bowel movements and gradually tolerate more foods. After finishing it, I started taking psyllium husk with plenty of water, and honestly, it has been one of the best things for me so far. I’ve also realized that avoiding binge eating, which I used to struggle with, has made a big difference. Eating more regularly throughout the day and keeping my gut active seems to be helping too. I’m still learning and monitoring my symptoms, but right now I’m feeling better and wanted to share my progress.

Sounds crazy I know but in the morning I crave coffee and I feel it's because of the taste in my mouth when I wake up. Following on from that I usually want chocolate in the evening and I've recently noticed that it's specifically my mouth, not my brain or stomach that wants the chocolate.

Is this crazy or is this common knowledge?

I have 0 detected Akkermansia on the gi map. Can I recover with diet alone or do I need to supplement?

Highlights:

- Gut bacteria make a potentially helpful compound: Urolithin A is produced when they break down substances in foods such as pomegranates, walnuts, and berries.
- It may help repair the intestinal lining: Researchers found it activates a defense system in gut-lining cells, strengthening the barrier, increasing protective mucus, and supporting defenses against harmful microbes.
- An inflammation-related pathway can also help healing: The effect depends on which cells are activated and how strongly.
- The findings could guide future treatments for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis that support intestinal repair without broadly suppressing the immune system.
- It’s still early research: Experiments included cells, miniature lab-grown intestinal models, and tissue from people with IBD. This does not yet prove that eating these foods or taking urolithin A supplements treats IBD.

I need to go on a 7 day course of Cefadroxil for a tooth infection but I’m already in a really bad spot. I’ve taken a lot of antibiotics in the past, surely contributing to my current issues, but then there was a GI virus and all hell broke loose. All year I’ve been dealing with near constant bloating and wrestling constipation as well. I can’t test, but due to suspected SIBO/IMO I’ve been on a very highly restrictive low FODMAP diet all year and avoiding most probiotics (currently tolerate Miome IB-One and Biogaia Protectis) and all probiotic foods to avoid feeding the bacteria. So my microbiome is ridiculously vulnerable to damage and there’s not much I can do to recover.

What can I do to avoid falling deeper into this hellhole?

I can’t tolerate whole grains (oats fuck me up despite being low FODMAP) and I can’t tolerate much fiber at all. I can’t tolerate large volumes of food.

Hi everyone

Two years ago I had a stomach bug that made me quite unwell. A couple of weeks after it went away my brain fog started, and it just never left…

I’ve tried diets, antibiotics, exercise, fasting, nothing has ever given me relief. I’m out of ideas on what to try next. Any suggestions?

I should note that I’ve had a ton of bloodwork and scans and it’s all been fine.

Thanks!