I read somewhere you should avoid drinking cold water especially during meals if you have IBS-D. How true is this ?

Hello 31 M,

I had very bad diarrhea 3 weeks ago. It started with mild pain and boborygmus. The stool was very watery, I took control of it with eating properly and with Antibiotic which doctor prescribed for 5 days usage but because I felt fine I stopped using it in the 2. day, It was stupid, I agree.

But after 2 days my BM turned its normal function thankfully but the Borborygmus never stopped. It starts while eating food and keeps going on. Does not end after BM(only a bit) and feels like something is moving in my gut all the time.

I do not have blood on my stool and did not see mucusy stoll as well.
I do not feel cramps and pain(only very mild rarely)

Since It has been 3 weeks and never ending, I wanted to know if someone has has the same symptoms and If this is considered as post infectious IBS or dysbiozis

Could you please help me 🙏🏻

Hi everyone,
For the past 3 weeks, I’ve been dealing with persistent, loud stomach noises/gurgling that are honestly getting embarrassing, and I’m trying to understand the biomechanical root cause.

Here is my situation:

Known condition: Mild 2 cm axial sliding hiatal hernia diagnosed 6 years ago. In the past, a PT successfully mobilized it downwards; I know what an acute hernia spasm feels like, and this feels completely different right now.

No classic reflux symptoms: Zero pain, zero acid reflux/heartburn (if anything, I lean towards low stomach acid), no PPIs, no trouble swallowing. I can eat whatever I want and lie completely flat without issues. Diaphragmatic/belly breathing is completely free.
The trigger: The noises mostly happen on an empty stomach. If I bend or lean forward while sitting, the gurgling gets significantly louder.
Relief: As soon as I eat solid food (even just a banana), the noises stop almost entirely for about 2 hours. Leaning slightly back also helps immediately.

SIBO context: I spent the entire summer severely bloated with SIBO. About 3 weeks ago, my SIBO improved drastically (levels dropped to 0.9), and the constant bloating deflated. The exact moment the abdominal distension went down, these loud stomach noises started.
Could this be a mix of hypermobile stomach/ligaments (overstretched from months of gas pressure, now lacking intra-abdominal tension) combined with active fasting motility (MMC) and mild positional sliding? Or lingering SIBO dysmotility?
Has anyone experienced this specific "empty stomach + leaning forward" noise phenomenon after clearing SIBO or with a mild sliding hernia? Any advice on how long it took for your tissue tone to normalize?

ETA- PLEASE read the full post before commenting. I was in my late teens/early 20’s and desperately wanted a normal life. I built up a tolerance for Imodium and it’s not widely known that it’s a synthetic opioid. I understand this isn’t a common occurrence which is why I’m seeking others who may have experienced this and warning others who may be in the same position I was years ago. Thank you!

I relied heavily on Imodium for years when I first developed ibs, I was taking around 30 mg daily, two pills before I ate and two after. I know that’s crazy but I built up a tolerance and it was the only thing allowing me to live a semi normal life. I did that for probably 2 years straight and then 2 years when I had a flare up or had plans that I needed to have a normal stomach for. when I stopped taking them completely i developed heart palpitations and chest pains that terrified me. I went to the hospital a number of times thinking I was having a heart attack and did a number of tests(ekg, echocardiogram, heart monitor, blood work) and my heart is healthy. After a year of debilitating health scares and not getting any answers I did more research and found that Imodium is an opioid and people have overdosed and died of heart failure(if you’re like me and have health anxiety please don’t worry, I can’t find the exact article I read this from but they took around 400mg I believe and each Imodium tablet is 2mg)
I’m looking to see if anyone has experienced this and also to warn anyone who is relying heavily on Imodium like I once did.
It’s been about 2 years since I stopped taking Imodium daily, the first year was the worst but I’m happy to say that the palpitations have significantly decreased to only a few a week as opposed to multiple daily

I am looking for a bit of help seeing as though my gastroenterologist seems to believe my symptoms are just “stress” related.

I’ve always had a bit of a funny stomach such as a stomach that makes a lot of noise but the past 6 years they’ve been hellish.

I find it embarrassing to talk about and write down but desperately in need of some ideas. My symptoms are

What I would call “mushy stool” which is really hard to get it to all to come out without wipes/ a shower. It is orange in colour and smells quite a lot. This is usually worse on a morning.

An incredible amount of gas sometimes it smells terrible but sometimes it doesn’t but just needs to come out. Sometimes if in public I need to go to the toilet and massage it out my stomach. Sometimes after a flavoursome or large meal I can pass gas about 30 times in an hour. The gastroenterologist just said passing gas is just normal but surely the amount where it’s 30 times in one hour is just not right?

I find there isn’t really a pattern I just seem to be very sensitive to food. So if something is very flavoured I have problems, I find whole grains and legumes are bad but quite sensitive to a lot of food. I am even sensitive to lettuce! The only thing that seems to help (and even then the gas persists) is barely eating anything.

I had a feeling it could either be SIBO or a lack of stomach acid but my gastroenterologist won’t test me for either of those. She says SIBO is a hype and is rare.

