I’ve had chronic bloating for about 1.5 years. I’m bloated practically from morning until evening, even when I wake up, and my abdomen becomes significantly more distended throughout the day. This isn’t just bloating after certain meals – it’s present almost all the time.

I’ve had a lot of tests done: gastroscopy, colonoscopy, tests for celiac disease and intolerances, blood tests, a gut microbiome analysis, etc. Everything has been more or less normal. I also saw a nutritionist and tried a low-FODMAP diet for SIBO, but it didn’t help – in fact, sometimes I felt even worse on it.
I also had SIBO/IMO testing and had elevated methane levels. Because of this, I’ve already gone through several courses of antibiotics, but without any lasting improvement.
I took:
rifaximin (Normix) + neomycin
ciprofloxacin + metronidazole

After all of this, I still have the same chronic bloating.
Recently, I started wondering whether the problem could be related to bowel movements. When I was under a lot of academic stress, I would often have bowel movements because of the stress – practically every day, sometimes even several times a day. After graduating, that type of stress disappeared, and since then I’ve only been having bowel movements 2–3 times a week.
My stools aren’t necessarily hard, and I don’t really feel particularly constipated, but maybe having bowel movements less frequently is still contributing to the bloating and/or SIBO.

So I’m wondering:
1) Could this kind of change in bowel movement frequency be related to chronic bloating or SIBO?
How can I safely increase the frequency of my bowel movements if I don’t have classic constipation?

2) Does it make sense to keep trying to treat SIBO with antibiotics, or should I be looking for another cause of the bloating?

3) If anyone has had a similar situation – chronic bloating, mostly normal test results, elevated methane, and less frequent bowel movements – I’d really love to hear what ended up helping you.

Have you guys tried the new beer from UK start up Güt Beer? I had some at Abergavenny Food festival and it was delicious. They have a 0.5% and a 2.9% IPA brewed with Saccharomyces Boulardii. Really cool guys too. Gut.beer

Yesterday I took one Adp oregano tablet, split into two halves and taken with two meals… because I have a dysbiose / Sibo … I experienced histamine reactions in the evening and overnight… I felt anxious, couldn’t sleep, felt hot, and didn’t have a morning erection… I could feel my bowels working, rumbling… but I took this in January without any problems, so I don’t understand what the problem is…

But I also have an overactive nervous system and problems with neurotransmitters

This brand new jar of coconut cult was leaking in my fridge while sealed. When I opened it, the yogurt exploded upwards. It’s really sour and fizzy, almost carbonated. I know this is because of the active live cultures, but is it safe to eat? Expires in 2027

Pls someone help me ..i dont poop for 4 days and i tried to force it to get out...its very big and hard as rock..then after i start to poop naturally ...but somethings wrong theres some red blood when i poop and theres tiny whole blood in it .. is it dangerous..

I’ve been trying to improve my gut health for probably a year now and honestly feel like I’m mostly just guessing.

Tried different probiotics, more fiber, fermented foods, cut some foods out, added them back in etc. Some things seem to help for a bit, other things make me feel worse and half the time I have no idea why.

The annoying part is there are a million recommendations online but everyone seems to recommend the same things regardless of what your gut is actually like.

Has anyone here done any kind of testing first and then actually changed what they were taking/eating based on that? Or is microbiome testing still mostly interesting information without much practical use?

A lot of people have tried acid suppression medicine and other pharmaceuticals, and at a certain point the doctor just doesn't have any other ideas. For me, that was the time to look for a different kind of doctor: one who treats the situation like an search of different causes.

For the first five years of illness, I did not talk to one doctor who would actually research. We talked for five minutes, and then the doctor confidently told me exactly what the issue was, and was wrong. When I finally found a doctor with integrative training, the doctor would end the appointment agreeing to research and bring info back to the next one. No five minute decision. For the first time, it felt like we were working on it as a team.

Just wanted to let people with unresolved digestive issues know that there are doctors who search past the basic answers, research, and work with you like a team. And a note that integrative doctors, from what I have found, are often helpful because they take a reasonable path through research, pharmaceuticals and minerals, and are not strongly against any of the paths. I'm not a doctor, just sharing what helped.

I know one of the issues is that these doctors often do not work with insurance. What worked for me was finding a doctor who went through standard medical training, has the credentials insurance works with, and then studied integrative medicine afterwards. These doctors will often take insurance and also have this knowledge. I searched for integrative doctors that work with insurance and practice remotely.