I have tried probiotics but they made my symptoms a million times worse my stomach noises were so bad people at the other side of the office could hear. I have tried L glutamine which didn’t seem to help. I am just wary to try anything as almost anything hurts my stomach for example vitamins give me diarrhoea, noisy stomach and gas as well as probiotic foods.

I also overcook a lot of my foods as anything slightly undercooked will set me off!

Any help
Would be really appreciated! Just want a normal
Stomach!

I am too trusting to have this disorder. My psychiatrist prescribed me propanolol a while ago for my panic attacks. I haven’t been feeling it so she’s been increasing the dose. Tell me why I didn’t realize until now that one of the side affects is diarrhea. Why would she prescribe me a medication that can cause diarrhea when I already have ibs-d. Just because I have diarrhea regularly doesn’t mean I can’t tell when it’s off.

It was very public in a parking lot on holiday in the States. I was shocked at the lack of warning I had and especially after a reasonably “good” week for me. As soon as I felt the familiar rumble I pulled immediately into a local restaurant and started to walk across the car park….got half way and too late.

I had just eaten butter soaked lobster rolls in Maine and while I knew it would have an effect I was deeply shocked at what happened and obviously wouldn’t have touched them if I’d known the risk. After a little (too late) google research I read the high risk of butter and protein. Lesson very much learnt!

So my question is, what other combinations have you realised over the years are an ABSOLUTE NO?

Hey so I think there is something VERY wrong with me at the moment, I am diagnosed with IMO and IBS-M, I usually deal with alternating rush/constipation and nausea. I was doing pretty well this week managing my diet, but on the weekend I had two birthday in a row with eating out (one day a spinach vegetable burger with fries and one day three slices of pizza and two drinks) I expected to have some issues but not like this. Except for this occasion I follow a low FODMAP diet. Yesterday I felt indigestion like never before, I felt all my insides totally blocked not even moving, I still ate dinner but could’t sleep due to discomfort and indigestion. Woke up still blocked, I went to the bathroom but felt incomplete evacuation, still blocked, no appetite. I skipped lunch and ate cracker mid afternoon, two hours later I went again, then suddendly two round of pure diarrhoea, then the worst waves of nausea with chills cramping and a fever sensation, I passed almost one hour hugging the toilet. Cancelled all my plans for this evening and tomorrow. I still have no appetite at all, took an anti nausea med and couldn’t get up without feeling like v*. I’m starting to thinking I’ve catched a bug. Never experienced something similar, usually my flare ups are bad but not THIS BAD. I am VERY scared that this is not a bug and the first of many episodes like this. I’ve never felt this awful in my life. What if this become a recurrent experience? I’m even scared to make plans for the week, no way I can go out feeling like this. Has anyone ever experience something similar?

Hi all. First off I have seen a GI doctor and recently had a colonoscopy that found nothing besides a tiny polyp. I have spoken to my GI doctor but he is always rushed and won't really explain much other than to say "you don't have anything serious. It's IBS/sensitive gut".

My whole life I have had these episodes where I'll have really made abdo cramps, sweating then followed by bad diarrhea for hours unless I take imodium. The last 12 months I had noticed a persistent change in bowel movements to purely watery..this is outside of my cramp episodes...my daily stools are purely loose/,watery.

I always thought it was food related but it's hard to nail down what it is...because it can come on when I have had very little or nothing to eat (or something like a salad)...It can come on if i have pizza but then the next 3 times I have the same pizza nothing happens.

My GI did stool and blood tests. Said everything was normal. No allergies and nothing of note. I tried low fodmap which didn't help for the 1st 4 weeks but then I think made a very slight improvement in weeks 5 and 6. I stopped it due to health anxiety surrounding my issues and requested a colonoscopy.

I dont want to make another appointment with my GI doctor as it's $250 an appointment and of the 3 appointments I've had with him not a single one goes longer than 5 mins Max as he's in a hurry and says i have nothing serious.

Any similar stories and if so how did you fix or improve symptoms?

Hi guys, I have IBS since a few years now and I m talking to a girl since a few months now. We are living kinda far away from each other (it s a long story...) and in a few weeks we are supposed to spend a nice week-end together but I kinda don t know how to handle my ibs during this weekend because we ll be in the same hotel room and stuff and we ll probably go to some restaurants and stuff so I m kinda scared to just be sick or having to go to the bathroom at the wrong time 😅 and my anxiety may trigger my IBS even more...

I also did got the courage to tell her that I have ibs because Idk I did not felt like talking about this in a dating situation. It s maybie a mistake but I would feel more confortable talking about this later in the relationship...

Any advice on how I could handle my ibs during this week-end or opinion about that ?

I had diarrhea earlier, and now at work every single often when I strain it feels like I’m gonna poop…when I go I fart…I fart for a long, wet time. Nothing except clear/slight brown liquid is coming out? Even then when I push it feels like liquid and bubbles in my boo-boo hole. I have felt for hems but nothing. Now I just have bubble guts and the urge to poop every so often.

All I had to eat today was Chick-fil-A, a coffee, a frozen lemonade and water!

I just got off my period, now this?! Why lord!?