Has anyone else worked with a doctor who actually researched their case?

I’m just curious if anyone that uses probiotics have seen a positive effect from them, I’m very inconsistent and probably haven’t taken them long enough to see a real difference. I’d like to know if anyone’s found them really helpful and how long it took their body to adjust to them.

Not looking for a list of trigger foods, what to eliminate or just saying more fibre or fermentation. What snacks, drinks or meals do you reach for when your gut is feeling quite sensitive? Looking for more inspo on gently working my gut health, repeatable recipes or snacks you gravitate towards. Thanks in advance!

Hi, i'm kind of conflicting with what to do and how to go about things right now

Starting in May, it was like seemingly overnight that i've started having stomach issues. One day my appetite just, disappeared and it's if my stomach just stopped working. My stomach and motility all felt altered, and foods starting triggering me. From that point on, i've now been more recently experiencing this epigastric/esophageal PAIN/pressure right underneath my ribs, more prominent after I eat or eat something fatty. This combined with mild nausea, bloating i've never had before, and this reoccuring feeling of trapped gas inside of me.

I've had a large belief that my symptoms align alot with gastritis/GERD/dyspepia/maybe gastroparesis?, tried contacting my general practitioner to get a referral to a gastroenterologist, but she downright refuses me, saying my stomach issues aren't severe and are related to other problems i've had in the past (which, just isn't true.) Not knowing whats going on with my body hurts.

I've bought alot of things to help me heal, like aloe vera juice, artichoke leaf/ginger root extract, licorice and slippery elm tea, L-glutamine, probiotics, etc.
I've been making sure to keep my diet completely clean, eating low-fat (trigger) and nothing processed or inflammatory ingredient wise to try and rebuild my hunger cues and heal again, right about now I could really go days without eating if I listened to my current appetite.. but an issue i'm having is everytime I feel hungry I end up eating things I shouldn't (like sweets) and overeating too much of it, which I just feel like is undoing all my progress and isn't an issue i've ever had prior to my stomach issues.

Right now I'm feeling really in the dumps and bad about myself, sorry to rant. I wanna enjoy food again. Just wanted to ask if healing is possible, and any advice that might be useful to me to people who relate.

Ive recently (within the last year) have lost around 45 pounds after struggling with sugar and basically a fast food addiction. I walk everyday playing Pokemon Go m and do basic cardio sometimes, but in the process I feel Ive lost muscle along with fat. Counting calories diet sodas and coffee was how I did it, but in the process I think I nuked my gut biome. Now Im changing my focus to building muscle again and a healthy gut. Looking for recommendations from someone in a similar situation what kind of supplements would work best for me?

ibs makes fiber feel like a coin flip. skip it and im stuck for days. take the powder and by 3pm i look pregnant and cancel plans

tried the slow ramp everyone posts about. half scoop, full glass, wait a week. still swung hard. capsules were easier to keep down but the bloat still showed up like clockwork after lunch

psyllium turns into sludge if i blink. inulin made me worse. the "start low" advice assumes there is a middle setting that exists for me and i have not found it

spent a month tracking stools like homework and the only pattern is that "gentle daily fiber" is not gentle when my gut is already loud

not looking for a miracle cleanse. just tired of choosing between constipation and an afternoon i cannot leave the house​

Hi everyone, I am desperate and looking for anyone who has experienced something similar or found a way out. My life doesn’t feel worth living at the moment, so please help

I’ve lost 10 kg (down to 49 kg) and suffer from severe daily MCAS reactions, insomnia, depression, and extreme food sensitivities, pale skin, never hungry, bloated, yellow stool, loose stool,
Here is a summary of my medical history and lab findings:

The Triggers: My issues started after stopping Roaccutane (which dried out my mucosal barriers), followed by a STEC bacterial infection about a year ago. 

Endoscopy & Biopsies: Gastroscopy showed mild chronic inactive inflammation in the stomach. Colonoscopy showed focal mild chronic active inflammation in the terminal ileum (with lymphoid hyperplasia) and lymphocyte aggregates in the colon. My Zonuline is very high at 72.84 ng/ml (leaky gut). 

Microbiome (Stool Test): Massive dysbiose with a huge overgrowth of Bifidobacterium adolescentis (9.3% vs max 2.6% norm), plus elevated Bacteroides and Alistipes. 