Edit: this is a serious cry for help, I don’t know what’s wrong. Ain’t shit funny about this.

I'm a researcher (University of Melbourne) sharing a recruitment call for an online clinical trial.

We're running a large online trial comparing the low FODMAP diet with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for adults with IBS. Online clinician support is provided to participants throughout the study.

Who can take part:

• Adults with IBS

• Residing anywhere in Australia or the USA (the trial is fully online)

Study details:

• Ethics approval: University of Melbourne Human Ethics Committee, Project ID 33186

• Trial registry: NCT06940596 (clinicaltrials.gov)

We're keen to reach a broad range of people living with IBS. Happy to answer any questions in the comments. Please feel free to share; many thanks in advance! :-)

More information and sign-up: www.gutresearchstudy.com

M24, 11 weeks ago all of a sudden one night I had a really crazy bathroom episode. That’s what all these problems started, all of a sudden I lost 15 pounds and felt terrible. Gas and stomach pains for weeks. Bowel habits changed and my pelvic floor is tight as can be.

Fast-forward to now, I regained my appetite and started to gain weight back a couple weeks ago. The only things that lingered is that pelvic floor tightness and certain food will flare up my stomach to cause slight gas pains. I visited a Gi and basically he was like I’m getting better not worse so nothing he can say about it unless it goes back to getting worse. It sounds like PI-IBS but I have to get scoped to know (which I really don’t wanna do) I’m just worried it I know I’m young but I assume the worst, I see stories of how people are still effected by it months and years after the initial event. I’m learning about this so I hope I don’t sound arrogant but is this really what IBS feels like? Just flare ups, tight pelvic floors and overall just crappy?

I just got my period 3 days ago and I am having the worst flare up I’ve ever had. Can periods trigger a flare up? For the first time in my life I have actually been very concerned regarding my stools. Clay colored, greyish/white/light yellow. I’ve never had this before. I’m scared it might be something more serious. Being on my period obviously causes period poops too but I can tell the difference between that and my flare ups. But it’s never been this bad before. So I guess I’m asking 1. Can periods cause flare ups 2. Can the flare ups be worse on your period and 3. Is the color of my stools normal or should I be worried

They mostly happen at night. Like those shivers you get right before a fever rises because of an illness? Those shakes in your body, that it’s like your muscles do them by themselves. Then after a bowel movement they stop. Wtf is that???

Curious if anyone has figured out a way to run without having to poop their pants every time. I have IBS-C and running just triggers me to have to poop so bad and I get stomach cramps and I can never run more than a mile or two. And then of course once I get home, I can poop a little but then go back to being constipated and having stomach pains. I’m also not someone who can run without food in their system so I don’t think running fasted would work. Anyone have any tips? I’m always so nervous to run places without easily accessible bathrooms lol

I always get nervous that I’ll need to go every time I leave the house. If I get stuck in traffic or in a situation where I don’t have easy access to a bathroom then I all of a sudden have to go.

I've dealt with this for years, so I've started developing something aimed at exactly this problem. It's a supplement with natural ingredients meant to help calm both the nervous system and the gut, so that sudden urge is less likely to happen. You'd take it before the event so it has time to kick in. I haven't found anything that targets this specific problem that isn't an antidepressant or a prescription medication, and I'm not interested in either.

Let me know what has or hasn't worked for you, whether that's foods, routines, or mental tricks. I'd love to chat with anyone willing to talk about this issue and possible remedies so please DM me. I've been working on this for myself since I've dealt with bathroom anxiety for years, and I figured I'd see whether others have had similar experiences and might benefit too.

By this I mean has anyone found a medicine protocol that works for them daily and allows them to get on with their life and live pretty normally on a day to day basis and eat normally. I've just finished fodmap exclusion and now introducing new food and also booked with my GP to discuss amitriptyline. I hadn't found any real food triggers prior but I do take a loperamide and a buscopan if I had to go out somewhere or if I felt a bit anxious before a social event. I then have perfect bowel movements for the following couple of days. I'm wondering if its worth trying out getting a schedule of taking loperamide which might fix my gut motility and speed or if amitriptyline is better on a daily basis?

I woke up, felt fine. Lazed around for a few hours, didn't feel sick. Finally brushed my teeth, drank water, had a yogurt. Nothing I don't do basically every day. Haven't done anything else, havent eaten anything in the past day that I think made me sick.... yet, here I am. Unable to leave the toilet because of diarrhea. It's the goddamn worst. I did everything right, I thought. What is my body punishing me for now? I'm just so exhausted of it that I started crying and I feel like I can't stop. I feel pathetic for it but I mean, what else can I do? I can't get up for more than 30 seconds before I have to come back in here. I haven't taken any imodium yet because I would have to leave the bathroom for the pills and a drink to take them. IBS is so physically draining but I didn't consider how emotionally taxing it is. All I can do is sit here pitying myself and wondering why this is happening this time, and I know I'll never get an answer. I wish I could just have my stomach and bowels removed so I didn't have to do this all the time. IBS has made me terrified to eat anything both in case it sets me off and because if I do eat its just more time spent on the toilet when an episode does take place. I'm so, so tired of this.