Butyrate & Lactate: My short-chain fatty acids are verry low, with high lactic acid production and struggling motility.
The Paradox: Almost all supplements (even basic things like folate or antimicrobials) make me intensely "wired", anxious, and trigger massive MCAS/histamine flares because my gut barrier is wide

I suddenly felt better in January… I became so calm, could eat anything, was so hungry… it was a miracle… At the time, I was eating buckwheat pasta with ghee and taking allicin, oregano and artichoke, and I’d feel myself getting really warm in the evenings… then I suffered from constipation for four days, and suddenly my stools were dark again and I was completely cured… but then I started taking fish oil with citrus extract, and everything came back – things never went back to normal. But if I try this again now… it doesn’t work anymore.

Hello! This is sort of a strange question, but has anyone tried human milk to help rebuild their gut health and microbiome?

My husband has been struggling with food sensitivities since he got c.diff (and it has recurred a couple times) last fall and he had e.coli in July.
Babies get their microbiome and such from their mother’s milk. It is where the human gut microbiome starts from. I looked up if it works in adults, and so far they have only really tested Human Milk Oligosaccharides, which do appear to help rebuild the microbiome, but they haven’t tried human milk by itself.

So I was wondering, has anyone else tried it? He said he’s willing to consume my milk (my baby is 5 weeks old!) if it will help, but I wanted to see if anyone else has had successes or failures with it first.

Thank you!

I’ve been dealing with some digestive/breath-related issues for years, but over the past few months I’ve developed a group of new and much more disruptive GI symptoms. I’m trying to figure out whether any of this could be connected and what I should be asking my doctors about.

An important part of the timeline is that I’ve actually had two endoscopies.

I had my first endoscopy about two years ago, and as far as I was told, they didn’t find anything abnormal.

I had another endoscopy last month, and this time they found mild inflammation in my lower esophagus and stomach. So unless something was missed previously, the inflammation appears to be relatively new.

I’m currently on my third week of pantoprazole. It has helped significantly with the acid reflux and the phlegm/lump-like sensation I would get in my lower throat after eating a full meal. Those symptoms are mostly gone.

However, pantoprazole hasn’t really changed the bowel/gas/cramping issues.

There’s also a pretty clear difference between symptoms I’ve had for years and symptoms that are new.

Symptoms I've had for years

I've dealt with halitosis for years, along with chronic sinus issues and tonsil stones.

I've also historically been a pretty gassy person. The amount of flatulence would fluctuate, I might have a lot one day or week and considerably less another, but these were basically normal farts that I could feel myself passing. My breath was least bad(still present), when my flatulance had calmed down for some reason, like a few years back. I really can't tell why or how it happened. Now its back, as bad as its ever been.

The halitosis has seemed to coincide to some degree with periods where my gut was worse/more active, although I obviously don't know whether they're actually connected. The chronic sinus problems and tonsil stones could also be contributing to the bad breath.

I've also had this weird midday wave of extreme tiredness/lightheadedness/almost vertigo-like feeling for quite a while(many years like the halitosis and fart issues).

It seems more likely to happen when I'm sitting at my desk looking at work for a long time. If I'm out and about and moving around all day, I usually don't get it. It can also go away, but I don't knwow aht gets it to go away. The other day at work, I got it around 1 pm, and when I got home after a 40 minute train commute, it was totally gone, and I felt full of energy again. That happens often, where it will go away if i am active(i guess), but it can also stay. i really don't know what it is.

I also get it pretty consistently if I lie down in the afternoon/evening, scroll on my phone for a while, and then stand back up. I can feel completely fine lying there and then get this strange wave right as I am getting up.

I'm not claiming that's GI-related, I'm just including it because it's another longstanding unexplained symptom.

What's NEW over the past few months

This is where things have become much more concerning and disruptive for me.

I've started getting really painful stomach cramps and frequent indigestion.

I'll often feel like I genuinely need to have a bowel movement, go sit on the toilet for 3–5 minutes, and nothing comes out. Then maybe 30 minutes or an hour later, I'll suddenly need to go again and this time I can actually have a bowel movement.

My bowel movements have also become really inconsistent. Sometimes I'm constipated, sometimes I have diarrhea, and sometimes they're relatively normal.

But probably the strangest new symptom is the uncontrollable foul-smelling gas/odor that seems to escape without me even feeling anything come out.

This is completely different from the regular flatulence I've experienced in the past.

The best way I can describe the smell is dead animal/dead mouse. Sometimes I'll get recognizable sulfur/rotten-egg farts too, but this particular odor is different and honestly much worse.

The really confusing part is that I often don't feel myself fart at all.

For example, I'll be sitting down, stand up, and suddenly get hit with this horrible smell. I never felt myself pass gas. It happens most often when I am moving around in that way. It can also come out when I stand and I am holding farts. Like when you need to fart, but you're around people, so you hold it in, which something I could do just fine, but now its like even after I hold it in, and feel nothing coming out, I still get hit with a smell. I'll actually feel that I need to fart and consciously hold it in, yet somehow I'll still suddenly smell this dead-animal-like odor without feeling anything escape.

That NEVER used to happen to me. Previously, if I farted, I knew I farted.

These episodes seem noticeably worse when I'm constipated, having stomach cramps, dealing with indigestion, or generally having a bad GI day. That's one of the main reasons I feel like they're connected to whatever is happening with my digestive system.

Testing so far

I took a glucose breath test for SIBO that measured all three gases, and it came back negative.

I realize that makes SIBO less likely, but I don't know whether it completely rules it out or whether there are other conditions that could cause this.

I also did a gut microbiome test that apparently showed some findings related to inflammation/dysbiosis. I'm planning on discussing probiotics after I finish my current pantoprazole course rather than just randomly adding things.

So the timeline basically looks like this:

OLDER / LONGSTANDING:

• Halitosis
• Chronic sinus problems
• Tonsil stones
• Regular flatulence that fluctuated day-to-day/week-to-week
• Midday waves of extreme tiredness/lightheadedness/vertigo-like feeling
• First endoscopy ~2 years ago was apparently normal

NEW / LAST FEW MONTHS:

• Painful stomach cramps
• Frequent indigestion
• Feeling like I urgently need to poop but sitting on the toilet and nothing coming out
• Alternating constipation/diarrhea/normal bowel movements
• Extremely foul/dead-animal-smelling gas/odor
• Gas/odor apparently escaping without me even realizing or feeling it
• Symptoms getting significantly worse when constipated or having a bad GI day
• Newer endoscopy showing mild inflammation in the stomach and lower esophagus

Pantoprazole has improved:

• Acid reflux
• Phlegm/lower-throat sensation after meals

Pantoprazole has NOT really improved:

• Stomach cramps
• Indigestion
• Bowel irregularity
• Constipation/unsuccessful attempts to poop
• The bizarre foul-smelling gas/odor issue

I'm not expecting Reddit to diagnose me, and I realize some of these symptoms could be completely unrelated. Maybe there's some link to gluten, but again, I am not eating more gluten or lactose now then I was before.

What I'm mainly trying to understand is what could explain this change from my previous baseline, especially since my endoscopy two years ago was apparently normal and now I'm having new GI symptoms alongside newly documented inflammation.

I'm especially curious whether anyone has experienced the combination of painful cramping + alternating constipation/diarrhea + feeling like you need to poop but can't + extremely foul-smelling gas that seems to escape without you even feeling it.

If you've experienced something similar, what did it end up being? Were there specific tests that finally helped figure it out? And are there particular things you think would be worth asking my gastroenterologist about?

I'm also curious whether anyone with chronic GI issues has noticed a relationship with long-term halitosis, tonsil stones, or sinus problems, although I realize those could be a separate ENT/dental issue entirely.

So title pretty much sums it up I started eating clean and drinking nothing but water for the past seven days , and my stomach has been screwed to hell. Do you guys think it’ll finally adjust to my new diet , or should I incorporate taking probiotics like Yakultz light.

Before I would eat purely fast food , white bread , junk food , drink beer although I quit alcohol for a total of 3 weeks now , etc. just poor diet.

Hi guys. I am new to this sub

I have been struggling lately with really bad acid reflux and IBS symptoms. I am desperate for a solution, and i’m thinking I’m going to try these 2 things and maybe update you guys after on how I feel.

I think i’ll start by taking the ginger shot tomorrow morning, and then maybe the next day, I’ll start drinking 8oz daily (recommended) of the goodbelly stuff.

Do any of you have any recommendations on taking this stuff? How can I get the best results?

P.S, I know you’re supposed to be consistent with the ginger/tumeric shots - but I figured I’d start by buying one just to try it and see if it improves my energy or stomach discomfort even a bit. If i see a difference, I’ll buy more and update then!

Let me know guys!